The Museum is open 11:00 – 19:00
Cinema is closed now
The Museum is open 11:00 – 19:00
Cinema is closed now
Illustrious Corpse
Before the film, we invite you to an introduction by Michał Oleszczyk, and after the screening there will be a discussion.
Francesco Rosi was a master of a genre that he essentially invented himself: the "reportage thriller." In films such as Salvatore Giuliano (1962) and Hands Over the City (1965), he developed a unique combination of realism, dense factuality, and a cool, reportage-like tone, which earned him the Palme d'Or in 1972 for The Mattei Affair.
The slightly later Illustrious Corpse smarks Rosi's entry into a mannerist phase, flirting with opera and baroque.
The story of a series of high-level political assassinations, which the good-natured (and exclusively public transport-using) Inspector Rogas (played by Lino Ventura) attempts to solve, is broadly based on the popular novel by Leonardo Cascia, known in Poland as "Kontekst".
The story of a series of high-level political assassinations, which the good-natured (and exclusively public transport-using) Inspector Rogas (played by Lino Ventura) attempts to solve, is broadly based on the popular novel by Leonardo Cascia, known in Poland as "Kontekst".
The more the plot thickens, the more Rosi enters the realm of paranoid thrillers in the style of the American The Parallax View – and ends with a note of futuristic political fiction, which from the perspective of 2026 looks like an act of prophecy.
Noteworthy are the exquisite cinematography by Pasqualino De Santis (famous for his collaboration with Luchino Visconti) and the star-studded supporting cast, led by Max Von Sydow and Charles Vanel.
[Michał Oleszczyk]