Fists in the Pocket

Fists in the Pocket is a 1965 Italian satirical drama film written and directed by Marco Bellocchio and starring Lou Castel. It was Bellocchio's first feature film and became one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year. The film centers on a young man suffering from epilepsy, who plots the murders of the members of his dysfunctional family. In 2008, Fists in the Pocket was included in the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978." Plot Four siblings, a sister and three brothers, live with their blind, widowed mother in a provincial villa. The younger brothers Alessandro and Leone are epileptics, while sister Giulia, with whom Alessandro shares an incestous attraction, is mentally disturbed. Augusto, the eldest brother and apparently sane, is the family's only provider. When Augusto's fiancée Lucia receives an anonymous letter whose addressor pretends to be pregnant by him, he immediately realises that it was written by Giulia. Alessandro, who is disgusted with his family, decides that Augusto would be free to live with Lucia if the mother and other siblings were gotten rid of, while at the same time begrudging his older brother's dominant position. Alessandro connives to be allowed to drive his mother, Leone and Giulia on their periodic trip to a cemetery, pretending that he passed his driving test which he actually failed. After he has left, Augusto reads a note by Alessandro saying that he would kill all of them and himself. Due to a confrontation with another driver, which, cheered on by Giulia, leads to a car race, he lets go of his plan, and they all return home safely, where Augusto slaps Alessandro. Some time later, Alessandro takes his mother for a drive. They stop at an overlook, and Alessandro pushes his mother off the cliff to her death. During the wake, he confesses his crime to Giulia, but his sister does not give him away.