'Cadaveri Eccellenti' aka 'Illustrious Corpses'(1976) - Francesco Rosi.

Master director, Francesco Rosi deftly helms this compelling, elegantly complex, beautifully stylized paranoid thriller exploring the valiant investigations of experienced Inspector Rogas (Lino Ventura). Rogas disturbingly unearths darkly unsettling truths in this confounding case of the execution of high profile judges. Are these simply the crazed actions of a vengeful sniper with a murderous grudge, or, are the assassinations of ageing magistrates part of a sinister political conspiracy of far-reaching consequence? 

The paranoid, fascinatingly labyrinthine plot is exciting mounted by Rosi, and one couldn't ask for a finer protagonist in the inimitable, enigmatically crumpled form of the sublimely charismatic Lino Ventura. A truly brilliant actor whose dazzling CV boasts star turns in many of the finest examples of European crime cinema, including some of Jean-Pierre Melville's greatest! His dogged interpretation of Stoic Inspector Rogas might arguably be one of Ventura's most thrilling, and exquisitely nuenced performances. 'Cadaveri Eccellenti' (1976) remains a sharply written, rewardingly complex political thriller of the highest calibre, ranking alongside, Damiani's similarly gripping 'How To Kill a Judge'  as one of the 1970s most cogent conspiracy thrillers.