Salo

[Cain]

One one of my many visits to the.... less reputable back-streets of London, I managed to score a copy of Pier Paolo Pasolini's highly controversial and (originally) banned film based on the 120 Days of Sodom.

Salo, as the name suggests, is based in the dying days of the Republic of Salo, the fascist state in northern Italy, backed by German military might.  Salo was the "pure" implementation of Italian fascism, unconstrained by the monarchy as Mussolini's rule in Italy had been.  It was, of course, a German puppet state in matters concerning the war, but in every other respect, it allowed Il Duce to build a totalitarian state in such a way that he had not been able to in Italy as a whole.

As you would expect, such a film is...intense, and not for the squirmish.  It graphically depicts some of the torture and sexual sadism prevalent in de Sade's original work, as well as the kind of disgusting acts one would expect from the elites of a fascist state, where the strong do as they want and indulge in every kind of perverse fantasy at the expense of the weak and defenceless.

The film is not important merely for its cultural and literary background, however.  Pasolini was murdered shortly before the release of Salo, allegedly by the 17 year old Giuseppe Pelosi.  Of course, in matters of postwar Italy, fascism and murder, things are never that simple.  Pelosi retracted his confession in 2005, suggesting that powerful interests had wanted Pasolini dead for eminently political reasons, and that his murderers had referred to him as a "dirty communist".  Given that Salo was intended to be an indictment on the corrupting influence of power and the link between sadism and fascism, one is forced to wonder who the Duke, Bishop, Magistrate and President are meant to represent...

Nevertheless, I'll likely watch this tonight, and give you my thoughts on the film itself afterwards.

[Scribbly]

I missed this until now. The film sounds brutal, and I would very much like to hear your thoughts on it.

[Faust]

I've read 120 days in sodom and it was very much a petulant but well written attack on all those that had fucked over De Sade.
I knew Salo was set in nazi era but I'd always dismissed that as an excuse for the violence, I never thought of political implications of its origin in Italy.

I don't think I would willingly watch it after reading the book, though I do think they tone it down a bit.
Did you watch it in the end Cain?

[LMNO]

There are some pretty brutal scenes, to be honest.

[Cain]

I haven't yet, unfortunately.  I will do before the weekend is out, though.