The Mattei Affair

Enrico Mattei takes over the state oil company ENI in postwar Italy and steps outside the arrangement the large international companies had built, dealing directly with producing countries on terms that gave them a bigger share. In 1962 his plane comes down. Francesco Rosi builds the film as an investigation, breaking the man's life apart with a reporter's eye and reaching no firm conclusion. Its most interesting quality is that the director puts himself into it: a journalist who disappeared while the film was being made is folded into the story. Gian Maria Volontè plays Mattei. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. The cause of the crash was reinvestigated years later. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian political cinema and investigative narrative. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a clear answer.