Illustrious Corpses

Am a fan of foreign cinema and wanted to finally see more of Francesco Rosi's films, having loved his film version of 'Carmen' for years. That became one of my favourite opera films after seeing it for the first time at a relatively young age getting into opera and still is, it's actually even better now with the few things that didn't quite do it for me on my very first viewing, like the opening, not being issues.

Enough of talking about that film and lets talk about his 'Cadaveri Excellenti' ('Illustrious Corpses'). Was expecting great things after hearing a lot of positive things about it and was not let down, it deserves every good thing that has been said about it and deserves to be better known and accessibly. Am a subjective person but that 'Illustrious Corpses' was not available on DVD for a while and is to this day still underseen is inexplicable, when films nowhere near as good and in some cases not good films not only have wider coverage and highly marketed but are shown on television far more and are popular on DVD.

Talking now about 'Illustrious Corpses' as a film, it looks wonderful with some of the most strikingly beautiful and atmosphere-filled cinematography of any Italian film that doesn't have Federico Fellini's name on it. Some of it makes for many beautiful and at times nightmarish imagery, the mummified bodies will give one the creeps. The locations are also cleverly used and have both exquisite allure and stark atmosphere (apologies for throwing around this word a lot, it is hard not to when it is to me a crucial element of a film and should be mentioned). The music is haunting and has presence, whether understated or more bold, without being too loud.

'Illustrious Corpses' is intelligently written and thought-provoking, thematically it is bold and brutally honest yet human. Its depiction of Italian politics may not be innovative as such but was, and still is, honest and really quite daring (in a way that nobody expects) for back then. The story is deliberate in pace yet to me was transfixing, with a slow burning tension to the thriller/mystery parts sustained brilliantly with nothing being what it seems and .

The opening sequence is one of the best beginnings of any film seen recently, and perhaps ever, not just in how incredibly shot but also the emotion and chills one feels watching it. Even more striking is the shocking and really quite powerful ending that ends not in a way one expects, some may not like it but for me that it didn't end conveniently, predictably or less downbeat was actually appreciated and it did not jar tonally like those potentially would. There is suspense and there is nothing given away too early, one is kept guessing throughout with not much to help us. The killings are unlenting and the characters compellingly real with a lead character written with such honesty that it makes the outcome even sadder.

Rosi directs exceptionally with impeccable style and sense of mood and gets the best out of his cast. Lino Ventura is in the lead role and smoulders unforgettably on screen, giving a performance of magisterial and brooding intensity. It is a performance that has garnered comparisons as being the Italian Robert Mitchum or Humphrey Bogart and one can see why. The other standout is Max Von Sydow, an actor so consistently great that it would have been very hard to get a bad performance out of him. A bad performance this is nowhere near close to being, instead it is repellent unrepentance at its most chilling yet nuanced, it is a masterclass of saying a lot without always saying much or anything and Von Sydow always was a master at this.

Concluding, superb film and deserves far more credit. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Grab your chins and prepare to do some stroking because we are in serious territory here with Francesco Rosi's Illustrious Corpses.

No jaw-socking, car chases and even gunfights here, but don't run off to Maurizio Merli yet. What we have here is a nice, thick Spezzatino full of meat (plot), vegetables (twists), and herbs (cameo appearances by various Italian genre actors), all mainly revolving around middle-aged policeman Rogas.

The general tone of the film is set when we see an elderly judge wandering through the Catacombe dei Cappuccini, looking at the corpses and perhaps considering his own mortality. That would be ironic because about a minute after he leaves someone unknown assassin shoots him.

This brings us to Rogas, Italy's best detective, brought in because killing judges isn't generally approved. At first Rogas brings in the local mob, but as one Don states: "You know you are wasting your time with us." While he's doing that another judge is killed on a highway, and yet another while Rogas is in the same building. This piles significant pressure on Rogas as the situation becomes, as one person puts it 'political'.

Rogas reckons he's nailed the case when he starts digging into trials involving all three judges, which leads to him finding a suspect for whom every image has been destroyed, including photo albums and even police documentation. This leads the film into giallo territory for a brief time as we see another judge get stalked and murdered, while Rogas is pushed to look at subversive groups and bag a quick arrest by his superiors.

This two hour long film that has very little action should be snooze-fest, but it is relentlessly fascinating to watch Rogas weave his way through the political labyrinth of Italy's Years of Lead, speaking with bemused, yet sinister Senators like Fernando Rey (great here), angry, unrepentent judges like Max Von Sydow (also great), and the Communist party (including journalist Luigi Pistilli). You also get cameos from Marcel Bozuffi and Tina Aumont thrown in for good measure.

What also keeps you watching is the ever growing sense of doom and paranoia that begins to surround Rogas as he loses confidence and trust in every single person he deals with, leaving him constantly looking over his shoulder. There's a scene where he realises his telephone is bugged that's as foreboding as any horror film.

I highly recommend this one - it's dark and complex. Like a Spezzatino.

I managed to see this at a film society showing about 25 (oh, help!) years ago. I have never forgotten the air of menace and foreboding it generates as Lino Ventura (a great performance) doggedly pursues his case among the great and the good. An air of strangeness, too, such as the strange rumbling noises Ventura hears when he moves to his anonymous new apartment complex.

This is a film I would dearly love to see again but for the last quarter of a century (makes a girl think) nothing, nada, zip! I doubt whether the current controller of the Italian media will be interested in releasing a film about political conspiracy for public consumption but I wish someone would. This is a film which deserves to be seen and to be appreciated much more widely.

Does anyone know why this isn't on DVD?

Rosi always gives good opening sequences (see his "Carmen") and this one is the best.

This is the political thriller that should be listed even above those of Costa Gravas or The Manchurian Candidate, but is virtually unknown in America. When I saw it at an Italian film class in the late 90's not even the professor had actually seen it - ( though I had).

Rescreening this 1976 film in today's political/terror climate gives this film even more resonance.

Lino Ventura is the moral center of this unblinking look at Italian politics. He has the kind of "gravitas" of Bogart at his best. If you have any way of seeing this film, you won't be sorry.

If you enjoy it, check out Rosi's "Tre Fratelli" and Ricky Tognazzi's "L'Escorta" with similar subject matter.

FYI, Rosi (Dir) was an assistant to Visconti.

The good news first: Cadaveri eccellenti is now out on DVD. Which is how we came to see it again last night. - Second, my own two cents since I've just read the negative comments on the discussion boards, where people are actually wondering if this is the worst movie ever. No way! OK, my own approach to it was an uphill journey. First saw it ages ago because Tre fratelli and Cristo si è fermato a Eboli had impressed me. This one is quite different, and I didn't get a thing. Years later, I stumbled over the story it's based on: "The Context. A parody" by Leonardo Sciascia. Even readers only passingly familiar with Sciascia will realize that the baddies are never caught in his books, reflecting the realities of his native Sicily. Of all the books of his I've read, this one was the toughest, because evil is omnipresent and not identified with individuals. A parody perhaps, but a bitter one, and one he took a long time to finish because writing it distressed him. Rosi read it on a long journey and it hit him like lightning. Like Sciascia, he was interested in the ways power corrupts people. So that's what we have here: a relentless gallery of corrupt officials in every walk of life. Not only in the Mafia but also in the realms of politics, justice, the military and religion. Max von Sydow's character is as repellent as anything I've ever seen. The whole caboodle is not meant to be fully understood, and that's where a large part of that all-pervading sense of menace comes from. The locations are gorgeous - wish I knew where that bus stop was where Rogas watches the procession of high-and-mighties drive by. And those catacombs! Someone here said the location wasn't clearly identified, but given that both Sciascia and Rosi were Italian, and that the film features a map of Sicily rather prominently in one shot, I beg to differ. IMHO this is indeed Sicily. And bella Italia. Berlusconi may look more benign than certain of his predecessors but... oh, all right, all right, this ain't the Speaker's Corner. The rest is silence.