Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion · reception & legacy
1970 · Elio Petri
How Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion has been received, argued over, and remembered.
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.