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| Images courtesy of Radiance Films |
Fists in the Pocket and China
is Near writer-director-actor Marco Bellocchio was only three films into
his career by the time he arrived upon his scathingly satirical political drama
film Slap the Monster on Page One being released for the first time worldwide
on blu-ray in a new 4K restoration from Radiance Films. Initially started by recurring Sergio Leone
collaborator Sergio Donati as a spaghetti western before Bellocchio and film
critic turned co-screenwriter Goffredo Fofi reshaped it into a political
thriller and brought recurring Pasolini and Bertolucci collaborator Laura Betti
into the fray. The finished film, though
the work of an avowed maoist Italian Communist Party member, represents perhaps
the most sardonic quasi-Eurocrime Years of Lead film since No, the
Case is Happily Resolved.
Leading up to a general election involving a conservative
candidate, a right wing Italian newspaper dubbed The Journal catering to
conservative readership spearheaded by chief-editor Bizanti (Face to Face actor
Gian Maria Volonté) seizes on the opportunity to further propagandize his desired
runner when a young girl is raped and murdered and his paper falsely accuses a
young left-wing college student protestor who once firebombed Bizanti's office of the crime, vying for the death
penalty. Going as far as trying to
seduce if not corner witnesses including the spiteful jilted lover Rita Zigai
(Laura Betti) while answering to higher powers such as Montelli (John Steiner),
the case seems to close around the college youth even as the real murderer
seems to crop up only to be cloaked by Bizanti to further his paper’s
cause.
A scathing portrait of mass media manipulation with, in one
scene, suggestions society itself doesn’t involve free will but merely playing
your part to a greater cause, Slap the Monster on Page One is plainly
masterful. With its arresting
cinematography of Gangs of New York production designer Dante Ferretti’s
sets by Deep Red’s Luigi Kuveiller and The Cat o’ Nine Tails’
Erico Menczer and a chilling score by Life is Beautiful composer Nicolas
Piovani is a singularly activist political drama. Full of disdain for the icy heartless
self-serving mechanics of the mass media machine and contempt for the lengths with
which key players in it will goal to be beholden to an empire, it represents
one of many Italian dramas responding to the tumultuous political upheaval
facing the country in the early 1970s.
Special attention goes to the leading performance by Gian Maria Volonté
who makes Bizanti into a cold-blooded reptile who hates his own wife and child
yet will do anything to maintain his position of power. Also of note is Laura Betti who herself was
going through a difficult breakup and channeled much of her real anger and
heartbreak into the role.
Startlingly relevant even now despite being separated by
country, culture and decades, the new Radiance Films 4K restored blu-ray
premiere of Marco Bellocchio’s timeless masterpiece reflecting the social mood
of the time has lost none of its punch or dark irony to age. Featuring an archival interview with Bellocchio
who himself appears briefly onscreen in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo as
well as a collectible booklet featuring new original essay work by Wesley
Sharer and reversible sleeve-art with the obi spine, Radiance Films delivers
another home run in their curation of key overlooked Italian or otherwise
foreign masterworks crying for rediscovery in the West. Taut and tight, from the past yet of the
present, Marco Bellocchio’s Slap the Monster on Page One is another home
run for the boutique label which is quietly positioning itself among the very
top in the marketplace.
--Andrew Kotwicki
