ELIO PETRI (I)

ELIO PETRI

Italian Director , Screenwriter and Journalist

Born in Roma 29th of January 1929 died in Roma 10th of November 1989

On the set of: Un tranquillo posto di campagna

Filmography 

1961: L'Assassino (The Assassin aka The Ladykiller of Rome) 

actors: Marcello Mastroianni,Micheline Presle, Salvo Randone

1962: I giorni contati (The days are numbered)

actors:Salvo Randone, Paolo Ferrari, Vittorio Caprioli

1963: Il maestro di Vigevano (The teacher of Vigevano)

actors:Alberto Sordi,Claire Bloom,Alberto Mazzarella

1964: Peccato nel pomeriggio  (Sin in the afternoon) episode  the collective film "Alta infedeltà"

actors: Charles Aznavour, Claire Bloom

1965: La decima vittima (The Tenth Victim)

actors:Marcello Mastroianni,Ursula Andress,Salvo Randone,Elsa Martinelli

1967 A ciascuno il suo (We still kill the old way)

actors:Gian Maria Volontè,Irene Papas,Gabriele Ferzetti

1968: Un tranquillo posto di campagna (A quiet place in the country)

actors:Franco Nero, Vanessa Redgrave,Georges Gèret

1970: Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto

 (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion)

actors:Gian Maria Volontè, Florinda Bolkan, Gianni Santuccio

                                           

1971: La classe operaia va in paradiso

(The Working Class goes to Heaven aka Lulu the tool)

actors:Gian Maria Volontè,Mariangela Melato,Salvo Randone

1971:La proprietà non è piu un furto

(Property is no longer a Theft)

actors:Ugo Tgnazzi,Flavio Bucci,Daria Nicolodi

1976:Todo Modo

actors:Gian Maria Volontè,Marcello Mastroianni,Mariangela Melato

1979: Buone Notizie 

(Good News)

actors:Giancarlo Giannini,Angela Molina,Aurore Clément

Elio Petri is one of the removed secrets of Italian cinema. His films are a rare melding of political engagement and artistic sublety. He started as a film critic for the communist newspaper "L'Unità" becoming afterwards screenwriter, documentary maker and film maker.He had the capacity to go deep into the heart of Italian society extrapolating its contradictions. He brought his characters to the limit of grotesque anticipating the inconsistency of modern capitalist society. He surely was one of the most politically charged filmmakers to emerge in the European cinema of the 1960s. His cinema was really disturbing the establishment but also the opposition.

His films went through different genres never loosing the main purpose: he just wanted to do political movies.He also was a real cinema conoisseur and all his films reveal a deep study concerning the script, the form, the dialogues, the visual metaphores and even the silences.

He worked with the most important italian actors like: Gian Maria Volontè, Salvo Randone, Ugo Tognazzi , Marcello Mastroianni ,Alberto Sordi.

His film "Todo Modo" that predicted the end of the party that dominated Italian political scene for around 50 years "Democrazia Cristiana" and the violent death of his leader "Aldo Moro" disappeared and is not available in DVD even in Italy.

After this film he had many difficulties in order to produce new movies and died, too early, 10 years after his last film "Buone Notizie".

                         This is "Todo Modo" unfortunately it's available only in Italian

Trailer of "I giorni contati"

Hommage video by  Claudio Gargano

Trailer of "La decima vittima"