Eraclio Petri (29 January 1929 – 10 November 1982), commonly known as Elio Petri, was an Italian film and theatre director, screenwriter and film critic. The Museum of Modern Art described him as "one of the preeminent political and social satirists of 1960s and early 1970s Italian cinema". His film Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion won the 1971 Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, and his subsequent film The Working Class Goes to Heaven received the Palme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.
Other noted films by Petri include The 10th Victim (1965), the prize-winning We Still Kill the Old Way (1967) and A Quiet Place in the Country (1968), and the controversially received Todo modo (1976).
Biography
Early years
Petri was born in Rome on 29 January 1929. In 1944, he joined the youth organization of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). He later left the Communist Party after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
Career as director
Petri made his feature film debut as a director with The Assassin (also titled The Lady Killer of Rome, 1961), "The protagonist of Bicycle Thieves today must face not only the society he lives in but also his own consciousness", Petri stated in an interview the following year. working under a pseudonym. The film marked the beginning of Petri's collaboration with screenwriter Ugo Pirro, which was to last until 1973, and was the first of four feature films by Petri to star Gian Maria Volontè. A Quiet Place in the Country (1968), a giallo thriller about an artist's deterioration into madness, won a Silver Bear award at the 19th Berlin International Film Festival,
The "trilogy of neurosis"
With Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970), which, among other accolades, received the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film and two prizes at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival, Petri presented one of his most successful films. In the same year, Petri participated in the political documentary films Documenti su Giuseppe Pinelli (also titled Dedicato a Pinelli), about the unresolved death of anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli, and 12 Dicembre. neurosis of power, neurosis of work and neurosis of money.
Later works
Todo modo (1976) was again adapted from a novel by Leonardo Sciascia. The film, a barely concealed satirical portrayal of Italy's then ruling Christian Democratic party and prime minister Aldo Moro, was received controversially upon its release and withdrawn from circulation after Moro's assassination two years later. Petri himself saw the film as a break with what he saw as "popular" political cinema, radical political films (both his and by other directors) produced within Italy's mainstream film industry. In 1981, Petri directed Arthur Miller's new play The American Clock at Genoa's Teatro Duse, with Lino Capolicchio playing the lead role.