"They could be fascist anarchists..."
So, Salo.
For those of you unfamiliar with the final work of Pier Paolo Pasolini, here is how the IMDb describes the plot:
Set in the Nazi-controlled, northern Italian state of Salo in 1944, four dignitaries round up sixteen perfect specimens of youth and take them together with guards, servants and studs to a palace near Marzabotto. In addition, there are four middle-aged women: three of whom recount arousing stories whilst the fourth accompanies on the piano. The story is largely taken up with their recounting the stories of Dante and De Sade: the Circle of Manias, the Circle of Shit and the Circle of Blood. Following this, the youths are executed whilst each libertine takes his turn as voyeur.
I couldn't possibly add any more then that, as this is a much clearer impression of the film then I got. The chief thing I thought about while watching this "cinematic exercise in endurance" was that I couldn't believe that people thought it was that offensive. Okay, there's rampant nudity, almost from start to finish. And as this is an Italian film, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that most of the (very nude) teenage actors are actually teenagers. And we won't talk about the poop.(Suffice it to say there's enough poop-related material in this movie to shock even John Waters.)
But....
As a somewhat jaded cult movie fan, I found myself watching this movie and wondering what all the fuss was about. Sure, it's offensive, but I found it easier to stomach then Caligula, which I have tried and failed to watch three seperate times. Perhaps the fact that it dates from 1976, when there was little to nothing to compare it to(save the aforementioned Mr. Waters), makes it, as the Criterion OOP DVD box calls it, "The most disturbing, disgusting film ever made." Frankly, I found myself fast-forwarding. The execution scenes at the end of the film are the most graphic images in the film, and yet they seem to my eye to be no different then your run-of-the-mill super-low budget horror film haunting the back pages of Fango or Rue Morgue these days. Certainly it's on the same level, gore-wise, as some of Sub Rosa's better titles. But again, it's nothing that hasn't been seen before. Overall, I'd say that it wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen(that honor still goes to House of 1000 Corpses), but it was no Caligula.
Pasolini was killed by a gay hustler shortly after completing Salo, and it would be interesting to see what he thought of the fuss surrounding the film. The British film institute has a very good page up here that accompanied a release of the film in 2002 and was a source of assistance in my understanding the context of the film a lot better. If you're curious, Criterion's DVD is out of print(rights issues as opposed to content), but you can find a copy at your better grey market online store for between $13-20. Don't bother spending the money on E-Bay on official copies of it. It ain't worth it. (Buy Hard Boiled or The Killer instead if you want to overspend for a Criterion OOP DVD.)
Proceed at your own risk, but I'd say if you watched Caligula all the way through, you can make it through this one.
For those of you unfamiliar with the final work of Pier Paolo Pasolini, here is how the IMDb describes the plot:
Set in the Nazi-controlled, northern Italian state of Salo in 1944, four dignitaries round up sixteen perfect specimens of youth and take them together with guards, servants and studs to a palace near Marzabotto. In addition, there are four middle-aged women: three of whom recount arousing stories whilst the fourth accompanies on the piano. The story is largely taken up with their recounting the stories of Dante and De Sade: the Circle of Manias, the Circle of Shit and the Circle of Blood. Following this, the youths are executed whilst each libertine takes his turn as voyeur.
I couldn't possibly add any more then that, as this is a much clearer impression of the film then I got. The chief thing I thought about while watching this "cinematic exercise in endurance" was that I couldn't believe that people thought it was that offensive. Okay, there's rampant nudity, almost from start to finish. And as this is an Italian film, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that most of the (very nude) teenage actors are actually teenagers. And we won't talk about the poop.(Suffice it to say there's enough poop-related material in this movie to shock even John Waters.)
But....
As a somewhat jaded cult movie fan, I found myself watching this movie and wondering what all the fuss was about. Sure, it's offensive, but I found it easier to stomach then Caligula, which I have tried and failed to watch three seperate times. Perhaps the fact that it dates from 1976, when there was little to nothing to compare it to(save the aforementioned Mr. Waters), makes it, as the Criterion OOP DVD box calls it, "The most disturbing, disgusting film ever made." Frankly, I found myself fast-forwarding. The execution scenes at the end of the film are the most graphic images in the film, and yet they seem to my eye to be no different then your run-of-the-mill super-low budget horror film haunting the back pages of Fango or Rue Morgue these days. Certainly it's on the same level, gore-wise, as some of Sub Rosa's better titles. But again, it's nothing that hasn't been seen before. Overall, I'd say that it wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen(that honor still goes to House of 1000 Corpses), but it was no Caligula.
Pasolini was killed by a gay hustler shortly after completing Salo, and it would be interesting to see what he thought of the fuss surrounding the film. The British film institute has a very good page up here that accompanied a release of the film in 2002 and was a source of assistance in my understanding the context of the film a lot better. If you're curious, Criterion's DVD is out of print(rights issues as opposed to content), but you can find a copy at your better grey market online store for between $13-20. Don't bother spending the money on E-Bay on official copies of it. It ain't worth it. (Buy Hard Boiled or The Killer instead if you want to overspend for a Criterion OOP DVD.)
Proceed at your own risk, but I'd say if you watched Caligula all the way through, you can make it through this one.
posted by Jon M. at
10:27 PM
2 Comments:
I saw a thread at the Bloody-Disgusting boards and it interested me. It seemed kind of a unique film, even though I kinda knew I'd never see it. Saw a eBay auction for an sealed Criterion DVD was going for $300 plus. Yikes. And I still haven't seen Hard-Boiled yet, dammit. I've been looking for it forever to rent, and Netflix for some reason doesn't have it. Someone should rectify that for me and put his DVD-R to good use. *coughmuggshack* =)
Hard-Boiled is one of the greatest movies ever.
That's all I can say about it.
It's just...it's Hard=Boiled. It came for yo azz and it gets it, frame by frame.
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