WriterGiuseppe Tornatore, Pascal Quignard Release date18 May 1994 (France)
12 January 1995 (Germany)
30 March 1995 (Spain) ScreenplayGiuseppe Tornatore, Pascal Quignard CastGérard Depardieu (Onoff), Roman Polanski (Inspector), Sergio Rubini (Andre), Nicola Di Pinto (Captain), Tano Cimarosa (Servant), Paolo Lombardi (Marshall) Similar moviesDirected by Giuseppe Tornatore, Gerard Depardieu movies, Movies about Italy
A pure formality trailer 1994
A Pure Formality (Italian: Una pura formalità) is a 1994 Italian-French drama thriller film co-written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. It stars Gérard Depardieu as a reclusive writer and Roman Polanski as a police detective.
Onoff (Depardieu) is a famous writer who is now a recluse. The Inspector (Polanski) is suspicious when Onoff is brought into the station one night, disoriented and suffering a kind of amnesia. As the head of an isolated, rural police station the Inspector tries to establish events through careful interrogation and deduction. By painstaking inquiry, he clears up a mysterious killing and brings the writer a new and strange realisation.
Cast
Gérard Depardieu - Onoff
Roman Polanski - Inspector
Sergio Rubini - Andre, the Young Policeman
Nicola Di Pinto - Captain
Tano Cimarosa - Servant
Paolo Lombardi - Marshall
Maria Rosa Spagnolo - Paula
Alberto Sironi
Giovanni Morricone
Mahdi Kraiem
Massimo Vanni
Sebastiano Filocamo
Reception
A Pure Formality was nominated for a Golden Palm at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. It also received a David di Donatello for Best Production Design (Andrea Crisanti).
Several films share A Pure Formality's idea of the mystery of the living versus the dead, including The Sixth Sense (1999) by M. Night Shyamalan and The Others (2001) by Alejandro Amenábar.