Is It Safe? Francesco Rosi’s Cadaveri eccellenti (Illustrious Corpses) on Blu-ray from Radiance

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1.14.2026

A fairly staggering political thriller from Italian filmmaking legend Francesco Rosi, 1976’s Cadaveri eccellenti (Illustrious Corpses) is now available from Radiance via a fine new Blu-ray release. Unfairly overlooked upon its initial release despite some acclaim, Illustrious Corpses is a shockingly great and visionary film from a real master.

In an unnamed country, judges are being murdered. A local cop, inspector Rogas is sent to investigate. Soon in over his head, Rogas realizes he’s stumbled into a vast conspiracy that not only shatters his view of the case but also his country around him. Based on the novel Equal Danger by Leonardo Sciascia, Illustrious Corpses finds Rosi working from a remarkably dense and endlessly fascinating script mostly from his own pen along with frequent Antonioni collaborator Tonino Guerra.

Well into his fifties with more than ten features already under his belt, Rosi was already well-established by 1976 when he directed Illustrious Corpses. His direction here is sublimely unpredictable, much like everything else about the film. There is one scene for example featuring a terrifying Alain Cuny as a judge suddenly smashing his own hand against a marble bathroom sink for no discernable reason. My man Alex Cox featured on the audio commentary inquires why he does that and why does Rosi show it? There is no clear answer. It’s an unsettling moment in an unsettling film filled with unsettling moments.

Illustrious Corpses has such a ridiculous wealth of talent involved it is hard to know where to begin. What can you say about a film that is edited by Ruggero Mastroianni, shot by Pasqualino De Santis, scored by Piero Piccioni with production design by Andrea Crisanti? These are the artists behind some of the greatest films ever made so it is no surprise that Illustrious Corpses feels like a particularly rich film. While all are flexing their best creative muscles here, the real stars behind the scenes are Rosi’s direction and Mastroianni’s cutting. It is no coincidence that one of the many masterpieces Mastroianni,edited was Petri’s astonishing Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970), one of the clear precursors to this (and the paranoid thrillers of the seventies in general).

During his excellent commentary, Cox mentions how much of a real all-star film this is, to the point where it is almost too much. Indeed the film is absolutely packed with great and familiar faces with a never better Lino Ventura leading the way here as the inspector who discovers much more than he bargained for. Everyone from Fernando Rey to Max von Sydow to my girl Tina Aumont pops up but thankfully the film is never in service to its stars. Instead everyone vanishes into their roles, all delivering regardless of the brevity of each part.

Watching Illustrious Corpses in 2026 America is at times a frightening experience in how utterly recognizable all of this feels. Released during Italy’s traumatizingly violent Years of Lead, Illustrious Corpses remains profoundly and distressingly relevant. I fear it will remain so.

With its extremely dense narrative that becomes more and more complex the deeper the conspiracy gets, Rosi tells much of the second of half of the film’s narrative in silence. We watch an increasingly paranoid Ventura watch and listen, attempting to absorb the unabsorbable. Everything culminates in a stylistically triumphant slow-motion gunshot that instantly became one of my favorite cinematic moments ever.

Radiance utilizes a 4K restoration of the film by Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata and The Film Foundation, largely utilizing two 35mm prints for color correction, as the original negative has not been located. Kino Lorbers original Blu-ray of this received no small amount of criticsm for their presentation but to my eyes this Radiance release looks very nice and I was extremely pleased. Along with Radiance’s usual great OBI strip, a reversable sleeve and a nice booklet (featuring Michael Atkinson, and vintage Rosi writing), this limited edition features several valuable extras. These include two vintage interviews with Rosi discussing the film. Joined by Ventura for one of the chats, these vintage television interviews are really fascinating to see and it is interesting getting to hear Rossi’s thoughts from the time of release. Gaetana Marrone, author of The Cinema of Francesco Rosi, is on hand for a very informative 30 minute talk where she goes into great detail about Rosi, the film and book it was based on. Finally we have the 2021 Kino commentary track from the great Alex Cox that is both extremely entertaining and rewarding.

Illustrious Corpses is a fantastic film that will easily rank as one of my favorite personal discoveries of the year. Radiance have delivered a fine Blu-ray edition of this Francesco Rosi classic which, needless to say, is beyond highly recommended.

This disc can be ordered directly from Radiance or MVD.

Here is a large collection of vintage material related to the the film I discovered while researching this piece.