Property Is No Longer a Theft
(La proprietà non è più un furto)
With Ugo Tognazzi, Flavio Bucci, Salvo Randone.
Italy, 1973, 35mm, color, 125 min.
Italian with English subtitles.
Money (and private property) is definitely the root of all evil in this eccentric work, the third film in a loose trilogy on "social schizophrenia" that also includes Petri’s Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion and The Working Class Goes to Heaven. Making expressionist use of Brechtian monologues, stylized montage, and character types, this barbed satire concerns a lowly bank clerk (Bucci), literally allergic to money and revolted by its nefarious influence on humanity, who launches a campaign of harassment against a wealthy butcher (Tognazzi), stealing small, insignificant items—but never money—from the man. The victim uses the thefts to make large and fraudulent insurance claims, refusing to finger the thief for fear his own financial improprieties might be exposed.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion / Sin in the Afternoon
Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember
Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember
Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember
Property Is No Longer a Theft
