DETENUTO IN ATTESA DI GIUDIZIO
Italy, 1972, 99 minutes, Colour.
Alberto Sordi.
Directed by Nanni Loy.
Detenuto in Attesa di Giudizio (Guilty Until Proven Innocent). This is a striking Italian film of the '70s. It was directed by Nanni Loy, director of such films as The Four Days of Naples.
It stars comedian Alberto Sordi and, in fact, the film begins as something of a comedy. However, it soon veers into the experience which Hitchcock dramatised, that of The Wrong Man. Sordi is excellent in showing the bewilderment of the Italian returning from Sweden for a holiday with his family and caught up in red tape which does riot treat individuals in any way justly nor explain what officialdom is doing. He moves from one prison to another experiencing the horrors familiar from prison movies. In this way, the film is highly critical of the Italian judicial and prison system. While the focus is on Italy, the film joins some of the excellent films critical of prisons (ranging from Caged, Cool Hand Luke, Brubaker, Stir). Sordi won the Golden Bear Award at the 1972 Berlin Festival for his performance.
The film is interesting - but is also harrowing in its valuable exploration of human dignity and indignity.
1. The impact of the film? The Wrong Man theme? A prison film? The criticism of judicial and prison systems?
2. Italian locations? The highways, the borders, the ordinary scenes for holiday-makers? The transition to police stations, ever-worsening prisons? The colour photography, claustrophobic effects? The musical score ranging from the jaunty to the serious?
The title and the focus on the hero, the focus on the judicial and legal questions?
4. The portrait of Giuseppe Di Noi? Alberto Sordi as a comic actor, serious actor? Investing a great deal in this portrayal? The atmosphere of the holiday, relationship with his wife and children? The jaunty entry into Italy through the alps? The border arrest? The puzzle? The lack of specification of charge? Handcuffs? The local jail? The humiliating treatment? The hardened criminals? His being moved to the South, the puzzle, the humiliation, the squalid conditions? The discovery of the manslaughter charge? His bewilderment in trying to understand who the victim was? The attempts to contact authorities? His innocence? The interrogations? The magistrate and the need for a lawyer? The advice of guards and prisoners? The experience of prison? Inhumane? Health? Squalid? Riots? Giuseppe caught up in this atmosphere? The move to the worse prison? The unregenerate prisoners? Their beating him? Treatment? His sanity giving way? The asylum? His recovery for the case? The emerging of the truth? The motorway bridge and its collapse? The irony of the evidence of the earth tremor rather than the design? The case being dropped? His relationship with his wife, her desperation, trying to track his whereabouts? The ordeal and its effect on him? The collapse of the firm? His decision to leave Italy and go to Sweden? The pathos of such a dreadful experience in his homeland?
5. The portrait of his wife, the quality of their relationship? Her bewilderment? Her strenuous efforts to contact her husband, consulates, lawyers, authorities? her frustration? The effect on the children? Being reunited? Leaving Italy?
6. The portrait of police, officials, guards? The system? The injustice and its being maintained? The lack of sensitivity and concern?
7. The sketch of the prisoners and prison conditions? Familiarity from prison films? The dramatic way in which these were presented? The personalities, their backgrounds, crimes, behaviour in prison, attitudes towards Giuseppe? Their brutal behaviour? The justice of their complaints?
8. The emotional impact for the audience? Sharing the experience of Giuseppe? Puzzle, legal tangles, human injustice? The emotional response to films such as this? The consequences for understanding prisoners and the complexities of legal systems?
