During a wave of political violence in Italy, a policeman who's already survived an assassination is assigned to act as a bodyguard to a morally upright judge. He feels increasingly fearful as the links of the upper echelons of police and government to the violence become clear.
Gian Maria Volonté Erland Josephson Mario Adorf Angelica Ippolito Paola Arduini Giorgio Cerioni Bruno Corazzari Laura De Marchi Paolo Malco Laura Trotter Aldo Farina Giuseppe Fazio Raffaele Di Mario Joe Sentieri Claudio Zucchet Aldo Valletti Nestore Cavaricci Francesco D'Adda Vittorio Fanfoni Lina Franchi Margherita Horowitz Rocco Lerro Luciano Rossi Valeria Sabel Amedeo Salamon Sergio Serafini
The Bodyguard, Un juge en danger, Ich habe Angst, Tengo miedo, Mám strach, 我害怕, Я боюсь
Italy
Italy
Major spoilers for the ending in the last paragraph.
There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels ... upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
— Mario Savio, 1964
A common theme in Damiano Damiani's work throughout Italy's Years of Lead is the futility of trying to…
"If someone shoots at us, in a sense it means we're already dead."
The undeath of Italian justice
I Am Afraid has the structure of a paranoia thriller — the wonderful Gian Maria Volonté plays a police officer assigned to serve as a bodyguard for an honorable judge, and he gradually uncovers a rather dishonorable trail of corruption that leads all the way up to Italy's highest offices of government and military — but the emotion that the film delivers isn't precisely one of paranoia. Paranoia has a pathological dimension to it, a psychological investment in the plot being uncovered that overwhelms the common sense that of course there's no hidden scheme going on behind the…
74/100
A taut political conspiracy thriller fuelled by paranoia. Opening and closing minutes are great. Volonté delivers another fantastic performance. Little on the complicated side but it's always compelling.
Terrific paranoid thriller by Damiano Damiani with cop turned bodyguard Gian Maria Volonte pushed more and more inside a political conspiracy. This gets tenser by the reel and makes very good use of how it parses information. Damiani is great at puts one in the mind of a man sure disaster is just waiting him. Volonte has rarely been better and the remaining main cast (Erland Josephson, Mario Adorf) isn’t far behind.
Damiani continues in the veins of Confessions of a Police Captain, creating another highly suspenseful thriller that pierces the high-tension of Italian political landscape, offering moments of great despair and angry commentary on the corruption and cowardice. The system is once more faceless and for those who end up against its threats in a one way or another, "becoming a face" is difficult task and it means so much risk that life becomes nothing more but a game. And when this system can reach its tentacles everywhere, it's impossible not to take sides. Volontè offers a wonderful portrait of a man who is reluctant, almost anti-hero-type police officer working "for bread" but who must change everything he believes in in order to survive. There is no room for idealism and that is one of the reasons why this gritty crime-drama becomes something more than just your ordinary popcorn-crime-action; people are real and so is the situation.
Gian Maria Volonté plays a cop trapped in his job. Rampant unemployment means he can't quit, but his work as part of a unit that protects judges and other officials is a suicide mission. Within the first five minutes he's almost killed. So a friend and superior inside the force finds him a good assignment, protecting a judge the friend says only works on old cases. It's Volonté's most everyman role, at least that I've seen. And he is unsurprisingly but still impressively as powerful in this role as any other.
Without giving too much away, he and this safe judge end up uncovering crimes that are very much in the present and involve high-ranking government officials, making the assignment…
Second viewing.
I think I like this so much because it focuses on one man, his experience when he discovers corruption in the state and knows that discovery means the state is against him. The effect of state corruption feels real, it's not removed from the personal. Somewhat oddly, I thought of Three Days of the Condor, a similar story and approach. But, that is a slicker, less realistic, less despairing film. Where Robert Redford is nimble and invulnerable, Gian Maria Volenté's Graziano is reluctant and afraid. Not a coward, rationally afraid. He's less naive, but he's outmatched, not because he's stupid or incapable but because that's reality: it is him against the state.
Fear not!
If, like me, you've plumbed the depths of 70s paranoid thrillers from the U.S., just look to Italy because Damiani has you covered. This one aims for the head is right there with his CONFESSIONS OF A POLICE CAPTAIN.
Also, as expected we get an incredible Volontè performance. I've seen about a dozen of his performances and he nearly always the best aspect of those films.
I often have trouble staying awake during political intrigues, and this is also the case here: the first half was a bit too long-winded for me. But then the tension increased. I would have liked a little more, but quite good. The soundtrack (which consists of just one song) is atmospheric and pretty cool.
And of course: Gian Maria Volonté is great!
Leí que Io ho paura era el mejor poliziotteschi de la historia y es falso porque en realidad no es un poliziotto sino un Thriller conspiranoico en la onda de I como Ícaro. El guion hubiera hecho babear a De Palma y a cualquiera. Necesita urgentemente un tratamiento en Blu.
Closer to Rosi than Lenzi or di Leo, a thriller among the more sophisticated poliziotesschi-adjacent films that sustains a consistent paranoia throughout and anchored by another nuanced Volonte performance.
Хотел сначала пошутить, что фильм настолько левацкий, его даже в СССР показывали (естественно порезанным), а сейчас он мог бы спокойно быть в шорт-листе на оскар, но за что я уважаю режиссеров типа Петри и Дамиани - они в своих лучших фильмах умеют ставить идеалогию на второй план и не мазать ей жирно, а заставлять работать на вполне конкретные сильные сюжеты (учитесь, разнообразные спайки ли). "Я боюсь" - очень крутая история про мента, которого направляют на спокойную работу по охране судьи, но вместо этого он оказывается в центре расследования, ведущего к самым верхам. Фильм умно выстроен: в первой половине это такое остросоциальное кино, а на вторую он ловко переобувается в параноидальный триллер. Эрланд Юзефсон в роли судьи хорош, особенно в дубляже Смоктуновского, ну а Волонте гениально играет обычного мента, который не хочет высовываться чтобы не быть перемолотым системой, и смотреть на его постоянный внутренний конфликт, желание бороться и понимание обреченности этой борьбы - настоящее удовольствие.
