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''Murder in the Central Committee'' ((スペイン語:Asesinato en el Comité Central)) is a 1982 Spanish thriller film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Patxi Andión and Victoria Abril.〔Alvarez & Frías, ''Vicente Aranda'', p. 255〕 The plot follows a private detective, an ex-communist and former CIA agent, who travels from Barcelona to Madrid to discover the identity of the assassin of the leader of the Spanish Communist Party who was stabbed during a blackout while presiding over a meeting of the party's Central Committee. The film is a thriller with ironic political overtones. The script was written by director Vicente Aranda. It was based on a book of the same name by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, one of a series of novels that featured the character of a hard-boiled detective called Pepe Carvalho. It was adapted for the screen the year after its publication.〔Deveny, ''Contemporary Spanish film From Fiction'', p. 386〕 ''Asesinato en el Comité Central'' was Aranda’s first work shot in Madrid instead of his native Barcelona. The film received a cold commercial response.〔Stone, ''Spanish Cinema'', p. 119〕 ==Plot== During a meeting in Madrid of the Central Committee of Spain’s Communist Party, there is a brief power outage. The lights are back on a few seconds later, but in that short span of time the Secretary General, Fernando Garrido, is killed, stabbed in the chest. The government asks Fonseca, a rabid anti-communist, to find out who committed this crime. Santos, the interim new leader of the Communist Party, calls in a private investigator, Pepe Carvalho. A witty and cynical hard-boiled detective, Carvalho arrives from Barcelona to take on the case. Carmela, a militant communist, is assigned to work as his driver and assistant. Carvalho and Fonseca meet to exchange ideas about the case on which both are working. They utterly dislike each other since in the past, Fonseca persecuted leftists like Carvalho. Their parallel investigations take different routes. Carvalho interviews a former CIA chief who is severely handicapped after losing his arms and legs in Vietnam, but the wheelchair-using old man refuses to co-operate. Those sharing the podium with the slain Garrido could have killed him only by stabbing him in the back so they are discarded as possible suspects. Because the crime took place in a short period of time and in darkness, Carvalho's suspicions quickly narrow to five members of the Communist Party: Sepúlveda, Esparza Julvé, Pérez Montesa, Leverder and Ordoñez. The detective questions them one by one. Ordoñez, the eldest among them, is quickly discarded by both Fonseca and Carvalho and so is Leverder. While following Leverder to a public reading, Carvalho is seduced by a journalist. This is actually a trap and Carvalho is drugged and beaten by CIA agents who want to know what he has found out, but Carvalho still has no answers to give them. Released by his captors, Carvalho returns to his hotel's room. A central European female agent, working for the KGB, is waiting for him. She is also interested in finding the culprit through Carvalho, who flirts with her. Sepúlveda has the theory that the killer found his way to Garrido in the darkness thanks to the smoke of his cigarette. However, Santos confirms that Garrido was not smoking when he was killed. Garrido's last photograph and the examination of the items he was carrying when he was killed leads Carvalho to the conclusion that it was an insignia of a harmonica he was wearing on his lapel that helped the killer find his target in the dark. Esparza Julvé, a protégé of both Garrido and Santos, has been experiencing severe economic hardship, and while on a trip to Germany was contacted by CIA agents who hired him to kill the communist leader for money. Carvalho confirms the identity of the killer, forcing the handicapped man to reveal what he knows by filling his mouth with bullets and pushing his wheelchair out into the street among traffic. He whispers the name to Carvalho, after having swallowed the bullets out of fear. All along, Carvalho has been flirting with Carmela. She invites him to her apartment while her husband and her son are away. As they begin to kiss, they are interrupted by the KGB agent, who presses Carvalho once again about his investigation. At that very moment Carmela's husband enters the apartment, stopping the questioning. Carvalho unmasks Esparza Julvé as the killer. At a new meeting of the Central Committee, Esparza Julvé is cast aside by the members of the Communist Party who are now aware of his culpability. Esparza Julvé tries to leave the building, but he is killed at the door by those who had hired him to assassinate Garrido. Carvalho, with his mission accomplished, heads to the airport driven by Carmela. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Murder in the Central Committee」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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