SALO or THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY DAYS OF SODOM

Italy, 1975, 117 minutes, Colour.
Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Caterina Boratto, Laura Betti.
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Salo is the last film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. A novelist and poet, he began writing screenplays and eventually directing in the early sixties with such films as Accatone and The Gospel According to Matthew which he dedicated to John XXIII. He made a number of films on Greek mythology including as Oedipus Rex and Medea. His contemporary films with their films include Teorema. In the seventies he made the trilogy of The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and The Arabian Nights. These films were stories woven together or stories within stories illustrating human nature with an emphasis on sexuality and relationships. They were considered explicit for their time.

However, his final film in which he took the history of the Republic of Salo in 1944 and linked it with the 120 days of Sodom by the Maquis de Sade showed an inferno and an ugly picture of hell in the 20th century. The film is visually beautiful and visually horrifying. It is also obscene in its presentation of actions and the telling of stories. It was banned in many countries. However, it is difficult to see that for an audience able to sit through the film, that it would have any detrimental effect. Rather, it is an invitation to be horrified at the depravity of human nature and reflect on how this has been experienced especially within the context of World War II. Pasolini was to be murdered soon after the completion of this film, so the film remains as his final testament.

1. The impact of this film? Interest? Entertainment? Social representation, critique? Impact for an Italian audience, non-Italian? Interest in the films of Pasolini? Interest in films exploring the war and its meaning? War, Fascism, oppression?

2. The film was banned in many countries. Is this comprehensible? Its power of moving people, corrupting people? Too strong for audiences? Should audiences be free to see it?

3. The film as Pasolini's last film? Its place in his development of film-making? Of his interests? Of his understanding of the world, human nature, history? how pessimistic was he in his interpretation of human existence? His taking the experience of the Republic of Salo and Fascism during the war and combining it with the work of the Maquis de Sade? How well does this work? Pasolini’s bibliography during the credits?

4. The technical accomplishment of the film? The sets, decor, costumes? The contribution of the score? Colour photography, location photography - exteriors, interiors? The importance of the editing?

5. What basic comments on human nature was the film making? On World War II? On war? On Italy and the Italian character and temperament, Italian society, the experience of Fascism? What comment was the film making on morality, corruption, depravity? The setting was depravity and people not having any limits on their moral actions? Decadence unto death? The film's comment on this especially in the transition from sensuality to violence and destruction?

6. How effective was the structure of the film: the rounding up of the boys and girls, the introduction to the Fascist adults, the choice of the boys and girls? The various circles: the circle of evil, the circle of shit, the circle of blood? The gradual growing evil of each circle?

7. The portrayal of the elders - their age, roles of authority in the town, their experience of the war, their Fascist background. and politics, their selfishness, their use of their authority to impose their judgments and their behaviour? Why had they opted out of society? What did they fear? Why were they corrupted by the war situation to isolate themselves and give in to depravity? Is Pasolini saying that de Sade was right about human nature and its evil impulses? Of people taking the opportunity for self-indulgence - with what result?

8. The criteria for the choice of the boys and the girls? The chasing of them, the various situations in which the boys and girls were, their being taken away from their families? The atmosphere of turmoil, the atmosphere of the examination of the boys and girls, the emphasis on youth, sexual development?

9. The visual -presentation of the house, its aristocratic background, its rooms, decor? The staff running the house especially the cooks, the Fascist style guards?

10. Audience response to the rules as put to the boys and girls? The reaction of the children? The criteria on which the rules were based? Rules about licence and the effect of licentiousness?

11. The point of the women telling the stories? Their physical appearance, make-up, clothing, manners? The various tableaux Pasolini created of older and younger together around the room? What was the object of the telling of the stories? The effect on the audience, participation, response of humour, fear? Repulsion? The effect on the adults, on the children? involving urine, faeces? The elders and their self-indulgence? The eating of the faeces especially the banquet? What was Pasolini saying about this kind of behaviour?

12. The marriages and the emphasis on the physical features? The indications of elements of violence? The building up to death and the threats of death? The sequence of choosing the most beautiful and the victim of violence?

13. The various incidents of disobedience to the rules and subsequent death and violence? The girls and the boys and their liaisons with the staff?

14. The behaviour of the adults with the guards especially in terms of sexuality, homosexuality? The presence of the guards and the overtones of the S.S.?

15. The drag sequence and its impact, the elders dressing up as women, its purpose? The transition to explicitly homosexual activity?

16. The theme and the question of what was left after the sense appetite had been satiated? What was left for the elders?

17. How inevitable the beginning of the tortures? Audience response to such brutality, as rigged by such repugnant elders, the adolescents as victims? The length and detail of these sequences?

18. The judgment made by the adolescents themselves? The victimization of rape, offence against their will, torture and death? The response to such victims? The reaction to the victors? The final sequence and the dancing?

19. Before death, the young people, prayer-like, 'why have you abandoned us?' and the echoing of Jesus' prayer (followed by the glimpse of guards gambling ourside)?

20. What was the final stance of Pasolini as regards this world that he created? The watching of the final dance? The audience leaving with scenes of torture in their memories and this final dance?

21. The film as the testament of Pasolini? What had he shown, communicated, said and judged? His view of life, human nature, war, evil, 20th century society?