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A Pure Formality

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Pure Formality
DVD cover
Directed byGiuseppe Tornatore
Written byGiuseppe Tornatore
Pascal Quignard
Produced byBruno Altissimi
Mario Cecchi Gori
Vittorio Cecchi Gori
Jean-Louis Livi
Alexandre Mnouchkine
Claudio Saraceni
Starring
CinematographyBlasco Giurato
Edited byGiuseppe Tornatore
Music byEnnio Morricone
Production
companies
Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematografica
DD Productions
Film Par Film
Orly Films
Sidonie
TF1 Films Production
Distributed byAFMD (1994, France)
Penta Distribuzione (1994, Italy)
Release dates
  • 15 May 1994 (1994-05-15) (Italy)
  • 18 May 1994 (1994-05-18) (France)
  • 12 January 1995 (1995-01-12) (Germany)
  • 30 March 1995 (1995-03-30) (Spain)
Running time
111 minutes
CountriesItaly
France
LanguageFrench

A Pure Formality (Italian: Una pura formalità) is a 1994 Italian-French drama thriller film directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, who also co-wrote the script with author Pascal Quignard. It stars Gérard Depardieu as a suspect and Roman Polanski as a police inspector. The story takes place over one night and centers on the interrogation of the former by the latter, pertaining to an initially unspecified crime.

Plot

[edit]

During a stormy night, in a remote and mountainous area, a gunshot is heard in a forest. A disoriented, rain-soaked man is then arrested and brought to the local, rundown police station.

The man, who has no identification documents and no memories of recent events, is interrogated by the police commissioner (station superintendent); he identifies himself as Onoff, a celebrated and famously reclusive writer. The commissioner, who turns out to be a literature enthusiast, is initially skeptical, as the man lacks Onoff's distinctive beard; he questions the detainee about Onoff's writings, and is ultimately satisfied that the man is indeed the famous author.

The commissioner eventually reveals that a murder has been committed and that Onoff is a suspect; he tries to establish events through careful interrogation and deduction, as Onoff contradicts himself multiple times. The two men verbally spar over the whole night; during a power outage caused by the weather, Onoff tries to escape but is recaptured after stepping into a wolf trap.

Onoff gradually recounts his life. He admits that much of his official biography has been invented and that his real name is Biagio Febbraio; his surname (February in Italian) comes from the fact that he was an abandoned child, found in February. He also acknowledges that he has been struggling with severe writer's block, eventually becoming unable to produce new books. His relationship with Paola, his secretary and lover, has deteriorated over time and they had an ugly spat the previous day.

Onoff ultimately comes to the realization that he is both the perpetrator and victim of the crime, having committed suicide earlier that evening, and that the police station is a supernatural place where he is being kept as part of his transition to the afterlife.

At dawn, Onoff quietly gets into a police truck. The commissioner, now friendly and courteous, congratulates him on the yet unpublished novel that he had completed just before dying.

Cast

[edit]

Production

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An Italian-French coproduction, the film was made with 70% Italian financing.[1] For the Italian-language version of the film, Gérard Depardieu and Roman Polanski were dubbed by Corrado Pani and Leo Gullotta, respectively. Interiors were shot at Cinecittà studios. Other scenes were filmed in the Piedmont and Abruzzo regions of Italy; locations included Motta de' Conti and Santo Stefano di Sessanio.[2]

Besides the score composed by Ennio Morricone, the film features an end credits song performed by Gérard Depardieu.[3]

Reception

[edit]

A Pure Formality competed as an Italian entry at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival,[1] where it won no awards.[4] It received a David di Donatello for Best Production Design (Andrea Crisanti).

Critical reception in Italy was mostly negative,[5] though the film garnered positive feedback from some outlets, including Famiglia Cristiana and Il Giorno, who lauded the performances, suspenseful story, and Tornatore's directing choices.[6] In France, Le Monde gave the film a mixed review, finding it stagey and occasionnally meandering, but praising some of the atmosphere and the performances of Depardieu and Polanski.[7] L'Express gave the film a positive review, finding it brilliant and "dantesque",[8] whereas Télérama panned it, commenting that "everything rings false" and that the picture came as a major disappointment from the director of Cinema Paradiso.[9]

Deborah Young of Variety found the film 'weird but fascinating". Despite her praise for the cinematography and the performances of Depardieu, Polanski, and Sergio Rubini as the commissioner's assistant, her overall review was mixed. She noted that "the puzzle at the heart of 'A Pure Formality' is basically intellectual, not criminal, and some viewers may find their interest flagging as the interrogation drags on and the literary angst takes over", although the final plot twist was likely to recaptivate audiences.[3] Time Out called the picture a "stagey two-hander" depending heavily on its two leads for effect, though their performances couldn't "distract from the ludicrous contrivance of the film's threadbare central conceit".[10] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 80% based on 5 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10.[11]

The film was commercially unsuccessful, both in Italy[12] and in France.[13] It received limited theatrical distribution in the United States, where it made $190.749 at the box office.[13]

Tornatore later said that the film's poor reception had prompted him to begin production on his next one, The Star Maker, as soon as he could.[5]

Home video

[edit]

A Pure Formality has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray,[14] and on streaming services including Amazon Prime.

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 "CANNES/ITALIE Quatre films transalpins en compétition officielle Sous l'euphorie, la crise". Le Monde (in French). 1994-05-17. Retrieved 2026-09-04.
  2. ↑ "Dove è stato girato 'Una pura formalità'". italyformovies.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2026-09-24.
  3. 1 2 Young, Deborah (1994-05-18). "A Pure Formality". Variety. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  4. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: A Pure Formality". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 2015-10-19. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
  5. 1 2 "Giuseppe Tornatore: "Ho il complesso dell'opera prima"". Cinecittà News (in Italian). 2026-03-24. Retrieved 2026-09-04.
  6. ↑ "Una pura formalità". cinematografo.it. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  7. ↑ "FESTIVAL DE CANNES SELECTION OFFICIELLE UNE PURE FORMALITE de Giuseppe Tornatore Ni mort ni vif". Le Monde (in French). 1994-05-17. Retrieved 2026-09-04.
  8. ↑ Médioni, Gilles (1994-05-12). "L'aveu de Tornatore". L'Express (in French). Retrieved 2026-09-24.
  9. ↑ "Une pure formalité". Télérama (in French). 1994-05-21. Retrieved 2026-09-24.
  10. ↑ "A Pure Formality". Time Out. 2012-09-12. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
  11. ↑ "A Pure Formality". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  12. ↑ "Una pura formalità". Mymovies.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2026-09-24.
  13. 1 2 "Une pure formalité". JP Box office (in French). Retrieved 2026-09-24.
  14. ↑ "A Pure Formality Blu-Ray". dvdbeaver.com. Retrieved 2026-09-25.
[edit]
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