''Slap the Monster on Page One'' (

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

: ''Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina'') is a 1972 Italian

political thriller A political thriller is a thriller that is set against the backdrop of a political power struggle; high stakes and suspense are the core of the story. The genre often forces the audiences to consider and understand the importance of politics. Th ...

directed by

Marco Bellocchio Marco Bellocchio (; born 9 November 1939) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Life and career Born in Bobbio, near Piacenza, Marco Bellocchio had a strict Catholic upbringing – his father was a lawyer, his mother a schooltea ...

Background

The film began with

Sergio Donati Sergio Donati (13 April 1933 – 13 August 2024) was an Italian screenwriter. He wrote for more than 70 films beginning in 1952. He was born in Rome, Italy. He started as a writer and had some of his books optioned for film. He is well known for ...

as director but after a week of shooting, Bellocchio took over in order to turn it, with the assistance of

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish their findin ...

Goffredo Fofi, from an Italian western to a

, inducting in the cast actress

Laura Betti Laura Betti ( Trombetti; May 1 1934 – 31 July 2004) was an Italian actress known particularly for her work with directors Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Bernardo Bertolucci. She had a long friendship with Pasolini and made a docume ...

. By 1969, Bellocchio was an active member of the

maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

Italian (Marxist–Leninist) Communist Party Union of Italian Communists (Marxist–Leninist) () was a pro-Chinese communist group in Italy. The UCI (m-l) was founded in Rome on 4 October 1968. Its main organ was ''Servire il popolo''. The main leaders of UCI (m-l) were Aldo Brandirali, En ...

and his film work was often commissioned by the party, including the "Monster," and documentaries such as ''Viva il 1o Maggio rosso e proletario'' ("Long Live the Red and Proletarian 1st of May", 1970) or ''Il popolo calabrese ha rialzato la testa'' ("The Calabrese people have raised their heads again"). Eventually, the film was assessed by a critic as a rather "generic product" of the so-called ''cinema civile'' ("

civil Civil may refer to: *Civility, orderly behavior and politeness *Civic virtue, the cultivation of habits important for the success of a society *Civil (journalism) ''The Colorado Sun'' is an online news outlet based in Denver, Colorado. It lau ...

cinema") sub-genre. Still, these films represent a small portion of the director's output.

Plot

The film depicts the daily life of a fictitious Italian daily newspaper, ''Il Giornale'' ("The Journal"). The newspaper caters to a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

readership. Its chief-editor Bizanti gives a right-wing slant to the most trivial news items, while at the same time sweetening the thornier issues, such as

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...

and

police brutality Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or Public order policing, a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, b ...

. The editorial staff is thrown in a tantrum when a young girl is found raped and killed, going as far as soliciting nostalgia for the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

Capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

was abolished in Italy in the wake of the fall of Italian Fascism The paper derails the investigation, leading the police to a false culprit: a young left-wing student, who becomes a

scapegoat In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designate ...

for the newspaper's readership. The movie closes with

public opinion Public opinion, or popular opinion, is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. In the 21st century, public opinion is widely thought to be heavily ...

mesmerized by Bizanti and his staff to the satisfaction of their backers and financiers.

Cast

Gian Maria Volonté Gian Maria Volonté (9 April 1933 – 6 December 1994) was an Italian actor and activist. He is best known for his roles in four Spaghetti Western films: Ramón Rojo in Sergio Leone's ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964), El Indio in Leone's ''For a ...

as Bizanti *

as Rita Zigai * Fabio Garriba as Roveda *

John Steiner John Steiner (7 January 1941 – 31 July 2022) was an English actor. Tall, thin and gaunt, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed on-stage for the Royal Shakespeare Company, but was best known to audiences for his roles ...

as Montelli *Corrado Solari as Mario Boni *

Jacques Herlin Jacques Herlin (17 August 1927 – 7 June 2014) was a French character actor of stage, film, and television. Early life and education Born as Jacques de Jouette in Le Vésinet, France, Jacques Herlin grew up in Toulon and moved to Paris in 1951 ...

as Lauri *Carla Tatò as Bizanti's Wife *

*Michel Bardinet as Vanzina *Jean Rougeul *

Gianni Solaro Gianni Solaro (born Gianni Lorenzon, 11 August 1926 – 12 August 2006) was an Italian film and television actor. Life and career Born in Rome, Solaro was a character actor in the Italian film industry for about twenty years, between the late 19 ...

*Enrico DiMarco *Silvia Kramar *Massimo Patrone as the actual murderer *Luigi Antonio Guerra

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Marco Bellocchio 1972 films Italian drama films 1970s Italian-language films Films directed by Marco Bellocchio 1972 drama films Films set in Milan Films set in the 1970s Films about tabloid journalism Films with screenplays by Sergio Donati Films scored by Nicola Piovani 1970s Italian films Years of Lead (Italy) films