Tribute to Elio Petri 2014 / La decima vittima / Italy, France 1965
This explosively colorful, pop-art spectacle takes place in the near future, when war has been abolished and excess aggression is vented through participation in a game of killers and victims organized by the Ministry of the Hunt. Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress star in an extravagant precursor to Battle Royal and The Hunger Games.
After the sophisticated thriller The Assassin and the existential drama Numbered Days, Petri demonstrates his universality with a sharply satirical action spectacle based on a Robert Sheckley sci-fi tale. Dateline: the near future, in a society where the Big Hunt has replaced the atrocity of war. Sign up and become hunter or victim; if you succeed ten times in shooting your prey or escaping your predator, you win a fat bonus of $1 million and become a celebrity. Like a reality show, everything is filmed for television for the pleasure of curious nonparticipants. Sexy New Yorker Caroline (Ursula Andress) kills the man who is after her, while in Rome spiffy Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) picks off his ninth. A computer at the Ministry of the Hunt assigns Marcello to hunter Caroline as her tenth victim. The camera rolls and the Hunt begins.… Petri arrived with an explosively colorful, pop-art spectacle whose blithe tone prophetically anticipates numerous motifs incidental to a twisted moral approach. Violence and death have become entertainment, and others’ sufferings may present lucrative financial opportunities. This is the early 21st century (!) and one of the slogans adopted by this futuristic society reads: "Why have birth control when you can have death control?” Could The 10th Victim be the precursor of Battle Royal and The Hunger Games? Decide for yourself.
92 min / Color, DCP
Director Elio Petri
/ Screenplay Tonino Guerra, Ennio Flaiano, Elio Petri, Giorgio Salvioni podle povídky / based on the story by Robert Sheckley
/ Dir. of Photography Gianni Di Venanzo
/ Music Piero Piccioni
/ Editor Ruggero Mastroianni
/ Producer Carlo Ponti
/ Production Compagnia Cinematografica Champion
/ Coproduction Les films Concordia
/ Cast Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress, Elsa Martinelli, Salvo Randone
/ Contact Cineteca di Bologna, Surf Film
Cineteca di Bologna
Via dell'Industria 2, 40138, Bologna
Italy
Phone: +39 051 601 8607
E-mail: [email protected]
Surf Film
Via Padre G.A. Filippini 130, 00144, Rome
Italy
Phone: +39 065 262 101
Fax: +39 065 293 816
E-mail: [email protected]
Paola Pegoraro
Other
Milena Gregor
Film Institution Rep.
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