MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: UN MALEDETTO IMBROGLIO / THE FACTS OF MURDER (1959)

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Sunday, March 29, 2015

UN MALEDETTO IMBROGLIO / THE FACTS OF MURDER (1959)

Pietro Germi co-wrote, directed & stars in this finely observed crime drama made just before his international breakthru with DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE/’61. While brilliantly formatted as a Police Procedural, from robbery on the unfashionable top floor to domestic murder in the ritzy lower flats of the same building, Germi (who plays the chief detective) gives equal time to the cross-pollinating lives of this cross-section of classes in fast modernizing Rome. With his distinctive tone of mordant Neo-Realism, notched up via vicious comic archetypes, firmly in place (is this the case in his earlier work?), Germi seems unable to put a foot or a camera position wrong. Same with casting instincts that see Claudia Cardinale in an early standout role, and a smarmy turn from I VITELLONI’s Franco Fabrizi. Plus, Leonida Barboni’s rich b&w location lensing, as seen in MYA/Belmondo's immaculate DVD edition. (Not WideScreen, so set your screen ratio accordingly.) The only downside is that so many earlier Germi pics remain unavailable Stateside.

DOUBLE-BILL: You might be able to locate the NoShame DVD of Germi’s previous pic, THE RAILROAD MAN/’56 (not seen here).

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Sunday, March 29, 2015

UN MALEDETTO IMBROGLIO / THE FACTS OF MURDER (1959)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE