The Adam GlassA film director who rejects auteur theory ("movies are collaborations"), rejects the new wave, and just wants to make pop films with radical politics? Is Elio Petri our new favorite director? Criterion only has one of his movies, so he must be!
https://www.lostincriterion.com/e/spine-682-investigation-of-a-citizen-above-suspicion/
Spine 682: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion | Lost in Criterion
What if all the people in charge were actually criminals, but so insulated by power that no amount of clear evidence could lead to them being investigated? Crazy right? Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) is our only film from Elio Petri in the Criterion Collection, which is disappointing because from what we can tell his work is like if Pier Paolo Pasolini only did mass market genre stuff. Of course it's also just impeccable mass market genre stuff filled with radical politics, which Petri termed PolPop, political popular film. It's right up our alley.