I met Francesco Rosi. The Italian director came to my film school at the North Carolina School of the Arts during the turn of the century. He was coming to Winston-Salem as primarily a guest of Wake Forest University, but screenings were being hosted at our giant movie theater. At the time, I had graduated and was working at the film archive as part of the curating staff. This meant my job was to arrange the events including schedules and create handouts for the students. The frustrating part is that I had to deal with an Italian “instructor” who was handling things on the Wake Forest side. He was a stuck-up idiot. He kept dodging me when it came to sharing information. It was making my job next to impossible with his smug attitude since he was going to be hanging out with “Maestro Rosi!” I finally hit my limit one afternoon when he acted like it was my fault that he hadn’t provided me with promised articles. He headed toward the exit without giving me what I needed. “Get back here, I’m not done yelling at you!” I shouted at him in the theater lobby. The inept coward quickened his pace. The worst part of dealing with this jerk was my impression of Rosi’s received collateral damage. My despising of this smarmy teacher made me not happy to watch Rosi’s films at time. Even when I got to briefly speak to Rosi, the jerk was looming over the director acting like he was doing me a favor. I couldn’t enjoy Rosi’s visit. Which is a shame since I really enjoy Illustrious Corpses (a film we didn’t run).
The movie opens in a city that’s far away from Rome. An old man walks through a catacomb where mummified bodies are on display. He gets up to the street level and takes a minute to smell the blooms on a tree. This proves to be a poor choice as he’s shot and killed. The dead man was a judge. His funeral is huge as other judges arrive to say goodbye. Also amongst the mourners is Inspector Rogas (Three Tough Guys‘ Lino Ventura). He’s there to find the killer and the reason for the killing. He consults with his old pal (Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key‘s Luigi Pistilli) who runs a left-wing newspaper. However, his investigation keeps getting interrupted by further killings of judges. The minister of justice (The French Connection‘s Fernando Rey) needs to catch the judge killers since the judges led by the Supreme Court president (The Seventh Seal‘s Max von Sydow) wants to take the law into their own hands. The chief of police suspects a single killer. This leads to three people being investigated initially. None seem to stick out. Inspector Rogas begins to suspect there’s a conspiracy at work. But who is running the conspiracy?
Illustrious Corpses is an intriguing murder mystery as Rogas pokes around the dangerous parts of Italy. Even the safe looking parts become dangerous to the investigator as he uncovers certain truths. During his poking around a suspect’s house, he notices all the photos on the wall have cut out the guy. This might seem goofy except the photo of the suspect has also been removed from the police records. Lino Ventura in his tan raincoat feels like an Italian version of Columbo without saying “just one more thing.” The people he’s dealing with are smart enough to not self-incriminate. He also has to deal with how the media is covering the judge murders. The news reports change up the feeling that the Mafia is behind the killers as the “journalists” blame left-wing youth. Will Rogas completely uncover the truth? I really wish when Francesco Rosi had visited the school that Illustrious Corpses had run on the big screen. I probably would have been able to overlook the jerk teacher and told Rosi what a stunning film he’d made. I would have called him Maestro Rosi.
The Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The 4K restoration transfer brings out the details of this mobster-controlled land. The Audio is Italian LPCM 2.0 Mono. You’ll hear the echoes in the ancient rooms. The movie is subtitled in English.
Audio Commentary by Alex Cox has the director of Repo Man and Sid & Nancy get into the movie. He points out how this was Rosi working in a big, glossy production. Cox has a passion for Italian cinema (he wrote a great book about the Spaghetti Westerns). H
Francesco Rosi (3:40) is a French TV clip. Rosi talks about how the film is about justice versus non-justice. He dips into why he felt Lino Ventura was perfect for the leading role.
Francesco Rosi and Lino Ventura (4:46) has the director and star sitting on a park bench talking about their working relationship. There is talk about him being French in an Italian movie. This aired on French TV in 1976.
Gateana Marrone (28:53) has the professor talk about the book and the movie’s impact. The novel was about the plot to kill judges by the Mafia. This is not the instructor from Wake Forest.
Trailer (3:22) gets artsy and animated with the violent clips from the film.
Gallery includes 33 images of lobby cards, international posters and press photos.
Limited Edition Illustrated Booklet with an essay.
Radiance Films presents Illustrious Corpses: Limited Edition. Directed by Francesco Rosi. Screenplay by Tonino Guerra, Lino Jannuzzi & Francesco Rosi. Starring Lino Ventura, Tino Carraro, Marcel Bozzuffi, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny, Luigi Pistilli, Renato Salvatori, Tina Aumont, Fernando Rey & Max von Sydow. Running Time: 121 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: January 27, 2026.
