Illustrious Corpses
| Illustrious Corpses (Cadaveri eccellenti) |
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Italian film poster
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| Directed by | Francesco Rosi |
| Produced by | Alberto Grimaldi |
| Written by |
Tonino Guerra Lino Iannuzzi Francesco Rosi Leonardo Sciascia |
| Starring | Lino Ventura |
| Music by | Piero Piccioni |
| Cinematography | Pasqualino De Santis |
| Edited by | Ruggero Mastroianni |
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Production
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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127 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
Illustrious Corpses (Italian: Cadaveri eccellenti) is a 1976 Italian thriller film directed by Francesco Rosi and starring Lino Ventura. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, but was not entered into the main competition. Its title refers to the surrealist game, Cadavre Exquis, invented by André Breton, in which the participants draw consecutive sections of a figure without seeing what the previous person has drawn, leading to unpredictable results, and is meant to describe the meandering nature of the film with its unpredictable foray into the world of political manipulations, as well as the ("illustrous") corpses of the murdered judges.
In 2008 the film was selected to enter the list of the 100 Italian films to be saved.
The film starts with the murder of District Attorney Vargas in Palermo, amongst a climate of demonstrations, strikes and political tension between the Left and the government. The subsequent investigation failing, the police assign the protagonist Inspector Rogas (Lino Ventura) to solve the case. While he is starting his investigation, two judges are killed. All victims turn out to have worked together on several cases. After Rogas discovers evidence of corruption surrounding the three government officials, he is encouraged by superiors "not to forage after gossip," but to trail the "crazy lunatic who for no reason whatever is going about murdering judges." This near admission of guilt drives Rogas to seek out three men wrongfully convicted by the murdered judges. He is joined by a journalist friend working for a far-left newspaper, Cusan.
Rogas finds his likely suspect in Cres, a man who was convicted of attempting to kill his wife. Mrs. Cres accused her husband of trying to kill her by poisoning her rice pudding, which she escaped only because she fed a small portion first to her cat, who died. Rogas concludes that he was probably framed by his wife, and seeks him out, only to find that he has disappeared from his house. Meanwhile another district attorney is killed, and eyewitnesses see two young revolutionaries running away from the scene. Rogas, close to finding his man, is demoted, and told to work with the political division to pin the crimes on the revolutionary Leftist terrorist groups.
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Wikipedia