Criterion Collection: Fists in the Pocket | Blu-ray Review
Shot on family property and with family funds, Bellocchio’s debut foretells the tale of a crumbling middle-class family debilitated by dysfunction in their familial Italian villa. The fatherless brood of adult children are held afloat by eldest brother Augusto (Marino Mase), who holds a job in the village and intends to dissociate himself from his family by moving in with his girlfriend. However, his siblings each have something to say about it, with his sister doing her best to foil their relationship, while brother Alessandro (Lou Castel) believes it is in both his and his Augusto’s best interest to drive the rest of the family off a cliff on a weekly trip to visit their father’s grave. His growing attraction to his sister leads to a change of plans, instead pushing their blind mother off the cliff and then driving their youngest brother Leone to overdose. It seems, however, not everyone in the family is quick to embrace murder as a solution…
Shot in stark black and white by Alberto Marrama and featuring one of Ennio Morricone’s many priceless scores, Fists in the Pocket took home an award out of its premiere at the Locarno Film Festival, where it was reviled by cinematic titans Bunuel and Antonioni but embraced by a younger generation of critics. A political compatriot of Pasolini’s, Bellocchio’s early subversive works are much more in spirit with Pasolini, while also reflecting the troubled affects or urbanization on Italian youths and culture, as also seen in films from Ettore Scola and Antonio Pietrangeli of the same period, wherein ignorant, disillusioned youths make drastic choices to break free from their economic realities only to suffer disastrous ruination. As fascinating and compelling now as it was fifty years ago, Fists in the Pocket is a murderous portrait of familial dysfunction, like a Grey Gardens with a death wish.
Film Review: ★★★★/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★★★/☆☆☆☆☆
