Jump to content

Slap the Monster on Page One

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs) at 00:12, 23 May 2020 (→‎External links: recategorize). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Slap the Monster on Page One
Directed byMarco Bellocchio
Written bySergio Donati
Goffredo Fofi
Produced byUgo Tucci
StarringGian Maria Volonté
Corrado Solari
Laura Betti
Fabio Garriba
CinematographyErico Menczer
Music byNicola Piovani
Release date
19 October 1972
Running time
93 min.
LanguageItalian

Slap the Monster on Page One (Italian: Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina) is a 1972 Italian drama film directed by Marco Bellocchio.

It depicts the daily life of a fictitious Italian daily newspaper Il Giornale (The Journal). The newspaper caters to a conservative, fascist, borgeouis public and its chief-editor Bizanti tries in all manners to give a right-wing slant even to the most trivial news items, while at the same time edulcorating and desensitizing the thornier issues, such as unemployment, police brutality and so on. The whole editorial staff is thrown in a tantrum when a young girl is found raped and killed, going as far as soliciting death penalty nostalgias (capital punishment has been abolished in Italy since the fall of Fascism) and to actually derail the investigation leading the police to a false culprit: a young left-wing student which becomes the "ideal" scapegoat for the newspaper's prejudiced readership. The movie, a searing J'Accuse…! on the perils of press manipulation, closes with no happy ending in sight, with the public opinion totally mesmerized by Bizanti and his cronies for the satisfaction of their backers and financers.

Two years after the movie's distribution a right-wing newspaper called Il Giornale was actually started in Italy by Indro Montanelli.

Cast


Stub icon

This article related to an Italian film of the 1970s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Slap_the_Monster_on_Page_One&oldid=958293763"