Streaming on Amazon Prime
Director: Elio Petri
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Ursula Andress
In the annual Oscar push, I can get a little burned out force-feeding myself films that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided were the heights of cinema for the year before. You know, films like 2016’s Suicide Squad or 2007’s Norbit. There’s a feeling of accomplishment when you knock out a category, to be sure, but it can feel a bit like homework that you never really agreed to. In order to alleviate some of the bitterness that comes with watching Meryl Streep’s 683rd nomination and wondering why Brooklyn Prince (The Florida Project), Haley Lu Richardson (Columbus), or Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) weren’t nominated instead, I break it up by watching movies I’m not familiar with, often randomly selected. Plenty are duds, but every now and then, you find something worthwhile that you never really were familiar with before.
I just found that with The 10th Victim (La decima vittima), currently streaming on Amazon Prime. It’s a 1965 futuristic sci-fi film from Italian director Elio Petri, and it was unlike anything I was expecting.
The 10th Victim is just a fun film, and it’s a spiritual ancestor to so many beloved films of the modern era. Hunger Games, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Austin Powers, The Running Man, and dozens more seem influenced by this futuristic cultural satire.
In the 21st century, the world is obsessed with the Big Hunt. Survive 10 rounds of the Big Hunt and you’re lauded with riches, fame, etc. Each round involves a two competitors fighting to the death, but with a twist – one is the “Victim”, and must keep an eye out for all times for their unknown counterpart, the “Hunter” – who is given the location and name of the Victim at the beginning of the round. To win the Big Hunt, you must survive 10 alternating rounds, 5 as the Hunter, and 5 as Victim.
Catherine (Ursula Andress), an American, has 9 rounds down, and needs only to take out an Italian named Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni). Instead of simply taking him out, she tries to turn her last kill into a sponsored event to make more advertising money. In order to get Marcello onto the set, she has to get to know him and earn his trust at a time when he’s suspicious of everything and everyone. It makes for a really fun dynamic, a cat and mouse game between the two.
To complicate matters, they develop feelings for each other, at least whatever this 21st century’s stunted version of feelings is. There’s heat between the two, and Andress just radiates sexuality for the entirety of the picture. It’s a sexy femme fatale performance that sticks with you. At one point, Catherine, a resident of a cold and emotionally stunted society, points out after being kissed that, even though she initially likes it, she would need to “take a course on soft erotica” to be sure. It’s a great joke, because if there’s anything Andress’ performance isn’t lacking for, it’s an understanding of eroticism.
And that’s the nice thing about The 10th Victim – it never takes itself too seriously. This satire of commercialism in the 60’s skewers its subject with silliness, but not in an over the top way. There’s so much to see in the backgrounds, I wonder if The 10th Victim was an inspiration for the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker films of 15 years later. Seriously, keep your eye on the backgrounds and the ridiculous sets – they had me laughing out loud several times. There are also random world-building jokes that don’t get over-explained, just present enough to get noticed and move on. It’s as if the film is saying, “Oh yeah, here’s something even darker and equally fascinating that takes place in this future, but this story isn’t about that.” I always appreciate when films do that.
A movie that tries to be SO much – a cat and mouse thriller, a sexy romance, a silly farce, a biting satire of culture – it really runs the risk of not being cohesive, but The 10th Victim manages the balancing act nicely. It doesn’t really know how to end the movie – the ending is a bit baffling – but the ride it takes you on is more than worth it. It’s one of the best swingin’ 60’s films I’ve seen, and leaves me wanting to check out more of director Elio Petri’s work.
Bonus fun fact: The company sponsoring Catherine’s planned kill of Marcello is Ming Tea, which would later serve as the name of a 60’s retro band started by Matthew Sweet, Susanna Hoffs, and Mike Meyers in the 1990’s. You’ve seen them in many short cuts between scenes in the Austin Powers films:
Is it Watchlist-worthy?
Yes! Despite suffering from being filmed in what appears to be English and dubbed in Italian, only to be translated back on screen in English, it’s a genre-bending Swingin’ 60’s classic that inspired legions of films a generation later. Subtitled films are never convenient, but this one doesn’t feel like a chore, clocking in at a lean 92 minutes.