Elio Petri

<p> Elio Petri (1929-1982) was one of the most commercially successful and critically revered Italian directors ever. A cultured intellectual and a politically committed filmmaker Petri made award-winning movies that touched controversial social religious and political themes such as the Mafia in <I>We Still Kill the Old Way</I> (1967) police brutality in <I>Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion</I> (1970) and workers' struggles in <I>Lulu the Tool</I> (1971). His work also explored genre in a thought-provoking and refreshing manner with a taste for irony and the grotesque: among his best works are the science fiction satire <I>The 10th Victim</I> (1965) the ghost story <I>A Quiet Place in the Country</I> (1968) and the grotesque giallo <I>Todo modo</I> (1976). This book examines Elio Petri's life and career and places his work within the social and political context of postwar Italian culture politics and cinema. It includes a detailed production history and critical analysis of each of his films plenty of never-before-seen bits of information recovered from the Italian ministerial archives and an in-depth discussion of the director's unfilmed projects.</p>