ELIO PETRI BLU-RAY

The Criterion Collection's December lineup will include a rare cult classic by director Elio Petri, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970). Petri was known for exploring challenging themes regarding moral decay in modern society. In his classic The 10th Victim (1965), Petri called attention to the hunger for spectacle in a world that views violence as entertainment. This Sci-Spy tale of gladiators, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress, anticipated the rise of reality TV. As a collector of 10th Victim artifacts, I contributed the poster and still gallery to the Blu-ray edition. In Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Petri examined moral decay and the abuse of power by the right wing by focusing on the transgressions of a high-ranking police official. In his modern spin on the Fall From Grace archetype, Petri showed how corrupt society can become when it values power and the status quo over individual responsibility. Where The 10th Victim captured the Mod design sensibility of 1965, Investigation drew on the stylish edge of Italian crime films and the avant-garde. Brutal at times, but fascinating. Score by Ennio Morricone. Available December 3rd on Blu-Ray and DVD.

From Criterion: "The provocative Italian filmmaker Elio Petri's most internationally acclaimed work is this remarkable, visceral, Oscar-winning thriller. Petri maintains a tricky balance between absurdity and realism in telling the Kafkaesque tale of a Roman police inspector (Gian Maria Volonté, in a commanding performance) investigating a heinous crime—which he committed himself. Both a penetrating character study and a disturbing commentary on the draconian crackdowns by the Italian government in the late 1960s and early '70s, Petri's kinetic portrait of surreal bureaucracy is a perversely pleasurable rendering of controlled chaos." 

Special Features:

• New 4K digital restoration by the Film Foundation, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Archival interview with director Elio Petri, conducted by critic and filmmaker Alexandre Astruc
• Elio Petri: Notes About a Filmmaker (2005), a ninety-minute documentary on the director's career, featuring interviews with friends, collaborators, and filmmakers
• New interview with film scholar Camilla Zamboni
• Investigation of a Citizen Named Volonté (2008), a fifty-minute documentary about actor Gian Maria Volonté
• Music in His Blood, an interview with composer Ennio Morricone from 2010, conducted by film critic Fabio Ferzetti
• Trailers
• New English subtitle translation
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Evan Calder Williams and excerpts from a 2001 book by author and screenwriter Ugo Pirro

Get ready to meet MIKI ZERO, Japanese fashion model and spy! The creator of Spy Vibe has written a novel called Elevator Girl, inspired by his love of Ian Fleming and based on newly declassified intel from the Cold War. More info at Whiton's website here. Recent Spy Vibe posts: Peter Asher, new Hercule Poirot novel, Beatles fall 2013 releases, A Hard Days Night cinematographer dies, Magic Christian on Blu-ray, Early Beatles image archive, Julie Newmar, Erno Goldfinger, Hitchcock tribute, Ian Fleming memorial, Emma Peel Megaset returns

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