Chaos in the classroom used to mean something different than the school shootings of today. In Fernando Di Leo’s Naked Violence, it’s the rape and subsequent murder of a female teacher by her teen students — all boys, all juvenile delinquents. Di Leo shrewdly shoots them in unflattering close-up so viewers automatically responds to their greasy faces with disgust.
Police detective Lamberti (Pier Paolo Capponi, The Cat o’ Nine Tails) investigates. He has unusual interrogation methods, one of which is dousing the suspects’ chair with absinthe to upset them; the 85-percent-proof alcohol was downed by the boys at the time of the crime.
Under duress, one particularly troubled student lets slip the personal pronoun “she,” leading Lamberti to believe a woman masterminded the whole brutal act, from its inception to their stories of denial afterward. The truth is something else — in more ways than one, although the film’s “twist” is easily guessed, partially because of the director’s awkward blocking.
Known for brutal Eurocrime efforts like The Italian Connection, Di Leo comparatively presents a softer side with this procedural; it’s simply not as hard-hitting. Even the brutality of the act is shielded by the opening credits; when the sequence is repeated at the conclusion, it carries more weight — probably due to being soundtracked by obnoxious, off-putting metallic screeches.
“What’s wrong?” asks Lamberti’s boss in the final scene. “Aren’t you satisfied?” Eh, almost. —Rod Lott