Cinephile NYC: March 2 - 8

For this week's Cinephile NYC, I'm beginning to list more selectively and leaving out sold-out shows (though standby tix may be available). BAM's series of Imamura films starts on friday, and the 2007 edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema kicks off tonight (check schedule for details, I'm leaving out a lot that's worth seeing). Also note that some of these screenings are at IFC Center.
UPDATE: I totally left out the Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker series at MoMA. I'll updated the below to reflect those screenings as soon as I can... as of now it's got the screenings for Friday.

Fri March 2

Bread and Alley (Abbas Kiarostami, 1970)
Recess/Breaktime (Abbas Kiarostami, 1972)
The Experience (Abbas Kiarostami, 1973)
at MoMA
screens at 6:00 PM

So Can I (Abbas Kiarostami, 1975)
Two Solutions for One Problem (Abbas Kiarostami, 1975)
The Traveller (Abbas Kiarostami, 1974)
at MoMA
screens at 8:00 PM

Infernal Affairs (Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak, 2002)
at IFC Center
screens at Midnight

Sat March 3

Flanders (Bruno Dumont, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at IFC Center
6:00pm

Dans Paris (Christophe Honoré, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at IFC Center
screens at 2:00, 10:15pm

Infernal Affairs (Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak, 2002)
at IFC Center
screens at Midnight

Sun March 4

Flanders (Bruno Dumont, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at the Walter Reade Theater
screens at 6:30 PM

Ambitious (Catherine Corsini, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at the Walter Reade Theater
screens at 4:15 PM


Mon March 5

Flanders (Bruno Dumont, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at the Walter Reade Theater
screens at 3:45 & 9 PM

Ambitious (Catherine Corsini, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at IFC Center
screens at 7, 9:30 PM

Tues March 6

Ambitious (Catherine Corsini, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at the Walter Reade Theater
screens at 1 PM

Flanders (Bruno Dumont, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at IFC Center
screens at 7:00pm (Bruno Dumont in person)

Dans Paris (Christophe Honoré, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at the Walter Reade Theater
screens at 6:15PM

Wed March 7

The Untouchable (Benoît Jacquot, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at IFC Center
screens at 7, 9:15 PM

Th March 8

Don’t Worry, I’m Fine (Philippe Lioret, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at the Walter Reade Theater
screens at 4:15 and 9:00PM

The Untouchable (Benoît Jacquot, 2006)
part of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007 at the Walter Reade Theater
screens at 2:00PM (6 PM screening sold out)


Continuing Engagements:

Vengeance Is Mine (Shohei Imamura, 1979)
part of the Pimps, Prostitutes, and Pigs series at BAM
Showtimes vary; plays from Fri Mar 2 - Th Mar 8

Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou, 1991)
at Film Forum
screens daily at 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30 PM
plays from Fri Mar 2 - Th Mar 15

Days of Glory (Rachid Bouchareb, 2006)
at Angelika Film Center
screens daily at 11:40 AM, 2:10 PM, 4:45, 7:30, 10:05 PM

Into Great Silence (Philip Gröning, 2005)
at Film Forum
screens daily at 1:15, 5:40, 8:30 PM
plays from Wed Feb 28 - Th Mar 13


CHILDREN OF MEN (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)

INLAND EMPIRE (David Lynch, 2006)
at IFC Center

PAN'S LABYRINTH (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006)
at BAM Rose Cinemas

VOLVER (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006)
at BAM Rose Cinemas

Pedro Costa is just like Michael Bay

Juventude em marcha / Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa, 2006)

I need to see this film again. Costa's project (and perhaps his career) is sui generis, and I wasn't able to fully appreciate the film on a first viewing because I didn't know the rules by which he was playing. My reflections, then, are mainly on those rules, and how they interact with the processes of spectatorship.


"So if the film is based on understanding, not decipherment, will this give any solace to those hostile or dismissive of it?" - Andy Rector

Understanding stands apart from decipherment in that understanding is a deeper experience. Decipherment is nothing more than the registration of information as it is presented, than the cutting through of obfuscation in favor of clarity.

Understanding beyond decipherment is rarely present in movies, even those that posit themselves as artistic statements. Yet a few are successful enough to encourage - or even demand - understanding.

Pedro Costa is demanding. Pedro Costa is demanding understanding. A demanding, more forceful than an asking, and requiring reciprocal effort.

In Colossal Youth, there isn't that much decipherment even made possible. The narrative confusions are few, because the narrative itself is little.

The frame in Colossal Youth transmits oppression. Beyond its limits might be freedom - if only we could get there. Then, we might know.

Costa's characters are trapped in the frame. Not by something as simple as bars or even framelines, but instead by exterior space, which seems to press inward even as they gaze outward. Characters are frozen inside.

If the body perceives something before the mind, does it necessarily follow that the mind will understand? No, but Costa isn't worried about the stragglers.

Silence, observation, statis. These are the components of action.

An economy of shots for a poverty of economy. Showing things without saying things.


Expansion:

The presentation of information is a giant part of how we register film artistry. Mostly, this means that discrete details are given, which later add up to a whole story. This story can be convoluted or simple. Through the understanding of the story, we can come to understand a greater truth. In these films understanding is a progression of fact and logic. A + B = C. In one story a geisha is taken advantage of and loses her chance at happiness. Therefore, we experience human sadness and loss, and also a social critique of the Geisha system.
Information presented by other means is often lost in the shuffle. As a filmmaker, though, I know that information presented secretly is also secretly preserved, subconsciously eliciting responses in the audience. In most movies, this additive information encourages the perception of the plot in order to facilitate the mathematical process of plot perception and meaning.
Occasionally an artist arises who carries such incredible meaning in his/her formal choices that they becomes the main conduits for meaning in a film. Pedro Costa is just such an artist.
Costa's observational, static shots close off all but a very small portion of the world. But the most interesting thing to me is the mindset you're put in as an audience member: frames do not move. space is rarely established beyond the frame. little action occurs. Trapped in these long-duration shots, you can only tolerate or walk out. Either one is a statement on our freedoms to decide our own level of investment in the world we are shown. We have more agency than Ventura. In staying, a gulf opens up between Ventura and you the viewer. In those long takes of limited space, Ventura remains in his world. Your presence is optional. [Is it often that Ventura enters or leaves the frame? I recollect that its rare.]
Colossal Youth demands an intense level of attention/concentration. As very little "happens," it takes a dedicated investment to decipher the details of the plot. But Colossal Youth also demands a physical concentration. The body grows accustomed to stasis, to silence. If given over to it, watching the film can approach a meditative state. Or, it can be a battle (to stay awake, to stay in your seat). Both the battle and the submission earn us greater knowledge of Ventura and the poverty of his social and economic concerns.
In watching Costa's movie, then, presentation of information is given mainly through the use of formally rigorous stylistic cues, notably the use of silence, the absence of camera movement, and the narrow (lack of) construction of space. But much of this information is presented so subtly that I responded to it physically before recognizing it intellectually. Which brings me to my post's title:

Pedro Costa is just like Michael Bay

Why?
Because Michael Bay is if nothing else, an auteur of the visceral. Quick shots that make you feel a sense of motion are his M.O. Watch an action scene from, say, Pearl Harbor in super slow motion. Note that adjacent shots will often contain contradictory visual information. The direction of a plane's flight path or the direction of shrapnel after an explosion might change from one shot to the next, but at full speed as an audience member what's most important is the sense of kinesis. Michael Bay is literally a director of action.
Pedro Costa is the opposite. Colossal Youth relies on stillness and the near-inability to move. But like Michael Bay, it has the effect of causing a visceral response before (above? in lieu of?) an intellectual one. Both work with the physical effects of cinema, in the same way a composer of music might choose certain frequencies for their physiological effects.
Like Michael Bay, Costa's formal choices are an agenda unto themselves. But Costa's choices are also an implicit politics - of identification and social mobility. These politics, and their physiological underpinning, are one piece of what makes Colossal Youth a spectacular work of art.


did i really get through an entire post on Colossal Youth without mentioning Bresson? how?

en route

I spent the weekend watching Bela Tarr movies. Three of them. Including Sátántangó.
Lots to say about those... a post on Colossal Youth forthcoming also...

Peter Becker mentions that Berlin Alexanderplatz is coming to MoMA in April! (apparently between the 10th and 15th)

MARTY!

CONGRATULATIONS

Burn!

In my Pontecorvo obit, I talked briefly about the the historical intimacy achieved in Battle of Algiers:

What really thrills about Battle of Algiers after all of these years is not that you feel in the midst of events; that's been done too much since to feel freshly radical. Battle's amplified intensity comes from being in the midst of events. As people riot in the street, the world is changing and we are party to it. This is not the distanced "historical" perspective of a film about the past; this is Saadi Yacef's book (and life) surrounding us. It's not spectatorship but intimacy here; Pontecorvo's camera gives up showing in favor of participation. This goes for both sides of the fight - we're as intimate with the general giving a press conference as we are with the young woman cutting her hair to slip past security checkpoints. This is radical, because filmmakers mostly align themselves with the watchers. In that press conference, the reporters are adversaries, or decorations; they remind us that there is a France back home watching what we do and deciding between leaving Algeria, or accepting the consequences of our actions there. It's no wonder that Pontecorvo and the Pentagon agree that Battle of Algiers correlates strongly with our experience in Iraq.

Burn!, though, is an altogether different beast. In place of the revolutionary vérité of Battle of Algiers, Burn! offers a dialectic conception of revolutionary theory. Again, though, it's an object lesson in revolutionary history and the politics of fighting for self-determination. Like Battle of Algiers, the film's ending dramatizes continual struggle rather than settled history.

Amy Taubin's piece on the film mentions the revolutionary theory at the film's heart ("Pontecorvo's blending of cinematic romanticism with an analysis of black revolutionary struggle which is part Marx and part Franz Fanon") on the way to discussing Brando's (very dense and very successful) performance. I'd like to offer a reflection on Pontecorvo's use of revolutionary theory and the conception of history it implies.

I note immediately that Brando's character is the engine that transforms native hatred and resentment into uprising. His positioning of outlaws with their community - in opposition to the forces of colonialism - is itself a colonial act, a use of native resources to the furthering of European ends. In spite of the agenda of Brando's agent provocateur, the natives are successful in leading their own rebellion. They're later sold out, of course, as revolution crosses the line from productive to dangerous to European interests. Having traded slavery for servitude, the natives of Queimada have also gained a revolutionary consciousness. The genie is out of the bottle, and the struggle for self-determination continues. The film closes with someone having taken Jose Dolores's place in a number of ways. The repetition of a line from earlier in the film calls to mind the "I am Spartacus" revolutionary unity of a people oppressed who have seen their shackles broken and who, in spite of their new shackles, remain free. Jose Dolores and his army may never have known how to run a country, but they new how to seize one, and in the process seize also their dignity. For Pontecorvo, revolutionary consciousness can be introduced by necessity but can never be taken away. He knows that the capitalist-imperialist juggernaut will continue, but not without a fight, because that juggernaut does not have the right to take all for itself. The real issue is the rights of man, rights which no one is given, which are taken away at every turn - and which each of us is responsible for seizing for ourselves.

Cinephile NYC, Vol. 2: Feb 23 - March 1

I'm trying to narrow this list down to one or two prime events each day, but failing so far. Anyway, this weekend's events are easy to choose for me... for info and tickets on the Bela Tarr screenings, click here.

Fri, Feb 23
Damnation (Bela Tarr, 1988)
at BAM Cinématek
2, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm

THE WAYWARD CLOUD (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005)
at Anthology Film Archives
7:00 & 9:30 PM

Twilight’s Last Gleaming (Director’s cut) (Robert Aldrich, 1977)
Film Comment Selects Series at Walter Reade Theater
3:30 PM

Sat, Feb 24
Sátántangó (Bela Tarr, 1994)
at BAM Cinématek
3pm

Ten Skies (James Benning, 2004)
Film Comment Selects Series at Walter Reade Theater
5:40PM

THE WAYWARD CLOUD (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005)
at Anthology Film Archives
4:30, 7, 9:30 PM

Sun, Feb 25
Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr, 2000)
at BAM Cinématek
3, 6, 9pm

THE WAYWARD CLOUD (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005)
at Anthology Film Archives
4:30, 7, 9:30 PM

OLD AND NEW (Eisenstein, 1929)
at Anthology Film Archives
5 PM

Twilight’s Last Gleaming (Director’s cut) (Robert Aldrich, 1977)
Film Comment Selects Series at Walter Reade Theater
5:15 PM

These Encounters of Theirs
(Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 2006)
Film Comment Selects Series at Walter Reade Theater
8:15 PM

THE OSCARS
on ABC
8 PM

Mon, Feb 26
These Encounters of Theirs
(Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, 2006)
Film Comment Selects Series at Walter Reade Theater
6:30 PM

THE WAYWARD CLOUD (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005)
at Anthology Film Archives
7, 9:30 PM

BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE (Bong Joon-Ho, 2000)
at IFC Center
7 PM

MEMORIES OF MURDER (Bong Joon-Ho, 2003)
at IFC Center
9:15 PM

Tues, Feb 27
Black Book (Paul Verhoeven, 2006)
Film Comment Selects Series at Walter Reade Theater
6:30 PM
NOTE: This show is sold out. Tickets will be made available as stand-by if they become available.

THE WAYWARD CLOUD (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005)
at Anthology Film Archives
7, 9:30 PM

TWENTIDENTITY
featuring SINK AND RISE (Bong Joon-Ho, 2004), plus INCOHERENCE (Bong Joon-Ho, 1994)
at IFC Center
6 PM

THE HOST (Bong Joon-Ho, 2006)
Director Bong Joon-Ho in person!
at IFC Center
8:30pm


Wed, Feb 28
La Vie en Rose / La Môme (Olivier Dahan, 2007)
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007
Opening Night film - at Alice Tully Hall [Admission: $22 public, $18 FSLC members]
NOTE: This show is sold out. Tickets will be made available as stand-by if they become available.

THE WAYWARD CLOUD (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005)
at Anthology Film Archives
7, 9:30 PM

Th, March 1
Inside Paris / Dans Paris (Christophe Honoré, 2006)
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2007
3:45, 9:00PM

THE WAYWARD CLOUD (Tsai Ming-liang, 2005)
at Anthology Film Archives
7, 9:30 PM


Continuing Engagements:

CHILDREN OF MEN (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)

INLAND EMPIRE (David Lynch, 2006)
at IFC Center

PAN'S LABYRINTH (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006)
at BAM Rose Cinemas

VOLVER (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006)
at BAM Rose Cinemas

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (Clint Eastwood, 2006)

Cinephile NYC, Vol. 1: Feb 16 - 22

The inaugural post of a new weekly feature on the unmissable cinephile events of the week in New York City. My choices are totally subjective, and by no means comprehensive, but if I see something that grabs me as essential I plan on listing it here. Please note that screening times are subject to change are often not consistent from day to day; please check with the theater before making plans. New posts should go up on Wednesdays, and list events from Friday to Thursday. Normally I'll post in the AM or even Tuesday night but this one starts late because I was sick. Here goes, for the week of Feb 16 - Feb 22:

Fri, Feb 16

COLOSSAL YOUTH (Pedro Costa, 2006)
at Walter Reade Theater
part of the Film Comment Selects series
Screens at 6:15 PM

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (Sergio Leone, 1966)
at Film Forum
Screens at 1:30, 4:50, 8:10 PM

BARDO (Lin Tay-jou, 2005)
at Walter Reade Theater
part of the Film Comment Selects series
Screens at 4:30, 9:15 PM

SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE (Chan-wook Park, 2002)
at IFC Center
Screens at Midnight

Sat, Feb 17

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (Sergio Leone, 1966)
at Film Forum
Screens at 1:30, 4:50, 8:10 PM

EXTERMINATING ANGELS (Jean-Claude Brisseau, 2006)
at Walter Reade Theater
part of the Film Comment Selects series
Screens at 4:00 PM
note: EXTERMINATING ANGELS plays at IFC Center starting March 7th

OLD BOY (Chan-wook Park, 2003)
at IFC Center
Screens at Midnight


Sun, Feb 18

COLOSSAL YOUTH (Pedro Costa, 2006)
at Walter Reade Theater
part of the Film Comment Selects series
Screens at 1:30 PM

THE UNTOUCHABLES (Brian DePalma, 1987)
double feature with MACHINE GUN MCCAIN (Giuliano Montaldo, 1968)
at Film Forum
THE UNTOUCHABLES screens at 1:20, 5:25, 9:30 PM
MACHINE GUN MCCAIN screens at 3:35, 7:40 PM
(note: these movies also screen Monday afternoon)

LADY VENGEANCE (Chan-wook Park, 2005)
at IFC Center
Screens at Midnight


Mon, Feb 19

BEFORE THE REVOLUTION (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1964)
at Film Forum
Screens at 8 PM ONLY


Tues, Feb 20

WHITE DOG (Sam Fuller, 1982)
double Feature with LUNA (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1979)
at Film Forum
WHITE DOG screens at 1:00, 5:10, 10:20 PM
LUNA screens at 2:35, 7:40 PM


Wed, Feb 21

DUCK, YOU SUCKER (Complete Director's Cut) (Seregio Leone, 1972)
at Film Forum
Screens at 1:00, 3:40, 7:00, 9:35 PM


Th, Feb 22

ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (Complete Director's Cut) (Sergio Leone, 1984)
at Film Forum
Screens at 1:30, 7:15 PM

LIGHTS IN THE DUSK (Aki Kaurismäki, 2006)
at Walter Reade Theater
part of the Film Comment Selects series
Screens at 9:00 PM


Continuing Engagements:

REGULAR LOVERS (Philippe Garrel, 2005)
at Cinema Village
* note: I understand that it's being projected in the wrong aspect ratio. Still, another chance to see this projected may be a long time coming. Worth it, I say.

CHILDREN OF MEN (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006)

THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (Victor Erice, 1973)
at IFC Center from Fri 2/16 - Mon 2/19
Screens at 12:00 PM

INLAND EMPIRE (David Lynch, 2006)
at IFC Center

2007 ACADEMY AWARD-NOMINATED SHORTS
at IFC Center
LIVE ACTION SHORTS screen at 11:45 AM, 3:55, 8:00 PM
ANIMATED SHORTS screen at 1:50, 6:00, 10:05 PM

PAN'S LABYRINTH (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006)
at BAM Rose Cinemas

VOLVER (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006)
at BAM Rose Cinemas

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (Clint Eastwood, 2006)

Everyone's a Douchebag Except for 2 Pretty Young Women

Everyone's a Douchebag Except for 2 Pretty Young Women¹
or, Crash (Paul Haggis, 2004)



Paul Haggis's wanna-be Structuralist film about racism in America (or Racism in America) is all of the following things:
condescending
embarrassing
'authorial'
pandering
simplistic
pretentious
overheated
overplotted
overstuffed
underfilled
poorly written
boring
ridiculous

and occasionally, in spite of itself, almost moving.

The McDonald's Happy Meal of Hollywood issue movies, it's a feel-good romp through a bunch of obnoxious racists of all races all over L.A. I suppose a film like this is supposed to make the audience feel better than the characters, nearly all of whom are so outwardly prejudiced as to be laughable. Or perhaps it's meant to show us what lies underneath our everyday dialogue, how the text of our words gives way to racist subtext at every turn (in which case, Haggis's script is written almost entirely in subtext). In case this linguistic structuralism isn't obvious enough, Haggis writes many different intertwining stories to remind us that we are all connected (in our racism, at least). Magnolia, at least, had human characters with real emotions and some directorial deftness to offset its ridiculous moments (which are certainly few compared to this).

Every character in Crash is so easy to hate. Everyone spouts racist dialogue at every turn, in most cases without any rationale for their prejudice. Only a few actors manage to deliver the lines with any 'fuck-you-I'm-racist' panache; mostly it's like being lectured. Which is another major flaw of the script/film (interchangeable here not because Haggis is writer and director, but because the shot selection here is as basic as your average TV movie); it feels like a long lecture on how bad people are. Lectures like these don't change any minds because the audiences are self-selected... no one buys tickets for a movie about the evils of racism if they are racist themselves (and even if they did, that's no apology for the film's serious cinematic shortcomings). It's an exercise in "we're so sophisticated" jerk-offerry of the kind that Hollywood specializes in giving awards to.

There are half a dozen, or perhaps a dozen, scenes that are supposed to be moving. At best, only two succeed, and only one of these really stays with me. The lesser of these involves the shooting of a little girl, which turns out not to be a shooting at all, to the surprise of the shooter as well as the victims. (This scene is undercut a few minutes later by the so-obvious-it's-painful camera's lingering over the box of bullets that loaded the gun - blanks). The only scene of any consequence in the film consists of Thandie Newton refusing and then consenting to be saved from a burning car by the racist cop who molested her earlier in the film.

Because of the name-brand cast, there are some good performances here for moments at a time. Terence Howard getting angry and talking back to LAPD officers; Newton resisting being pulled from the car by her former assailant; Don Cheadle delivering what might be the script's best line ("Well then I guess the big mystery is, who gathered all those remarkably different cultures together and taught them all how to park their cars on their lawns?"); Chris Bridges (Ludacris) ranting about racism and why he should be afraid walking in the white neighborhood (followed by the consciously stereotype-fulfilling action that explains why he's not). But neither that, nor the one or two successful moments of redemption in a script that intends many more, can save what remains a quarter-baked Oscar grab that inexplicably beat out the most moving American picture of my lifetime.


On the bright side, I'm now inspired to tackle my cinematic adaptation of Discipline and Punish.

¹ Jennifer Esposito as Ria, and Bahar Soomekh as Dorri.

Who Is Elio Petri?

It's not often nowadays that I discover a filmmaker not only whose work I haven't seen, but whom I've never even heard of, and rarer still that it leaves a major impression on me. As part of Film Forum's month-long Morricone series, I had the chance to see two films by Elio Petri, his 1970 Oscar winner Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, and A Quiet Place in the Country. Petri was a political Italian filmmaker of the '60s and '70s, but his work seems especially strong for the interior psychology of his leading men.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion follows the chief homicide detective as he leads an investigation of his own killing of his mistress. The Inspector advances to a position cracking down on dissidents while still playing a major role in the investigation of the murder he committed. The Inspector deliberately leaves clues to pin himself as the killer, but in his official capacity uses his power to subvert their authenticity. It's a very smart film about fascism and power's coercive - and corrosive - effect on people both with and without it, and how systems of power become self-justifying.

A Quiet Place in the Country begins with one of my all-time favorite credit sequences, one that recalls Godard at his meta-artistic best. From there is becomes quite kinky, at least at the beginning, where consumerism fights with sadomasochism for center-stage. Vanessa Redgrave (!) is the dealer/lover of a major artist, who moves into a house haunted by a beautiful woman's ghost with whom he becomes obsessed.

Both films dive so deeply into their (anti-)hero's psyche that the film itself disconnects from the outside world, and both are highly recommended.

Some more Petri resources:
Wikipedia
The program for The Films of Elio Petri at the Harvard Film Archive
The Boston Phoenix review of the HFA series
The site for the documentary Elio Petri... notes about an author, with comprehensive bio, filmography, and notes.