To each his own (film, 1967)

In a small Sicilian town near Palermo, pharmacist Arturo Manno (Luigi Pistilli) begins to receive anonymous threatening letters that he tells his closest friends, among them Professor Paolo Laurana ( Gian Maria Volonte ), Rosello's lawyer ( Gabriele Ferzetti ) and doctor Antonio Rosco ( Franco Trancino).

Once Manno and Roscoe go hunting, where they are killed by two unknowns. Residents of the town believe that the murder is connected with the anonymous letters that Manno received, as well as with one of the many novels on the side that he had with married women and very young girls. Roscoe was killed simply as an accidental witness. Soon on suspicion of murder, police detained the father and two brothers of the 16-year-old maid Manno, whom he had seduced.

However, Professor Laurana, who was born and raised in this town, but works in Palermo, doubts their guilt. He assumes that the suspects are most likely illiterate and could hardly compose anonymous letters using words cut out from the newspaper, all the more so for using the Osservator Romano newspaper published by the Vatican, which only two people receive in the town - the abbot of the local church and archpriest.

Laurana shares her thoughts with the widow of Dr. Roscoe Louise ( Irene Papas ) and her cousin, attorney Rosello, suggesting that it was Dr. Roscoe who was the real target, and that the anonymous letters and the murder of Manno were committed for cover. Louise, to whom Laurana begins to have sexual interest, agrees to help him in the investigation, and Rosello agrees to defend in court the suspects in the murder of the father and brothers of a young girl.

One of the recipients of the newspaper Osservator Romano, the abbot of the local church Sant'Amo, turns out to be an unbeliever, rather cynical, but good-natured person (Mario Shasha), whose main business is to search for historical and cultural values ​​and sell them to wealthy collectors. He shows Laurana the newspapers of interest, saying that nothing has been cut from his newspapers. He says that under the calm outward appearance of city life, his intrigues are hidden, which archpriest, the uncle of Louise and Rosello, who raised them as his children, is better aware of.

In Palermo, Laurana learns from her old friend, a Communist deputy ( Leopoldo Trieste ), that shortly before the murder, Dr. Roscoe traveled to Rome, where he wanted to tell about the facts of illegal activities in his city, but he did not manage to give any names. Laurana visits Father Roscoe, a blind optometrist who hands him a diary of his son, which contains a series of serious allegations against Rosello’s lawyer, although his name is not directly mentioned. In front of the courthouse, Laurana sees Rosello in the company of a suspicious person, he watches over him and finds out that this is someone Ragana (Giovanni Pallavichino), a man with a reputation as a gangster.

The abbot of the church tells Laurana that the true unofficial head of their city is Rosello, who holds in his hands contacts with major political forces and controls all major economic projects. After that, Laurana comes to the final conclusion that Rosello is the customer of the Roscoe murder, and that he took up the defense of the suspects only in order to divert attention from the true criminals. Laurana shares her thoughts with Louise and asks her to be careful with Rosello. Louise asks her to give her husband's diary, but Laurana says that it is unsafe and leaves it to herself.

Rosello learns about the details of the investigation that Laurana is conducting, and lures him into a dark place, where he is likely going to deal with him. However, Laurana reports that he hid a diary of revelations in a secret place, after which he releases him, but demands that he immediately terminate his investigation. Laurana leaves for Palermo, rents a room in a cheap hotel and tries to put on paper everything he managed to investigate. Then he goes to the station and hides the diary in the locker room, not suspecting that he is being constantly monitored.

In the afternoon, Laurana meets with Louise, who takes him to the deserted coast. To a direct question from Laurana about her relationship with Rosello, she says that once, even before her marriage with Roscoe, she had an affair with Rosello, and they were even going to get married. But since they were cousins, consent was required for the marriage of her uncle, archpriest. He did not give consent, and against her desire she married Roscoe, whom she respected, but never loved.

Louise brings him to a secluded place, descends on the coastal stones and pretends that she became ill. Unable to restrain herself, Laurana pounces on her and tries to take her by force, but she resolutely pushes him away, gets into the car and drives off. Suddenly a group of criminals appears, led by the gangster Ragana, they rob him of the key to the storage room, beat him and throw him into an empty hut at the foot of a cliff. Then they blow up the hut, and the collapsed hill completely covers the hut with stones and sand.

The film ends with a magnificent wedding of Rosello and Louise, which is attended by all respected residents of the city. Among them there are those who know or guess what happened to Laurana, saying among themselves that everything in this city is much more complicated than the naive professor had imagined.

• Gian Maria Volonte - Professor Paolo Laurana
• Irene Papas - Louise Roscoe
• Gabriele Ferzetti - Rosello's attorney
• Mario Shasha - the priest
• Luigi Pistilly - Arturo Manno
• Leopoldo Trieste - Communist Deputy
• Giovanni Pallavichino - Ragana
• Franco Trancino - Dr. Antonio Roscoe

Film critic Fernando F. Croce wrote: “Filming Elio Petri from a winding helicopter shows a coastal Sicilian village, then his camera, hovering and swaying, represents the main characters in a street cafe, and then zooms out the contents of an anonymous envelope -“ This letter is your death sentence “ ... A professor and a former communist ( Gian Maria Volonte ) begins an investigation by exposing a dense web linking government, crime, church and family ... The life of a people under the rule of gangster politics turns into a jungle, and into the desert, sharp contrasts and piercing visual images declare the theme: potted vegetation constantly creeps into the frame in offices and rooms, buildings look like ancient rocks, against which Irene Papas appears in black mourning. A diary with torn pages, a parked car blinking with headlights, a blind patriarch in a mansion with a hundred bells - this is a whole horror network in which even Leopoldo Trieste , Fellini’s beloved polite simpleton, turns out to be ominous, dry and slippery ... Magnificent final shots complete Petri’s work when all the city is trying to hide corruption under the white color of the celebration, which is gradually turning with the help of backlighting into muddy, blurry silhouettes ” ^[2] .

According to film critic Paolo Meregetti, this is “perhaps the best film of one of the most brilliant directors of social cinema of its time” ^[3] .

• "To each his own" on YouTube