Todo modo

Todo modo (also known as One Way or Another) is a 1976 Italian drama film directed by Elio Petri. Loosely based on the novel of the same name by Leonardo Sciascia, it is the last of the cinematographic, but also political and ideological union of the director Elio Petri and the actor Gian Maria Volonté, a partnership that contributed to the success of Italian political cinema of the seventies. It represents the portrait of the deviant men of power of the Christian Democrats. The premiere of the film was 30 April 1976. Made in the same period of Illustrious corpses (1976) by Francesco Rosi, also inspired by a work by Sciascia, Todo modo contributes to the efforts of Italian cinema in questioning the political future of a country in crisis. In 2014 the film was restored thanks to the work of the Bologna Film Library and the National Cinema Museum of Turin. Plot I forced Sciascia's hands even in the tone of the film...and so it seemed to me, not only to follow an indication from Sciascia, but to evoke that climate of very black farce that one breathed and still continues to breathe in Italy. —Elio Petri, 1979 During a mysterious epidemic that claims numerous political leaders, big industrialists, bankers, and business leaders of the ruling party, the Christian Democrats arrive in a hotel/hermitage/prison called Zafer. They gather for an annual three-day retreat (inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola) to atone for their past crimes of corruption and unethical practices. These exercises are practiced under the guidance of the unusual Don Gaetano (Marcello Mastroianni), a very influential but corrupt priest, who dominates all those at the retreat.