A prostitute is murdered, and the day of the incident is seen through the eyes of a series of potential suspects/witnesses. The handiest comparison would be Rashomon, but it's not really that similar. I felt more of a Godard influence, the story picking up interesting (often delightful) little fragments of unrelated events... with the murder itself a secondary matter until the end. It's a little dull in parts, but lyrical in others, and the unusualness of it was appealing.

There are plenty of small flaws (The camera moves far too often, the ending feels way too drawn out), but this is arguably Bertolucci's greatest work. His later works would be overrun with prentention and a style-over-substance mentality, but this film balances both perfectly.