Page 98 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

individuals either singly or in diverse combinations. 5 Indeed, it has even been suggested that Moro's
belief that the Communist Party should be represented in Italy's ruling coalition may have lead him
to being sacrificed on the altar of Cold War politics. 6
In fact, reactionaries on both sides of the Atlantic welcomed Moro's kidnapping (and subsequent
murder) and, by refusing to negotiate for his release and failing to mount an effective police search,
sent him to his doom. 7 One of the biggest contributors toward the making of this particular conspiracy
was, indeed, based on incompetent police work:

The dismal performance of the Italian police in their search for M o r o has given conspiracy
theorists plenty of ammunition. The police forgot to follow up important leads, they lost
evidence and they did not think to keep obvious suspects under surveillance. To produce
a record as egregious as this, conspiracy theorists argue, would require a conscious effort.
By the law of averages, the police should have gotten something right at least, but failure
crowned every one of their efforts for 55 straight days. By and large the Italian people
have refused to believe that so much police power could have been employed over such
a long period to achieve no crime-fighting purpose whatsoever unless by conspiratorial
design. 8

Because the police work in Milan Trema is similarly incompetent by design, it is up to Caneparo to
find Borelli's killers - by any means necessary. But Caneparo does not actually realise the conspiracy
around him until, during his investigation, he hooks up with a politically savvy prostitute, whose
mission is actually to set the suspended cop straight. As a hooker with underworld connections,
Maria (Martine Brochard) is eager to embrace Western values predominant during the early 1970s
- open drug use (she artlessly smokes marijuana) and free love with a feminist's control. But she talks
a communist game with obvious anti-capitalist disdain.
When Caneparo picks her up in a stolen Rolls Royce, she refers to it as a 'monster', a 'monolith',
and a 'water buffalo'. But she happily jumps inside because, after all, it is stolen goods. Stealing the
Rolls is a slap in the face of excessive consumerism, which is so obviously anti-capitalist. This is also
reflected by the mansion where Maria flops — a mansion filled with hippies engaging in open sex and
copious drug use.
Maria confuses her freedom of choice with intellectual pursuit and spouts her pseudo-
intellectualism to Caneparo, telling him of how she dropped out of high school because her
philosophy professor was always trying to 'feel her up'. Her next, most logical step, was to become
a model for a 'nudie rag', which led her to gaining a 'social conscious' because in that business, 'you
feel like a slave, like you're being taken'. Maria's social awakening reflects Italy's opptessed minions
but she justifies her 'modelling' career because she's making good money - at least enough to live on.
'Hey, dummy', she thinks out loud, 'what's there to fight when you're making 35,000 per session?
Look, if you don't like it pack your ass. Go to Russia where you have to show it for free to the "Party".'
Then she purposely misquotes - 'All the world's a toilet, as Shakespeare says.'
Ultimately, Maria knows that her stage (life) is in the toilet but Caneparo is able to gain insight
and empathy for one of Italy's citizens held down by government repression. 'Well', Caneparo says,

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