Before Italian
writer-director Elio Petri became known in cinema circles as a trenchant
sociopolitical culture critic, frequently satirizing class division and the
unscrupulousness of the wealthy against the impoverished, the auteur quietly
emerged in the midst of a creative boom in Italian movies. Arriving on the heels of La Notte, Accatone and La Dolce Vita, Petri’s feature film
debut The Assassin co-written by
frequent collaborator Tonino Guerra follows rich fop antiques dealer Alfredo
Martelli (Marcello Mastroianni) who finds his idyllic lifestyle turned upside
down when he becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his elder, wealthier
lover Adalgisa de Matteis (Micheline Presle).
Arrested and incarcerated without explanation as an increasingly
fascistic police investigation begins, The
Assassin much like the director’s future Trilogy of Neuroses becomes less about solving the crime than it
illustrates the mutual hypocrisies on both sides of the social ladder.
Visually arresting thanks to
future Blow-Up cinematographer Carlo
Di Palmi, Petri’s The Assassin
brilliantly exploits the archaic city of Rome as a modern city strolled by the
well-to-do elites while the poor and homeless slither and skulk about like a
pestilence. The film also sports a
wonderfully sardonic jazzy score by The
Witches composer Piero Piccioni which serves to highlight our protagonist’s
elite lifestyle as well as underscore the absurdity of the scenario. As with his bitterly funny social satire Property is No Longer a Theft, the
acerbic series of vices exchanged by the polar opposite extremes of society are
anchored by a brilliant central performance by leading man Mastroianni.
Already a superstar after
starring in Federico Fellini’s 8½ and
La Dolce Vita, Mastroianni manages to
evoke sympathy as well as scorn without losing the viewer’s support and belief
in the antique dealer’s innocence. While
aided by a stellar cast including some surprising moments of flashbacks of
Martelli as a youth, Mastroianni singlehandedly carries most of the picture all
by himself. In another actor’s hands, the
character as written and presented would be tough for audiences to swallow as
we’re walked through uglier chapters in Martelli’s past life taking advantage
of the poor. It’s a testament to
Mastroianni’s screen presence and charisma that our sympathies remain with
Martelli even as the picture gives us numerous reasons to abandon him.
An effective debut signaling the emergence of a soon-to-be major talent in Italian film, The Assassin while opening to critical acclaim unfortunately became lost in the shuffle amid the many other great Italian cinematic milestones released around the same period. It wasn’t until around the director’s last collaboration with screenwriter Tonino Guerra, A Quiet Place in the Country, that Petri became recognized in Italy as a formidable political filmmaker. While Petri indeed went on to make far stronger films later in his career, The Assassin remains an impressive first-time effort from a soon-to-be auteur in the process of figuring out his thematic interests. If nothing else, it provides another reminder to cinephiles as to why Mastroianni was and still is regarded as one of Italy’s finest film actors.
-Andrew Kotwicki
