The Grim Reaper (1962)

Cineriz
Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Criterion Collection)

A prostitute is murdered in a park. The police interrogate a series of suspects who were in the park that night, their stories make up the film. A teenager and his friends rob lovers in a nearby forest during the day, then he walks home that night through the park but claims he was only passing through. Another man spends his day trying to break up with his girlfriend so he can meet another one, but she drags him along to collect money from girls who owe them money for their pimping. Two young boys flirt with a couple of girls they meet in the park, then, needing money to buy food, they beat and rob a homosexual in the park. Finally, a soldier tries to pick up girls on the streets, but after an unsuccessful day falls asleep on a park bench. The murder is revealed rather matter-of-factly as a robbery gone wrong, with the murderer arrested at a teenage dance party. Bertolucci's debut feature reflects more of the style of the writer, Pier Paolo Pasolini, than the director, with an obsession for sex among the lowlife of Rome, and eschews any pretense of a murder mystery. Fragmented and dated, but might reveal more with multiple viewings.