We were always fascinated by Italian political cinema, despite the fact that few were distributed here. Thanks to Blu-ray we’ve seen a range of activist cinema starring the fine actor Gian Maria Volontè: We Still Kill the Old Way, Sacco and Vanzetti, The Working Class Goes to Heaven, Lucky Luciano and the excellent Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion and Christ Stopped at Eboli.
Slap the Monster on Page One is by Marco Bellocchio (Fists in the Pocket), a left-wing director in a country where the Communist party was just one of a dozen radical-sounding parties on the political spectrum. Bellocchio took on the assignment at the last moment, due to the previous writer-director Sergio Donati’s rejection by the experienced and demanding star Volontè. Donati was best known for his writing credits on Sergio Leone’s westerns. The titles spell out the fact that the movie was adapted from Donati’s screenplay. Marco Bellocchio says that he personalized it with changes, enhancing some of the left-wing messaging and adding a new character played by actress Laura Betti.
Radiance’s video and text extras help provide necessary context for the story, which begins with gritty news film of political street violence in Milan. An ultra-right spokesman addressing a rally calls upon Italian men to ‘be men again’ (strike back against feminism) and to ’embrace order’ (code for ’embrace fascism’ ). Also incorporated is footage of the funeral of the left-wing publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, thought to have been murdered by a right-wing faction. The main character in Slap the Monster, a newspaper editor, is said to be partly based on Indro Montanelli, an controversial journalist who changed sides in Italian politics more than once. *
Slap the Monster on Page One is about the schemes of Giancarlo Bizanti (Gian Maria Volontè), the editor of the right-wing Milan newspaper Il Giornale. Amid the political turmoil of an election, we see Bizanti making sure that his editors spin every story in favor of the preferred candidate. The necessity of electing a conservative politician is emphasized by the paper’s major investor Montelli (John Steiner of Massacre in Rome), who fears being indicted for financial improprieties. When rioters try to firebomb the newspaper office, Bizanti is quick to get photos for his front page. We also see Bizanti grooming the promising new reporter Roveda (Fabio Garriba), schooling him on how to give the wording of a headline a satisfactory ideological spin. The reporting of a death is tweaked to insure that the man is seen as not a tragic victim, but just another immigrant with a sorry fate.
Bizanti needs the right story to help him cinch the election, and an opportunity comes in the news that a young student has been brutally raped and murdered. Maria Grazia Martini (Silvia Kramar) was the daughter of a prominent university professor, and Bizanti wastes no time working up an editorial bloodlust against the unknown murderer. Articles stress the fact that the dead girl was a virgin. A school porter (Massimo Petrone) tells the police that he saw Maria Grazia drive off with an older activist student named Mario Boni (Corrado Solari). Bizanti uses his personal downtown connections to force the police commissioner (Enrico DiMarco) to let Il Giornale conduct a separate murder investigation. The new reporter Roveda is chosen to cover it.
Mario Boni has an alibi, but the paper receives a letter contradicting it. Bizanti interviews the writer personally. She is Rita Zigai (Laura Betti), a radical feminist with an erratic lifesyle. She considers herself a tough customer, but most of her anti-Capitalist rage is hot air; she flies off the handle at any provocation. A couple of dinner dates later, Rita has told Giancarlo the whole story, combined with confessions of her own loneliness. When Bizanti puts her in front of a microphone, Boni’s conviction is all but assured.
By pinning the crime on a long-haired activist, Il Giornale conflates leftist permissiveness with sex perversion and crime. Bizanti goes on television to explain his paper’s position — what’s needed to stem the chaos is a firm hand, that only the conservative party can deliver. It’s another coup for yellow journalism.
Bizanti and Montelli rationalize their shortcut around the police as a political necessity, even if an innocent man suffers. Realizing what a monstrous scam is being perpetrated, Roveda becomes increasingly ill at ease — and digs deeper to see if Mario Boni really is guilty . . .
🎶 He’s The Devil in disguise! 🎶
Gian Maria Volontè portrayed his murderous police commissioner in Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion as a psychotic, but his Giancarlo Bizanti in Slap the Monster is more like The Devil. Always on task, always dressed to project authority, Bizanti uses everybody he knows. The editor sees journalism as a tool for social control, and consolidating power. He considers the readers of his paper to be morons who want to be told how to think. His articles confect black-or-white arguments, removing language that shows ambiguity, or that might make the reader feel guilty. Constant repetition convinces readers that Il Giornale’s version of events is the truth.
Bizanti’s every move is Machiavellian. He sends the unknowing Roveda to infiltrate an activists’ meeting, hoping that the reporter will be found out and roughed up. Before Roveda leaves, the editor already has a story written and ready to print: ‘Radicals attack Journalist.’ We learn that Bizanti partly staged the firebombing of the Il Giornale; he had a photographer standing by, ready to document it.
Bizanti reflects zero stress during working hours. We see him ‘stopping the presses’ to change a headline, a process shown in detail. Unlike American newspaper movies, the Giornale’s printing plant is so clean, Bizanti can work there without ruining his expensive suit. He projects a perfect image of a prince of industry.
“The truth is whatever we say it is.”
The one time we see Bizanti at home, he reveals himself a true monster. His wife (Carla Tató) can’t even praise his appearance on television without suffering a mountain of abuse. Giancarlo snarls that she’s a moron like his readers and that she’s turning their son into a moron; she’s the wife of an important intellectual yet has no understanding of complex issues, of the fact that ‘what we believe and what we say are two different things.’ The editor unwinds by heaping the day’s accumulated contempt and hatred onto his truly defenseless spouse.
If Giancarlo Bizanti is The Devil, Rita Zigai is a pathetic Witch. An eccentric with Marxist artwork on the walls and no credibility, Rita is putty in Bizanti’s hands, to be used and burned as needed. She is presented as a part-victim of her own sexual needs, just as Massimo Patrone’s school porter is uncovered as a frustrated incel jealous of the sexual freedom of the young students.
The story begins as a murder mystery, but doesn’t pay off as one. A dedicated reporter uncovers the real culprit, but there is no closure. That structure is something like Costa-Gavras’ hugely successful political thriller “Z”. An investigator proves to be honest, and uncovers a criminal government conspiracy. But just when we expect a righteous ending, everybody who could speak the truth about the crime, the investigator included, meets a violent accident. The honest reporter in Slap the Monster will not be able to get the truth printed where it might be taken seriously. In both movies, just when the crime is solved and the perpetrators uncovered, the powers that be shut down the process, and put everything back in the box away from public view.
We first thought of “Z” in relation to Slap the Story because the crimes in both films are associated with tiny vehicles, a little 3-wheel utility truck in the Costa-Gavras film, and a small yellow Fiat in Bellocchio’s. His film ends with a downbeat visual that presumably expresses the authors’ opinion of the Whole Rotten Situation.
Marco Bellocchio’s direction is excellent, and the production overall quite handsome. Luigi Kuveiller’s cinematography is very good throughout. Screenwriter Sergio Donati more often applied liberal values to Spaghetti westerns. He wrote or co-wrote some of the best: The Big Gundown, Face to Face, Duck You Sucker, even Once Upon a Time in the West.
Slap the Monster on Page One will appeal to fans of actor Gian Maria Volontè, whose range is much wider than the venal bandits he played for Sergio Leone. Just as Volontè continued to pursue ‘committed’ film roles, Laura Betti also made politics a central part of her film career. The actress dedicated a lot of effort to defending the reputation and legacy of director Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose death was most likely the work of a right-wing death squad.
The audience interested in films about turbulent Italian politics will find the show to be quality goods, a worthy companion to the Volontè pictures listed above. The post- Sessantoto liberal political films we’ve seen that seemed difficult to appreciate were Francesco Masell’s Open Letter to the Evening News, Marco Ferreri’s Dillinger is Dead, Elio Petri’s Property is No Longer a Theft, and Bernardo Bertolucci’s Partner.
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