'' Illustrious Corpses '' ( ) is a 1976 Italian thriller film directed by Francesco Rosi and starring Lino Ventura , based on the novel '' Equal Danger '' by Leonardo Sciascia ( 1971 ) . The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival , but was not entered into the main competition . Its title refers to the surrealist game , Cadavre Exquis , invented by André Breton , in which the participants draw consecutive sections of a figure without seeing what the previous person has drawn , leading to unpredictable results , and is meant to describe the meandering nature of the film with its unpredictable foray into the world of political manipulations , as well as the ( " illustrous " ) corpses of the murdered judges
1976 Cannes Film Festival
1976 Cannes Film Festival
Illustrious Corpses