My BFF Wrap-Up: My Ranking

Starting in June 2016, I watched and reviewed every winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, or in short, Best Foreign Film (BFF), in reverse chronological order from the 2015 entry to the awards inception in 1947 (watching the 2016 winner at the end).  Part of the experiment was to see how many of these I would be able to find.  In most cases, I was able to borrow the DVD of each film from the Cuyahoga County Library system (a consistently top rated system in Northeast Ohio), and as things went further back in time, that meant using the inter-library systems CCL employs, SearchOhio and OhioLINK.  I did have to watch a couple on the dusty old VCR.  On two or three occasions when I couldn’t find the movie through the CCL system, I was able to get DVDs from the Cleveland Public Library.  Once I paid $2 to watch a movie on Amazon, and that was the grand total of money I spent on this project.  I did find a couple rare films online, having exhausted every other possibility.  Only once was I not able to find a film at all, at least with English subtitles, and that was 1950’s The Walls of Malapaga.  I watched it only in French with Portuguese subtitles, and decided to review it anyway.

My reviews were intended for people who don’t normally watch foreign films, a group that included me not all that long ago.  I found a lot of the movies worth watching, not just ones you might see at an art house, but movies I am convinced would have been mainstream American favorites had they been in English.  I also sat through a lot of tedious, self-admiring crap that got awards for having the right political or social view to the voters of the Academy.  But enough about The Sea Inside.  My goal was to make the reviews be entertaining, especially when the movie wasn't, and to give American viewer something they could relate to.

The list here is my amateurish attempt to rank what is perhaps the unrankable.  There are a variety of genres and so many different cultures represented here that it is almost unfair to compare them against each other.  But I did anyway, and the films are listed below from best to worst.  Click any movie title to read the review.  You can follow me on Twitter at @hawley5150.   

Enjoy!

1989, Cinema Paradiso, Italy

2006, The Lives of Others, Germany

1951, Rashomon, Japan

1998, Life Is Beautiful, Italy

1957, La Strada, Italy

1949, The Bicycle Thief, Italy

2011, A Separation, Iran

1975, Dersu Uzala, Soviet Union

1967, Closely Watched Trains, Czechoslovakia

1947, Shoeshine, Italy

1964, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Italy

1963, 8½, Italy

2009, The Secret in Their Eyes, Argentina

1972, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, France

1983, Fanny and Alexander, Sweden

1962, Sundays and Cybele, France

1965, The Shop on Main Street, Czechoslovakia

1986, The Assault, The Netherlands

2000, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Taiwan

1987, Babette's Feast, France

1960, The Virgin Spring, Sweden

2002 Nowhere in Africa, Germany

1958, My Uncle, France

1971, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Italy

1968, War and Peace, Soviet Union

1957, Nights of Cabiria, Italy

2007, The Counterfeiters, Austria

1974, Amarcord, Italy

1952, Forbidden Games, France

 
1961, Through a Glass Darkly, Sweden

2014, Ida, Poland

2016, The Salesman, Iran

1948, Monsieur Vincent, France

2008, Departures, Japan

2015, Son of Saul, Hungary

1970, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, Italy

1985, The Official Story, Argentina

1969, Z, Algeria

1966, A Man and a Woman, France

1973, Day for Night, France

1990, Journey of Hope, Switzerland

1980, Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears, Soviet Union

1982, Begin the Beguine, Spain

1993, Belle Époque, Spain

1959, Black Orpheus, France

1992, Indochine, France

1988, Pelle the Conqueror, Denmark

2005, Tsotsi, South Africa

1977, Madame Rosa, France

1981, Mephisto, Hungary

1954, Gate of Hell, Japan

2010, In a Better World, Denmark

1955, Samurai, The Legend of Musashi, Japan

2001, No Man's Land, Bosnia and Herzegovina

1976, Black and White and in Color, Ivory Coast

1979, The Tin Drum, West Germany

1996, Kolya, Czech Republic

1994,  Burnt by the Sun, Russia

1978, Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, France

2012, Amour, France

2013, The Great Beauty, Italy

1997, Character, Netherlands

2014, The Sea Inside, Spain

1995, Antonia's Line, Netherlands

2003, The Barbarian Invasions, Canada

1991, Mediterraneo, Italy

1984, Dangerous Moves, France

1999, All About My Mother, Spain

1950, The Walls of Malapaga, France/Italy (not ranked)

FINE!

1970 Winner, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Director:  Elio Petri

Distributed by:  Columbia Pictures

Released:  February 1970

Country:  Italy

We all know people who think they are the smartest person in the room.  They may try to hide it, but by the way they talk and act, you know they think they are smarter than you.  And yet, their defining characteristic is insecurity.  It’s important for them not only to know they are smarter than you, but to prove it by telling you something they think you don’t know or casually dropping some fact designed to make you raise an eyebrow in admiration.  Me?  I’m comfortable enough to not need to stoop to having to prove how smart I am.  If you’ve been reading my reviews, this has already become apparent to you. 

But such is not the case for the unnamed police inspector in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, the winner of 1970’s Best Foreign Film.  The Inspector is a brilliant man, recently promoted to his position.  He is certain that the combination of his smarts, his status, and the general incompetence of his underlings means that no matter what crime he committed—even murder—he would never be caught for.

Gian Maria Volonte as The Inspector

The film starts with the Inspector meeting his lady friend in her apartment.  She asks him a strange and intriguing question:  How are you going to kill me today?  The answer will soon be given to her—he will slash her throat and let her bleed out.  And having been made Inspector, he knows exactly what evidence to leave to throw the detectives he supervises off the trail. 

This movie is about hubris, a word many of you probably don’t know.  But I have quite an extensive vocabulary, so I will give you the definition:  it is the condition of unnaturally feeling superior to those around you, to the point of it being obnoxious.  The Inspector, in fact, becomes frustrated during the investigation that the force is so incompetent that they don’t even suspect him.  He begins leaving clues for them so that he will be a suspect, knowing that he is, well, a citizen above suspicion.  It isn’t enough to have committed the murder; it’s important to him that he prove how smart and important he is.  This may or may not lead to his downfall.

Inspector meeting his mistress

Given my encyclopedic knowledge of cinema, I instantly recognized the actor playing the Inspector as Gian Maria Volonte, who played the villains the first two “Man with No Name” spaghetti westerns by Sergio Leone, A Fistful of Dollars from 1964 and For a Few Dollars More from 1965.  In those movies, he is pure evil; he plays it much more subtly in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion.  In real life, Volontè was known for being leftist to the point of having Communist leanings.  As the Inspector, he vows to crush political protestors whom he sees as the enemy.  But even given his autocratic persona, the Inspector is a somewhat pitiable figure, and even though we know he is a murderer, it is difficult to watch him come unglued as he loses control over the situation.

There is an almost comedic tone to the story, helped along by a zippy score by the great Ennio Morricone, complete with mandolin and Jew’s harp.  Morricone wrote the music having only known the basic plot of the movie, and said he wanted the music to be “grotesque.”  The music fits the story like a glove.

Volonte in For a Few Dollars More

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion reminded me of a key scene in the latter seasons of the AMC series Breaking Bad.  At one point, it is clear anti-hero Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, will get off scot-free, never having been suspected of being drug kingpin "Heisenberg."  His brother-in-law Hank, a federal drug enforcement agent, believes Heisenberg was a second-rate chemist who had recently been found dead.  Walter cannot abide the false notion that his genius is unrecognized, and clues in Hank that the dead man is probably not his man.  Like Walter, the Inspector is equally arrogant, and oddly despicable and sympathetic at the same time.  And like Walter, his own insecurity may lead to his undoing.

The title:  Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto, in Italian.  I don’t speak the language, but I do know some French.  Also, I have a master’s degree in History and have read Ulysses by James Joyce.

Bryan Cranston in the remake?

The Culture:  Italy, apparently, was not unlike America in the late 60’s, and the movie conveys a distrust of the polizia typical of a young person in that time and culture. 

Agenda danger:  The Inspector, who is corrupt and power-starved, wants to crush protest and civil unrest.  He is a protagonist who underscores the flawed morality of those in power, and in this way the movie conveys the leftist views of Volante and director Elio Petri.

Best Picture that year:  Patton.  Another film about a man in power who is both sympathetic and hard to like.  Of course, unlike the Inspector, Patton’s arrogance is offset by heroic qualities.

Rating:  I found the ending to be somewhat unsatisfying, but overall, the film is a treat.  Volante is superb as the Inspector, so sure of himself and yet so concerned with letting everyone know his is a genius.  Florinda Bolkan, playing his mistress is also a pleasure to watch, appearing frequently in flashbacks, unknowingly pushing the Inspector to commit the crime that will end her life.   

A couple of attempts at an American remake were shelved; my hope is if it is redone, the American version is able to capture the character of the Inspector properly.  Might I suggest Bryan Cranston?  And if this suggestion is taken, I would expect a casting credit, of course, so that everyone would know it was my brilliant idea.