Slap the Monster on Page One
directed by Marco Bellocchio
starring Gian Maria Volonte, Laura Betti
Radiance Films
Usually in a movie where a newspaper is investigating the rape and murder of a teenage girl in the midst of social unrest on the streets, the newspaper and its intrepid reporter and no-nonsense editor would be cast as the heroes. But in Marco Bellocchio’s Slap the Monster on Page One, the tropes are inverted, and the newspaper editor is hardly the virtuous protector of the downtrodden. And the green reporter, though well-intentioned, finds out how powerful the elites running things in Italy truly are.
Amidst violent turmoil in the run up to an election in Milan, Italy, the editor of the right-wing newspaper, Il Giornale, decides to distract focus from the protestors in the streets by highlighting the rape and murder of a teen girl. He presses harder when a lead is uncovered indicating that the victim may have been killed by a member of the leftist organization that vandalized the paper’s offices. The narrative fits perfectly with the editor’s politics and biases, regardless of the truth. The film plays as a straightforward journalism thriller, and the choice to make it about a right-wing newspaper actually allows for strong political statements about class and misogyny to be made without stalling the plot to have characters get on a soapbox to make them.
Director Marco Bellocchio’s vision of the power of the press in the wrong hands should be jarring, and probably was in 1972, but the reality 50 years on shows how prescient the film truly is, as modern journalism seems far too concerned with scoring political points than anything approaching an objective search for the truth. The film, while a bit cold and cynical, is nonetheless quite entertaining, with taut direction and a crackling third act as the true identity of the killer is uncovered. The film is aided by solid acting, especially from Gian Maria Volonté as the editor who will stop at nothing to get his truth on the page.
Slap the Monster on Page One is another curated gem from Radiance Films. The movie comes with a nice set of extras, including a passionate introduction from writer/director Alex Cox (Repo Man), as well as an interview with the film’s director, Marco Bellocchio, and a half-hour interview with Italian film critic Mario Sesti.
