Dissatisfied youth, repressed sexuality, and nihilism running rampant in the dysfunctional Italian family unit is the theme of the week on Random Acts of Cinema. Director Marco Bellocchio’s cruel, bitter little film about Alessandro (played by Lou Castel) thinning out the ranks of his crumbling family through self-obsessed cruelty and murder is punctuated by brilliant photography, powerful acting, and a frantic score by Ennio Morricone.

If you would like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah (1985).