I never would have watched this movie if Belinda Lee hadn't been in it - it wasn't on my radar. As a movie about Italy occupied in the war it's overshadowed by better known films which may be superior - but I thought this was very good. It's understated, and the middle bit is slow, but that means when something happens it packs a wallop.
It's about the events leading up to a massacre of people in Fascist Italy in 1943, based on a real-life massacre - they plucked various Jews and what not off the street.
The human drama consists of a crippled chemist who watches (Enrico Maria Salerno); his wife is Belinda Lee and she is having an affair with Grabriele Ferzetti from On Her Majesty's Secret Service. None of the three are really involved in the massacre - Ferzetti's father is killed but we barely see him, or spend any time with him and Ferzetti. Really Ferzetti should have been among those who are killed, from a purely dramatic point of view.
Gino Cervi is the local fascist who, in a nice touch that is all too believable, is shown in an epilogue years later meeting Ferzetti, smug and comfortable. Scenes like this give the film real power - it lingers with me after it's gone. The execution sequence is very good too though you can't fail with material like that. The material of this is strong - I mean, a civil war in Italy. I haven't seen that many movies on that topic.
The acting is solid. It's a jolt to see Lee, who was in so many potboilers, in a movie that actually tries to be good. Nicely shot by Carlo di Palma. Pasolini was one of the co-writers.
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