Salò or the 120 days of Sodom [Gaganymede]

Salò or the 120 days of Sodom

11 September 2009 at 12:05
Music, cinema, TV, books...

Salò is the last movie by the italian director Pasolini. A friend of mine had seen a few years ago and told me she had been completely horrified. Ada, Peter and I decided to watch it together, even though Peter had already seen it.

The movie is based on the Marquis de Sade's book, The 120 days of Sodom (who is said to be even worse), and transposes the story into the context of the Republic of Salò, Mussolini's ephemeral fascist republic. Four men of power, helped by soldiers and prostitutes, kidnap young men and women, lock them up in a castle, and submit them to the worst abuse, rape them, humiliate them, torture them, make them eat their excrements, etc. If the movie starts strong in the horror, it only goes worse, and the ending is unwatchable.

The idea of the director, Pasolini, is that fascism is sadism. Still, you wonder if Pasolini isn't looking for something else than exposing the horror of fascism, all the more as the acts depicted in the movie never happened.

So, why watch this movie? And why did so many people watch this movie, first of all??? I don't know, maybe there's some kind of curiosity about horror. Maybe you feel like watching very horrible things in order not to be shocked anymore.

Pasolini was murdered just before the release of this movie.

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Comments

Awen, 11/09/2009
At university, I minored in Cinema, and seven years after graduation I still haven't recovered from most of the horrors ("Classics") I was forced to see. I still remember my professors and lecturers from back them, with all their emotional handicaps and weirdnesses, and I pretty much believe overwatching this shit does things to you.
I'm not saying popcorn blockbusters have no horror in them, they certainly do. It's just that people underestimate image intake too often.
Bashô, 12/09/2009
Je me souviens fort bien de ce film, alors que je pouvais regarder des films d'horreurs sans défaillir, j'étais incapable de soutenir certaines scènes. Ce qui était troublant, c'était la grande beauté de la langue et de la mise en scène alliée à l'horreur des situations. Contraste qu'on retrouve chez Sade qui est incontestablement l'un des plus grands écrivains de ce siècle qui en avait pourtant à la tonne: Voltaire, Rousseau etc.