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La Decima Vittima
The Tenth Victim
Italy / France 1965
produced by
Carlo Ponti for Compagnia Cinematografica Champion, Les Films Concordia
directed by Elio Petri
starring Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress, Elsa Martinelli, Salvo Randone, Massimo Serato, Milo Quesada, Luce Bonifassy, George Wang, Evi Rigano, Walter Williams, Richard Armstrong, Antonio Ciani, Jacques Herlin, Wolfgang Hillinger, Mickey Knox, Gino Pernice, Massimo Righi, Anita Sanders, Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia
screenplay by Tonino Guerra, Giorgio Salvioni, Ennio Flaiano, Elio Petri, based on the story The Seventh Victim by Robert Sheckley, music by Piero Piccioni
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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In a not too distant future, murder is totally legal - as long as it's
part of an international game called the Hunt, where hunter and
prey are pitted against one another at random, and whoever kills the other
first ascends to the next round, in the alternating role, with the goal of
reaching and surviving the tenth round, with a shitload of cash waiting.
And while the prey has no idea about the hunter's identity, the hunter
knows everything about the prey. And for the hunt depicted in this film,
the computer pits Caroline (Ursula Andress) as the huntress who's already
in round ten and who has superstar status in the US, against Rome resident
Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni) - round 7 - who's in desparate need of
money, but is milked by both his ex-wife Lidia (Luce Bonifassy) and his
girlfriend Olga (Elsa Martinelli). Now Caroline brings a sponsor with her
to Rome, and thus needs to actually kill Marcello as part of a tea
commercial - but when she first meets him, she can't believe how
philosophical he is about everything, as if he wouldn't even care whether
he lived or died ... but despite whatever ploy she uses (without giving
away her identity of course), he just refuses to show up at the Temple of
Venus next to the Colosseum, where the commercial is to be shot, with
dancers and all. It turns out of course he has long grown wise to her, and
actually sets up a trap of his own for Caroline - which she in turn
doesn't fall for. Instead, the two eventually fall for one another, and
ultimately spend a romantic night in a tent on the beach - a tent that's
then flown to the Temple of Venus, so Caroline can make her kill. But as
mentioned, Marcello has long grown wise to her, and has taken some
precautions of his own ... In a way, The Tenth Victim is
a great piece of nostalgia, as it's 1960s European genre cinema at its
best, it's very stylish, it's erotically charged with Ursula Andress at
her most sensual, there's a certain decadence to everything, and even
artsy elements here and there. But while the looks of the film can't deny
the era it was made in (though even after more than 50 years it doesn't
look just old-fashioned), the satire behind it still rings true today
(which is actually the case with many stories of Robert Sheckley, author
of the source material) with its take on capitalism and media frenzy that
really treats life and death as no more than a product and a game. A very
cool film, actually, that would deserve even more recognition than it
gets.
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eThaiCD.com
find The Tenth Victim at adultvideouniverse.com
