''Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion'' ( it, Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto) is a 1970 Italian

crime drama film In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

directed by Elio Petri, starring

Gian Maria Volonté Gian Maria Volonté (9 April 1933 – 6 December 1994) was an Italian actor, including roles in four Spaghetti Western films: Ramón Rojo in Sergio Leone's ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964) and El Indio in Leone's '' For a Few Dollars More'' (19 ...

and Florinda Bolkan. It is a psychological, black-humored satire on corruption in high office, telling the story of a top police officer who kills his mistress, and then tests whether the police would charge him for this crime. He begins manipulating the investigation by planting obvious clues while the other police officers ignore them, either intentionally or not. The film was released in Italy by Euro International Pictures on 9 February 1970, to widespread acclaim from critics. It won the Jury Prize at the

1970 Cannes Film Festival The 23rd Cannes Film Festival ran from 3 to 18 May 1970. This year, Robert Favre LeBret, the founder of the festival, decided not to include any films from Russia and Japan (their flags were missing on the Croisette). He was tired of the "Slavi ...

, and the

David di Donatello Awards The David di Donatello Awards, named after Donatello's ''David (Donatello), David'', a symbolic statue of the Italian Renaissance, are film awards given out each year by the ''Accademia del Cinema Italiano'' (The Academy of Italian Cinema). The ...

for

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

for

Best Actor Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to the ...

(Gian Maria Volonté). In the United States, it won the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

for

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

. Petri and his co-writer

Ugo Pirro Ugo Pirro (April 20, 1920 – January 18, 2008) was an Italian screenwriter and novelist. Biography Born Ugo Mattone in Battipaglia, near Salerno, he debuted as screenwriter for director Carlo Lizzani (''Achtung! Banditi!'', 1951, and '' Il ...

were nominated for

Best Original Screenplay The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best screenplay not based upon previously published material. It was created in 1940 as a separate writing award from the Academy Award for Best Story. Beginning with the ...

. In 2008, ''Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion'' was placed on the

Italian Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture ( it, Ministero della Cultura - MiC) is the ministry of the Government of Italy in charge of national museums and the ''monuments historiques''. MiC's headquarters are located in the historic Collegio Romano Palace (vi ...

's 100 films to be saved, a list of films "that have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."

Plot summary

A recently promoted police inspector, nicknamed "Il Dottore" ("the Doctor", an Italian honorific) kills his mistress, and then covers up his involvement in the crime. He insinuates himself into the investigation, planting clues to steer his subordinate officers toward a series of other suspects, including the woman's

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

husband and a student leftist radical. He then exonerates the other suspects and leads the investigators toward himself to prove that he is "above suspicion" and can get away with anything, even while being investigated. He eventually confesses to the crime in front of his superiors - who refuse to believe him. Sure that he is safe, he recants his confession, and receives the approval of the police commissioner. The interrogation at his home is revealed to be a dream sequence and the film ends with the actual arrival of the commissioner and other colleagues.

Cast

Release

''Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion'' was released in Italy on February 9, 1970, where it was distributed by Euro International Films. In Italy, the film had a domestic gross of 1,928,248,000

Italian lire The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

Critical reception

''Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion'' was well received by critics and is widely considered one of the best international films of the 1970s. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called the film "a suspense melodrama with the moral concerns of angry satire ..When it opened in Italy early this year (and later, when it was shown at

Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ...

), ''Investigation'' was hailed for the ways in which it exposed the corrupt, authoritarian practices of the police, who place themselves above their own laws ..The story moves forward with a relentless momentum. It is a political parable, and a stunning movie." The film has a

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

approval of 100% based on 15 reviews, with an average score of 8 out of 10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

it has a score of 89 out of 100 based on 10 reviews. David Fear of

Time Out Time-out, Time Out, or timeout may refer to: Time * Time-out (sport), in various sports, a break in play, called by a team * Television timeout, a break in sporting action so that a commercial break may be taken * Timeout (computing), an engine ...

called it " paranoid

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eit ...

, a perverse parable about the corrupting elements of power, and a candidate for the greatest predated

Patriot Act The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the Patriot Act) was a landmark Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appro ...

movie ever ... Kenneth Turan called the film "as troubling today as when it came out in 1970. Maybe more so."

Accolades

The film was highly regarded in its own time, winning the

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

, and both the

FIPRESCI Prize The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...

and the Grand Prize at the

. Also it won the

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

for Best Motion Picture from the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

Cancelled remake

The Cannon Group The Cannon Group, Inc. was an American group of companies, including Cannon Films, which produced films from 1967 to 1994. The extensive group also owned, amongst others, a large international cinema chain and a video film company that invested ...

had hoped to remake the original film with

Andrei Konchalovsky Andrei Sergeyevich Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky (russian: link=no, Андрей Сергеевич Михалков-Кончаловский; born 20 August 1937) is a Russian filmmaker. He has worked in Soviet, Hollywood, and contemporary Russian ...

(of ''

Runaway Train A runaway train is a type of railroad incident in which unattended rolling stock is accidentally allowed to roll onto the main line, a moving train loses enough braking power to be unable to stop in safety, or a train operates at unsafe speeds d ...

'' fame) attached to direct.

Paul Schrader Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first received widespread recognition through his screenplay for Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collabo ...

was attached to write, as he wrote both a story treatment and a screenplay. It was going to have either

Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...

Christopher Walken Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awa ...

to star in the remake. Originally, Cannon released an ad, planning to shoot in October 1987, and having it premiere it at Cannes in 1988, although it never got made as it was shelved. It remained shelved until in the 90s, when it was resurrected by

Jodie Foster Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and the hono ...

's production company Egg Pictures.

Sidney Lumet Sidney Arthur Lumet ( ; June 25, 1924 – April 9, 2011) was an American film director. He was nominated five times for the Academy Award: four for Best Director for ''12 Angry Men'' (1957), '' Dog Day Afternoon'' (1975), ''Network'' (1976 ...

was attached to direct, but the film never made it beyond pre-production.

References

Bibliography

External links

* *
''Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion: The Long Harm of the Law''
an essay by Evan Calder Williams at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...

{{Authority control 1970 films 1970s Italian-language films 1970 crime drama films 1970s political drama films 1970s psychological thriller films Italian satirical films Italian crime drama films Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners Edgar Award-winning works Police detective films Italian political drama films Films about miscarriage of justice Films directed by Elio Petri Films scored by Ennio Morricone Films set in Italy Films with screenplays by Ugo Pirro Films set in Rome Poliziotteschi films Cannes Grand Prix winners 1970s Italian films