THE GRIM REAPER
1962, 88’
original Italian version
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Screenplay: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Sergio Citti, Bernardo Bertolucci
Cast: Vanda Rocci, Francesco Ruiu, Giancarlo De Rosa, Vincenzo Ciccora
Country: Italy
Distribution: Mediaset RTI Distribution – copia da CSC Cineteca Nazionale
The lifeless body of a prostitute is found in a field along the banks of the Tiber. The police start to investigate and identify five suspects, all hustlers from Rome’s working-class suburbs. Through subtle interlocking, their interrogations provide the connecting thread to the story, along with the flashbacks of the anonymous victim’s last afternoon rising. Through their half-truths and blatant lies, the small-time thief known as “il Canticchia,” the former pimp Bustelli (who lives off of his loan-sharking wife and mother in law), the young and naive Calabrian soldier Costantino Teodoro, the Friuli-born Natalino, and the sixteen-year-old Francolicchio (still in shock for his friend Pipito’s tragic death) each tell us about their madcap day of sun and rain, before they all found themselves, around midnight, in the vicinity of Parco Paolino. Finally a witness mentioned by one of them leads the police to a public dance-hall, where they catch the one responsible, that is, the one who lied more than the others.