THE 10TH VICTIM *

Released here in a dubbed version in order to maximise its audience Elio Petri's "The 10th Victim" was a satire set in a future where sex and particularly violence were very much the norm but which was filmed on existing locations like Godard's "Alphaville". The plot deals with a world where killing and hunting down victims is a paid sport, televised for the pleasure of the masses and in this respect it prefigures the likes of "Battle Royale" and "The Hunger Games" by 40 or so years.

It's a gorgeous looking picture, (the DoP was Gianni Di Venanzo), with one of the most beautiful women ever to grace a movie, Ursula Andress, in the lead but despite being 'futuristic' it's now very much a period piece like most other films from 'the swinging sixties'. The male lead is a slumming Marcello Mastroianni who phones in his performance and acts as if he's on a holiday he isn't enjoying much. However, the film itself displays a fair amount of imagination, considering the limited situations, and is now something of a cult movie.