A Simple Story

A retired diplomat returns after many years to the abandoned house he owns in Sicily. One night he telephones the police station and says he has found something important. The next morning he is found dead in the house. The official record says he took his own life. But an inspector looking into it notices that some of the details do not fit, and wants to keep the enquiry open. Emidio Greco's Italian film is adapted from the last book Leonardo Sciascia published. Sciascia wrote the story out of the theft of a Caravaggio in Palermo in 1969. Gian Maria Volonté takes the lead. The film competed at Venice and won an award for its screenplay. The telling is short, dry, and never tries to surprise.