(Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto). Director Elio Petri refashions the image of fascism from the cliché of Mussolini-era jackbooted soldiers into something far more modern (and subversive): a handsome and prosperous man in a white linen suit. Gian Maria Volontè is a successful police investigator about to become even more politically powerful; out of whimsy or spite, he commits a murder and then does everything he can not to hide the crime, but to make it as obvious as possible. And why? To prove that he, like all powerful men, is truly above suspicion, and all laws. Petri films the proceedings like a politicized Mario Bava, with bizarre camera angles and deep-focus cinematography kept abuzz by the modernist twinges of composer Ennio Morricone, who contributes a score as memorable as his work for Sergio Leone. Thanks to Volontè’s performance, the fashionable fascist proves simultaneously disgusting and appealing. The film won the Special Jury Prize and the International Critics’ Prize at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.

—Jason Sanders

• Written by Ugo Pirro, Petri. Photographed by Luigi Kuveiller. With Gian Maria Volontè, Florinda Bolkan, Gianni Santuccio, Sergio Tramonti. (112 mins, In Italian with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Sony Pictures)