Ipocrisia e purezza dell’autorità in “Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto” di E. Petri, sulle orme di “Masochismo e Autorità” di E. Fromm=Hypocrisy and pureness of authority in “Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto” (E. Petri, 1970) in relation with “The authoritarian-masochistic character” by E. Fromm

Abstract

Hypocrisy and pureness of authority in “Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto” (E. Petri, 1970) in relation with “The authoritarian-masochistic character” by E. Fromm. This work had been written in order to investigate Ipocrisia of authority: a will to feel itself and to show itself as a body without faults and vices, without infringement and indecencies. A cinematographic document of this self-perception is Elio Petri’s movie, “Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto” (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion). Screenplay, dialogues and actor’s work on the character are in relation with the features of authority — pureness, majesty, gap, aplomb — listed in “Studies on the authority and family”, a work by Frankfurt School’s intellectuals, in particular in “The authoritarian-masochistic character” by Erich Fromm. Ipocrisia in authority aims to excrete every error, every contamination from itself, creating a dissociative mechanism supposed to achieve self-healing. A transfer of judgment and responsability has been done from the immaterial body of authority to the living human body, “to reaffirm the idea of authority with all its pureness”