The Mattei Affair (Il caso Mattei)
Directed by Francesco Rosi
Written by Francesco Rosi and Tonino Guerra
1972/Italy
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Enrico Mattei  was an Italian public administrator who was given after WWII the task of dismantling the Italian Petroleum Agency (Agip), a state enterprise established by the Fascist regime. Instead Mattei enlarged and reorganized it into the National Fuel Trust (ENI).  ENI negotiated important oil concessions in the Middle East as well as a significant trade agreement with the Soviet Union which helped break the oligopoly of the ‘Seven Sisters’ that dominated the mid 20th century oil industry. Mattei made ENI a powerful company, so much so that Italians called it “the state within the state.”  He died in a plane crash in 1962, likely caused by a bomb in the plane, although it has never been established which group might have been responsible for his death. — Wikipedia

 

Gian Maria Volonte is phenomenal in this biopic about a populist industrialist that shook up the world oil market and Italian politics in the 1950’s and 60’s.

What would we do without Wikipedia?  We would need to know more about Italian history and politics, that’s for sure!  The film begins with the end of Enrico Mattei’s (Volonte) life in the fiery crash of his private jet.

Anyway, the film portrays Mattei as a driven business man.  A story is repeated throughout the film.  It goes something like this:  A starving kitten sees the food bowl of a German Shepherd.  The tiny kitten timidly approaches the bowl and takes a small bite.  The German Shepherd strikes the kitten with its paw, breaking its spine and killing it.  Mattei was determined that Italy would no longer be the kitten.

Mattei had served in the Italian Resistance late in WWII.  He got his start in the industry exploring for petroleum in Italy with AGIP.  He found de minimus oil nor natural gas but he did find viable deposits of methane in the Po valley.  Eventually the state enterprise became a conglomerate owning a variety of businesses.

Mattei then decided to make ENI a world player and stand up to Big Oil.  His style of doing business earned him the support of Italian leftists (Mattei himself was a Christian Democrat) and the opposition of the right and big business.  He made many enemies. He was not afraid.  We never do find out why the jet crashed or who was responsible.  The CIA, the French OAS, and the Mafia have all been suggested.

Here’s another sleeper at the tail-end of 1972.  This is a film with a political and intellectual bent and may not be the most exciting thing you have ever watched.  Still, the film-making is first rate, Pasquilino DeSantis’s cinematography is beautiful, and that Volonte performance really should be seen.  If the subject matter is of interest, I can recommend.

The Seduction of Mimi (Mimì metallurgico ferito nell’onore)
Directed by Lina Wertmuller
Written by Lina Wertmuller
1972/Italy
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)

Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged. — Samuel Johnson

Wertmuller’s farce is a delightful sendup of the Sicilian code of honor and Italian politics.

Carmelo “Mimi” Mardocheo (Giancarlo Gianinni) is a vain, macho Sicilian.  He is completely full of himself while at the same time being utterly clueless.  His vapid wife Rosalia is not too interested in sex. He works at a mine.  When the owners learn Mimi voted for the Communist in a supposedly secret election, he loses his job.  He goes North to Turin to find work, leaving his wife behind.  She swears to kill him if he looks at another woman.

Mimi finally gets work in Turin through his claimed connection to a powerful Mafia boss back home.  He meets beautiful street vendor Fiorella (Mariangela Meneghini), who is a Trotskyite.  He asks her out and makes advances.  She says she doesn’t care that he’s married but is saving herself for the man she loves.  It turns out that the man is Mimi after all and they begin to live together and have a son.  He fails to report a couple of serious Mafia crimes and is promoted to a management position back home in Sicily against his will.  He brings Fiorella and their baby with him.

The story turns into a “Divorce Italian Style” type revenge plot with Mimi and Rosalia out for revenge one against the other.  The Mafia does not loosen its hold.

Giannini is a gifted comedian and perfectly suited for this part.  Wertmuller would use him over and over again.  I thought this was a lot of fun with a little sting under the comedy.  Worth trying out.

State of Siege (Etat de siege)
Directed by Costa-Gavras
Written by Franco Salinas; original scenario by Costa-Gavras and Salinas
1972/France/Italy/West Germany
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Tupamaro militant: {repeated exchange that occurs between the leader and five different militants who are asked to vote on killing a hostage] I’ve received the report.
Tupamaro leader: So, you know the situation. This is not a personal problem. It was never that. It’s a political problem. Yes or no?

I was underwhelmed with this Costa-Gavras entry.  There’s all the politics but without the energy.

The setting is Montevideo, Uruguay in August of 1969.  The names have been changed but this film is based on and takes sides on an historical incident involving the kidnap and murder of an American USAID worker named Dan Motreoni, who was training the Uruguayan police.

After brief framing device beginning the story at its end with a funeral, we segue into flashback which occupies most of the film. Yves Montand plays Motreoni’s alter-ego American Philip Michael Santori, who lives the diplomatic lifestyle with his wife and several children.  At the time, the Tupamaros were somewhat low-key leftist revolutionaries who used a Robin Hood technique to attract followers.  They stole the money to distribute to the poor from robbing banks or carjacking motorists at gunpoint.

The Uruguayan Government was determined to stamp out any opposition.  Santori had been training the civil police in counter-insurgency techniques.  The Tupamaros resorted to kidnapping, murder, and assassination.  The kidnappers of Santori wanted to use him in an exchange for a number of Tupamaro prisoners.  They  stage a mock trial in which they repeatedly try to get Santori to confess to war crimes.  All this is pretty polite as they plan to keep Santori healthy for the exchange.  But his fate will be governed by cold political calculation.  With Renato Salvatore as a police official.

I have a particular interest in the history of Uruguay, having worked in Montevideo in the early 90’s, and still this movie failed to grab me.  As a PS to the story, after much bloodshed the Tupamaros were banned and in 1973 a military coup ended liberal democracy until it was restored in 1985.  Costa-Gavras is best when he gives us characters to care about.  The problem here maybe simply that Yves Montand is the central character and the only one we know a little about.  But he is clearly supposed to be the enemy and the teacher of unspeakable torture practices.  To add to that, there is entirely too much talking.  On the plus side, it has a nice Mikis Theodorakis score.

The New Land (Nybyggarna)
Directed by Jan Troell
Written by Bengt Forslund and Jan Troell from a novel by Vilhelm Moberg
1972/Sweden
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Karl-Oskar: We can’t risk your life.
Kristina: My life is in the hands of the Almighty.
Karl-Oskar: It’s too dangerous. How dare you?
Kristina: It’s easy. I don’t care about the doctor. I trust in God. If I live, it is His will. If I die, it is His will.

The story of Swedish immigrants in America is one of triumph through tragedy.  I have some nits to pick but this is a compelling sequel.

The film picks up in 1850 Minnesota where The Emigrants (1971) left off.  The Nilsson family – father Karl-Oskar (Max von Sydow), mother Kristina (Liv Ullmann), their children and Karl-Oskar’s young brother Robert (Eddie Axberg) – separate from their fellow immigrants and go to the land Karl-Oskar has selected for them.  It is forested land on a lake.  They start with the belongings they have brought with them on the ship and some small amount of cash.  The family begins building their house and planting crops.  They overcome many obstacles.  We follow their relations with neighbors as the settlement grows.

Early on they make the acquaintance of the indigenous population.  Kristina shares what little they have with some women and makes a kind of peace.  As the years wind on occasionally some Native Americans will show up, examine everything carefully and take something they want.  It looks like this is a tolerable level of harmony for both sides.  But it does not last.

Robert bristles under the criticism of his older brother and takes off with a friend to walk to the gold fields of California.  This is an extremely ill-fated move and filmed in sort of a nightmarish way.

Finally, Kristina who has been pregnant most times during the years covered by the story is told by a doctor that another childbirth will kill her.  The years go on.  Some more sad, tragic stuff happens.  But the family prospers financially and the next generation will be 100% American.

I thought the first part of the film was on a par with the previous film.  It leisurely gives a highly detailed account that puts the viewer in the action and feeling the emotions that the newcomers must have felt as they worked for survival.

Then things get pretty dark. The trip to California and the fate of the Indians are filmed and edited in a very 1972  self-conscious way that I did not particularly like. It’s a long film and a bit of a misery sandwich but I’m glad I saw it.  If you get around to “The Emigrants”, I’m sure you will want to see this one as well.

The New Land was nominated for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar.

Nice tribute by Liv Ullmann to director/writer/cinematographer Jan Troell

Unused theme song

The Merchant of Four Seasons (Händler der vier Jahreszeiten)
Directed by Ranier Werner Fassbinder
Written by Ranier Werner Fassbinder
1972/West Germany
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Every decent director has only one subject, and finally only makes the same film over and over again. My subject is the exploitability of feelings, whoever might be the one exploiting them. It never ends. It’s a permanent theme. Whether the state exploits patriotism, or whether in a couple relationship, one partner destroys the other.  — Ranier Werner Fassbinder

I think I like the high melodrama Fassbinder better than the political Fassbinder.  This film is on the political side.

The setting is in the lower-middle-class environs of contemporary Munich, Germany.  Hans Epp has had a colorful past including in the police department from whence he was fired when caught accepting the sexual favors of a prostitute and subsequently in the French Foreign Legion.  Now, he ekes out a living for his wife Irmgard (Irm Herrmann) and daughter by hawking fruit in the courtyards of low-rent apartment buildings.

Everyone looks down on Hans for his lowly profession, including his entire family.  He reacts by becoming a mean drunk and assaulting the domineering, and long-suffering, Irmgard.  Irmgard has her bags packed when, suddenly, Hans has an incapacitating heart attack.  He can no longer lift anything and must take it easy.

Irm gets the bright idea of selling from a fruit stand herself and hiring someone to sell from the cart.  Hans’ first employee gets caught with his hand in the till. Hans then turns to an old friend from his Foreign Legion Days.  The revived business is a big success.  Hans becomes marginalized and even more despondent.  Fassbinder muse Hanna Schygulla plays Hans Epp’s sister.

The talent in all aspects of making this movie is evident but I didn’t connect with the story. It feels like it is trying to say something about middle class morality in Germany. I’m not sure what. The film lacks the sensory overload or raw emotion of  something like Petra von Kant (1972).  This is more or less just depressing.

Un flic (“Dirty Money”)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
Written by Jean-Pierre Melville
1972/France
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel

Commissaire Edouard Coleman: The only feelings mankind has ever inspired in policemen are those of indifference and derision.

Melville’s swan song is not one of his best but has elements that reveal he was still at the height of his powers.

The setting is contemporary Paris.  Commissaire Edouard Coleman (Alain Delon) is an ice cold detective impervious to even the goriest of crimes.  His best friend is Simon (Richard Crenna) a nightclub owner.  Edouard is having an affair with Simon’s wife Cathy (Catherine Deneuve) before Simon’s very eyes.

What Edouard does not know is that Simon is the ringleader of the gang responsible for a bank robbery resulting in the death of one of the robbers.  He also does not know that the next phase of the plan involves a sophisticated drug heist.  A game of cat and mouse ensues.

There is not a lot of dialogue in this movie with images left to tell the story.  Some of the vignettes are exquisite.  Problem is the plot never really grabbed me nor made me care about the fate of these people.  I would not recommend starting here with Melville.  But he did leave us several fabulous classics in his 55 years and for that I am grateful.

The film might not be a must-see but this clip absolutely is!  How the old becomes new again and again …

Butterflies Are Free
Directed by v
Written by Leonard Gershe from his play
1972/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Don: Mother, you have to laugh sometime, or people will think you’re a lesbian.

I watched this to see Eileen Heckart’s Oscar-winning performance and was not disappointed.  Otherwise it’s a pleasant enough stage-bound rom-com.

The setting is contemporary San Francisco.  Twenty-something Don (Edward Albert) has been blind since birth.  He has been under the thumb of his over-protective mother (Heckart) who wrote a series of children’s book about “Little Donnie Dark” blind boy super-hero.  Don mightily resents this.  Mom drives him crazy by calling him Donnie.

As the movie begins, Don has negotiated the right to rent an apartment of his own for two months as an experiment.  Mom was supposed to leave him alone until the end of the experiment but calls all the time.

The apartment is an extemely low-rent affair.  Don’s quiet existence is interrupted by the arrival of next-door neighbor Jill (Goldie Hawn) in his life.  She is messy whereas he must be neat; she’s a wacky hippie, his mother buys his clothes.  They are an odd couple but soon are virtually living together by unlocking the door that turns their two apartments into one.  Don falls in love.

Mom arrives unannounced and is thoroughly appalled.  But Jill is just the one to teach her some hard truths.

Well, Heckart was just as great in this as she usually is.  She always has a brash exterior covering a tender heart that makes her as moving when she is bossy as when she is showing her real feelings.  My favorite of her performances was in The Bad Seed (1958) as the boozy mother of one of the victims.

Otherwise, this is an entertaining enough way spend an hour and change on some lazy afternoon.  I can say I did have a tear in my eye at the appropriate time.

Eileen Heckart won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.  The film was also nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Sound.

Operation Last Patrol
Directed by Frank Cavestani and Catherine Leroy
1972/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

We who have witnessed the obscenity of war and experienced its horror and terrible consequences have an obligation to rise above our pain and suffering and turn the tragedy of our lives into a triumph.  — Ron Kovic

Home-movie quality documentary about the protest that would be recreated in Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July (1982).

A group of Vietnam Veterans Against the War traveled in a convoy from California to Miami to protest at the 1972 Republican National Convention.  There is no narration.  Various incidents are filmed along the road and at the Convention.

This looks like what it probably was.  Some participants filming occasionally during their trip.   It’s a product of its time.  Mostly interesting as a historical document.

Sisters
Directed by Brian De Palma
Written by Brian De Palma and Louisa Rose; story by De Palma
1972/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1,000 Greatest Horror Films on theyshootzombies.com

Crazy Woman: Did you know that the germs can come through the wires? I never call and I *never* answer. It’s a good way to get sick. Very, very sick… That’s how I got so sick! SOMEONE CALLED ME ON THE TELEPHONE!

Brian De Palma cleverly one-ups several classic Hitchcock thrillers in the blood and gore department to the sounds of Bernard Herrmann’s screechy score..

The setting is New York City.  Danielle Breton (Margot Kidder) is a young model participating in a TV game show called “Peeping Tom”.  The contestants have to guess what Philip, a young man from the audience, will do when she starts to remove her clothing.  After the shoot is over, Danielle approaches Philip and says she doesn’t want to be alone.  Her ex-husband has been stalking her.  The approach turns into a night at Danielle’s apartment.  She tells Phillip that tomorrow is her and her twin sister Dominique’s birthday.

Philip goes out in the morning to surprise Danielle with a birthday cake.  He is in for a surprise of his own when he returns.

Newspaper reporter Grace Collier lives in an opposing flat.  She sees Philip’s bloody demise from her window and calls the cops.  When they get there, they find no trace of evidence.  The police aren’t crazy about Grace in the first place because her main beat seems to be following cases of brutality.

But Grace is determined and hires a private detective (Charles Durning).  This leads the two on a trail that takes them to Quebec and unknown further terrors.

De Palma employs references to Psycho (1960), Rear Window (1954) and Rope (1948) in this film but it is far gorier than anything the Master ever attempted.  There is a fair amount of body horror to be had as well.  A truly scary movie that kept my attention all the way through.  Recommended to fans of psychological or body horror.