Event Archive

Wednesday, June 1st 2005
Salo with Carmine Mezzacappa


Carmine introduces the film at Duke of York's	Carmine begins the post-film discussion


Need to think about this one ..	Let's see ...

The post film discussion for Salo was led by Carmine Mezzacappa, lecturer on Italian History at the University of Kent. This was a difficult film both in terms of its subject matter and the sheer unwatchableness of some of its images. Some of our members were covering there eyes at some of the scenes! However Carmine's explanations of the film justified its existence.

In his pre-screening introduction, Carmine highlighted Pasolini's intent to shock in making Salo. He spoke about Pasolini's depression both in his personal life and in his political life. Carmine claimed that Pasolini was so unenchanted with Italian society at that time that he likened the consumerist society to that of a fascist state and this film was a wake up call. Perhaps the "mental fascism" depicted in the film was, in Pasolini's view, equivalent to the control exerted in a capitalist Italy?

In the discussion, Carmine expanded on the ideas of "mental fascism" and also explained the characters in the film, especially the tormentors.

In the Q+A session various questions and opinions were aired by the audience ...

The film is so beautiful and yet so despairing. There is a clear relevance to the use of great art and music in the film.

Why are the final scenes of torture framed in such a voyeuristic way? Why does the Duke turn around his binoculars in order to capture the whole scene of depravity ?

This film observes the psychological process of fascism and how its victims, although initially naive, become tainted by it and subsequently complicit in their own persecution.

Film Notes

Director: Pier Paulo Pasolini. Italy, 1976. 115 min.

On Wednesday 1st June, 2005, BIFS welcomes Carmine Mezzacappa who lectures on Italian History and Cinema at the University of Kent. Carmine will be speaking about this difficult but remarkable film and the equally remarkable life of its director Pier Paulo Pasolini.

Renowned authority on World Cinema, Geoffrey Nowell-Smith writes: Early in 1978, when it looked not only as if Salò would be banned in Britain but that the company distributing it would actually be prosecuted, I was asked to put on paper some thoughts about the film which might be useful to the defence if the case ever came to trial. It was an obscene film, but only in a rather special sense. It was cruel and perverse but the cruelty and perversion were a challenge, not an indulgence. Times have changed since I wrote down my reasons why I did not think it should be banned. It may be that people are less easily shocked and can take Salò in their stride. I hope this is not the case. Pasolini made this film in order to disturb people, in order to make them face up to something he felt they were unwilling to confront but was nevertheless real and unescapable, the relationship between sex, death and power.

"In every shot it can be said I set myself the problem of driving the spectator to feeling intolerant and immediately afterwards relieving him of that feeling." Pier Paolo Pasolini said this of his film Salò or The 120 Days of Sodom, but did not live to see his last film banned, censored and denounced the world over since its first release in 1975!

Pasolini was murdered shortly before the film's release, when a casual sex encounter went tragically wrong. The scandal that followed his murder and the slander from his enemies both in the right and left merged with the reception to his last film to heighten the film’s controversial status. Until late 2000, Salò has rarely been shown uncut in Britain and is to this day banned in many other countries.

Yet it remains an important film in cinematic history: a film that images fascist ideology and its violence against human bodies seen as mere objects. An extreme film, meant to shock, Salo echoes Dante's Inferno and re-imagines Sade’s 120 days of Sodom, by setting the slow harrowing descent into horror in Mussolini’s fascist republic of Salo, Italy in 1944. Pasolini found this place where horrible crimes were committed and those who did not confirm to the dictatorial rule killed and to be the right setting for his critique of the absolute corruption of power.

Salo shows the debasement of four fascists who round up a group of teenage girls and boys and start a terrifying ordeal of rape, mutilation and murder. It is a film that distresses but deliberately so. A nightmare that you are so relieved to get out of, but nevertheless a nightmare to be seen!

You can read more about Pasolini in this excellent article