Told in a near-documentary-style, realist way, The Mattei Affair is otherwise a sort of Italian Citizen Kane. It starts with the death of a character- based on a real businessman- goes back to tell his life, and explores the power of business.

I knew nothing of Enrico Mattei before seeing this, and at times the detail in the film could be hard to follow. Still, at its best moments, the film is an intriguing exploration of power. Mattei runs a state corporation in the oil industry, and defines oil not merely as money, but as power, creating revolutions and coups. He funds political parties, referring to them as taxis he gets on and off as it suits him. He runs newspapers giving him favourable publicity- at taxpayers' expense. He quotes an American journalist calling Mattei the most important Italian since Julius Caesar- hyperbole, maybe, but the point is made- Mattei made a mark on the world, in the name of Italy.

While the presentation is straightforward, at times, the drama gets through. And there's a bit of mystery, namely in Mattei's death. The film can't say whether it was murder- the case is unsolved in real life.

The Mattei Affair portrays the power wielded by a man, and how he presented himself to the public, but at times I wished I could know more about the man. Who is Mattei really? Does he really care about the Arabs? What does he really care about? Still, it is clear he is an extraordinary man- and the film is interesting to see.

Interesting feature film that combines two, not one, real life mysteries. The main tale is about emergence of Enrico Mattei and his growing clout in Italy and the world, after propagating the underground methane reserves in Italy to alleviate poverty in Italy, post-Word War II. Though Mattei was a member of ths Christian Democrats Party during the war he was appointed after the war to dismantle AGIP, a petroleum agency set up by the Fascists. He found scientific studies already conducted but shelved about methane reserves and subsequently converted AGIP which he was supposed to dismantle into a major state-owned powerful petroleum company called ANI. Rosi's film presents both the negative and the positive sides of Mattei, who was by all accounts killed in a plane crash in 1962, possibly with a bomb placed on board the aircraft.

The secondary tale (also real) is of Rosi employing an investigative journalist, Mauro de Mauro, to figure out the last days of Mattei. Mauro, too, is killed before he can provide all the details of his investigation to filmmaker Rosi for making this film. Two separate but possibly linked killings. The viewer is left to guess the killers. The second tale lifts up the quality of the film even further than the first. Rosi is admirable for presenting all views of both the killings.

A film that won a deserving Golden Palm at Cannes Festival. The real heroes of the film are Mauro, the journalist who was killed while helping Rosi, the scriptwriters. Tonino Guerra, Rosi and Tito di Stefano.

It must be made clear that "Il Caso Mattei" is a different Italian film.This film is not a biographical analysis of a powerful man who mattered a lot to politicians in Italy.It has been directed by Francesco Rosi,a great Italian film director whose films always made a point to expose what was going wrong with Italy.This is the reason why he can be called the conscience keeper of Italy.Italian actor Gian Maria Volonté shines in one of his life's most outstanding roles as Enrico Mattei,an oil magnate who was one of Italy's most powerful men.Francesco Rosi has made his film in almost a subtle documentary manner but the film has nothing to do with documentary cinema.Il Caso Mattei is considered a supreme example of political cinema genre.It is one of those rare films which succeed in making their point noted without being neither controversial nor brash.This is all due to Francesco Rosi's cool and calm direction.A film to watch if you want to explore cinematographic oeuvre of Francesco Rosi,one of Italian cinema's greatest directors.