Rome, 1970s. The nightclub Number One, a meeting point for artists, playboys and mobsters, serves as the backdrop for a chain of murders, art thefts and drug trafficking. The death of Deborah Garner in a Roman villa opens a police investigation led by Inspector Vinci, while model Sylvie Boisset, close to the circle of those involved, starts to doubt the people around her.

How it was made

The film was directed by Gianni Buffardi from a screenplay he wrote with Sandro Continenza, with music by Giancarlo Chiaramello and cinematography by Roberto D'Ettore Piazzoli. It was shot as a police thriller with a large cast of Italian actors, alongside the Romanian Chris Avram and the French actress Claude Jade, and premiered on 28 May 1973. It is loosely based on a real story of crime and drugs in Rome at the time, though its main characters are fictional or pseudonymous.

Reception and legacy

It was withdrawn from circulation soon after its premiere, partly because of its clear references to contemporary court cases and real people, such as the death of Talitha Getty and the Banda della Magliana. Its negatives resurfaced in a storage facility in 2020, and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and the Cineteca Nazionale reconstructed it with the collaboration of Cine34. It was presented restored at the Turin Film Festival in November 2021 and premiered on television on 9 December that year. The sources consulted mention no major awards.

Stills

Trivia

A producer with family ties

Gianni Buffardi was the son-in-law of the comedian Totò. While developing the project he spent time in Rome's nightlife and in the circles of the club that gives the film its title.

A real club

The real Número Uno was a fashionable Roman discotheque that had been shut down for drug use after an anonymous complaint, barely a year before the film's premiere.

An introduction for the broadcast

When it premiered on television in 2021, the broadcast was preceded by an introduction on film history by critic Tatti Sanguineti.

Original Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.