Sightlines · reception

How Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion was received

1970 · Elio Petri · Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion on Sightlines

The arc

A sensation on release — Grand Prix at Cannes 1970, then the Best Foreign Film Oscar — but long hard to see in the English-speaking world; the 2013 Criterion restoration turned it from a whispered-about masterpiece back into required viewing.

What’s debated

Cinephiles love pitting it against Costa-Gavras's Z in the 'greatest political thriller' argument — and debating whether Petri deserves a far bigger place in the canon than he got.

Its footprint

Ennio Morricone's lurching, sardonic main theme is one of his most beloved non-Western cues, a fixture of his concert programs and compilations — and the film's closing Kafka quotation is nearly as quoted as the film itself.

Where it stands

A cornerstone of Italian political cinema and a certified canon climber — the kind of film Letterboxd users discover through the Morricone theme and then evangelize about.

Did you know? It pulled off a rare two-year Oscar run: after winning Best Foreign Language Film in 1971, Petri and co-writer Ugo Pirro were nominated again in 1972 for Best Original Screenplay — highly unusual for a foreign-language film.