ILLUSTRIOUS CORPSES
7:00
Tuesday, July 19
Directed by Francesco Rosi
Starring Lino Ventura
(1976) Judge Charles Vanel (Wages of Fear) is shot in broad daylight, and Inspector Lino Ventura is on the case. But as other judges start dropping — could this be a wrongly-convicted man’s vengeance? In Italian, with English subtitles. 35mm print courtesy Luce Cinecittà, imported from Italy especially for this series. Approx. 120 mins.
Reviews
“A dazzling example of fashionably radical Italian film making—elegantly composed, breathlessly paced, photographed in the beautiful, drained colors of a landscape in mourning for the sun. It’s all so beautiful, in fact, that when you see a long shot of a Sicilian piazza in which everything, including the sky, is the same matching beige, you wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a high-fashion model, dressed to the scarlet nines, posing amid beige urchins.”
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times
“What impresses most are scenes displaying Rosi’s bravura: an obsessive judge shot in his tomb-like mansion; a party calculatedly shocking in its lavishness; Ventura alone in his flat when the horror of his discovery hits him. The photography serves perfectly the growing sense of unease, and Ventura is as quietly excellent as ever.”
– Chris Petit, Time Out (London)
