The well-crafted plot of Elio Petril's 1970 film and why it still rings true today - Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

Elio Petri’s film Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) won’t in my book win an belated awards for design, cinematography, or score – to me the look of the film was very 1970s ugly with lots of chrome and plate glass, the editing was frenetic and choppy, the score ( by the well-regarded Ennio Morricone) was unsettling and weirdly comic in the most inappropriate moments) – but it’s a film well worth revisiting because of the odd and improbable yet well-constructed plot. In essence, at the outset we see a seemingly virile middle-aged man engaged in rough sex w/ a woman whom we correctly assume to be his mistress, and in the midst of their rough sex he slashes her w/ a razor blade and kills her. Was this a planned murder, or did the rough sex go too far and off the rails? We never definitively learn the answer – but what’s so striking is the behavior of this man: Instead of calling for help or hiding the extensive evidence, he wallows in it – dragging the soles of his shoes through the pool of blood, taking a long shower, standing face-to-face outside the doorway of the apartment building so that he’s sure to be recognized. What’s up? We soon learn that he’s the director of the homicide division for the Rome PD – just about the get “promoted” to the “political” division. So we sense that because of his power he’s immune to the evidence he’s planted and that the worst decision would be for him to try to hide or destroy evidence. And he’s right – almost no one suspects him and those who do or might are too intimidated by his power. The man above suspicion is played by Gian Maria Volonte, and he gives a nearly great performance: cruel, brutal, and scary, especially in his rants against “political” prisoners (i.e., anarchists, Marxists, et al), an outburst we could possible hear today from our idiotic president.