I seem to have acquired a copy of "Salo" thanks to the internet's own Darius Whiteplume of the superb Adventures in Nerdliness and Dirty & Nerdy. I'm possessed by a rather unspeakable fear, both because I've avoided this film for so many years (Karswell assures me there are no song and dance numbers--bummer) and because... well, let's face it, I don't think there will ever be a finer review of Pier Passolini's infamous indictment of fascism than this one, by the Cinema Snob (j'adore this guy):
17 comments:
i saw this in college right before thanksgiving break.
fig pudding hasn't been the same.
if i remember right though Karswell may be mistaken about a dance number though. it's short but i think it involved a candle and some guy's ... well you'll see.
oh, you poor thing! i'm assuming you did pluck up the courage to watch this. i saw Salo at a local repertory theater here in Houston in the late 70s. my friend and i attended the 7:30 showing- at the close of the 10:30 show the police came in, arrested the theater manager and confiscated the film on the grounds it was "obscene". a year later the manager was acquitted and the film was shown again, no problem. years later when i was managing a video store an employee asked me to recommend "something more extreme than Caligula" to watch. i recommended Salo. he never forgave me...
I'm in the avoidance club, myself... Guess I won't be seeing you at any more of the meetings!
This one was hard for me to sit through and I have a pretty high tolerance for a lot of things when it comes to movies.
Shit-eating scenes aside, I didn't much care for the movie over all.
WIEC--at least I have the song & dance number to look forward to :S
Prof., I haven't mustered the wherewithall to pop this one in just yet. Baron XIII has accurately surmised that while I'm pleased to have a copy at my disposal, I'm just not quite prepared to sit down with it yet. See, I dug "Caligula," and even have the three-disc imperial edition at home, but it had a certain wackiness of purpose that "Salo" doesn't seem to share. I'll need to see it from a completist's perspective but... I might need to hug it out afterwards.
Kitty--can I get penciled in to hug it out with yoooou? Let the support group know I'm only doing this for SCIENCE.
Rev, I know you're an--erm--Experienced Viewer, and your words are just underscoring my preexisting state of TERROR! I'm really gonna need to hug this one out ;)
well, actually there IS one really funny moment at the dinner table- and it's a joke as old as the hills...
my word verification word was "ingulag", which is where i think Pasolini ended up briefly after this film came out! i think...
I was going to discuss Salo a bit later at Sublime Depravity, but will post a quick note here.
If you're familiar with the 120 Days of Sodom, it feels dark and claustrophobic. The doors are windows are bricked up. It is winter.
In Salo, it is spring and some action happens outside, which for me is more disturbing. Sade's libertines hide themselves away to commit their crimes while Pasolini's fascists can get away with these things in broad daylight.
Glad the disc arrived. Don't eat Raisinettes when you watch it! :-D
It actually ends with a dance. I've seen it a number of times on a poor video dub and I really wanted to buy the Criterion DVD but couldn't get up to the checkout counter after I had picked it off the shelf. It's a great film but you just can't sit there alone and watch it and you really can't invite friends over to watch it with you. And the film is probably more relevant now than when it was released. But I wouldn't recommed watching this alone and I wouldn't recommend inviting friends over to watch it with you. Good luck!
I watched it alone. The wife would never stand for it, and my RL friends are already concerned enough for my immortal soul. Plus, they'd never read subtitles for that long :-)
Maybe you'll luck out and some Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons will show up and you can watch it with them. That ought to shut them up!
I just got to watch The Snob. Man, that guy is funny. Thanks for posting. He'll go into my research folder :-)
This has to be one of the most disturbing films ever made. I also waited years to see it, skipping umpteen showings at the repetory houses in the Village in the 80s. Finally saw it on video ten years ago, and that was enough. Definitely much more difficult viewing than Teorema or Arabian Nights.
His violent murder is still the subject of great mystery. I had a friend who was convinced that Italian neo-Fascists killed Pasolini as revenge for Salo.
Aw, I'll bet you can handle it. I dunno, it didn't bother me that much. I think maybe some of the shock impact has diminished with time. Then again I could be wrong. I suppose it's all relative. I saw it about 10 years ago and I thought it was interesting but it didn't disturb me nearly as much as I was expecting it to from the reputation it had built up. I actually thought "Bloodsucking Freaks" was more disturbing but then I was a lot younger when I saw that. Methinks perhaps the legendary shock value is a bit overhyped maybe? I was wathing some '70s "erotic" movie recently where a few naked people were rolling around in bed with several(real) live fish. Now that bothered me much more!
Darius, I already have at least one Double Dog Dare to eat a big bowl of chocolate pudding while watching this, from a particularly eeeevil pal of mine. SO glad you dug the Cinema Snob clip! I thought that was such a clever concept, and really well-executed to boot. Yay internet! And thanks for the DVD, sir--it completes my collection of fascist smut.
Robert, I have a feeling I'm going this one alone. Usually my pals are a little more open-minded, but I've heard more than one "Absolutely Not" from that quarter. Ah, such is the existential loneliness of the film completist!
Fred, yes--I've heard that theory put forward regarding Pasolini's death. This certainly is a film that sparks strong feelings, more so than any other I've come across.
Brian, can you be my coach? You can talk me through this one. I know you have my best interests in mind here :)
I finally got around to posting my initial thoughts at Sublime Depravity. Much of it was already discussed in this thread, however, except for more comparison to Sade.
Chocolate pudding, eh? Throw some Tootsie Rolls in it and you'll be elevated from web empress to web goddess!
Brian, 2 questions:
1) What's the title of that fish movie, and
2) Do you stock it? :P
I saw this on VHS back in my college days, and I didn't think the hype was overblown at all. And I had even read De Sade's 120 Days of Sodom previously, which you'd think would have prepared me. (I was disturbed by that, too, btw--maybe I'm just a sensitive soul.) Apart from the infamous pudding scene I don't remember it being gross or gory effects-wise, but the *ideas* are so disturbing that if you let yourself get into it at all, empathizing or philosophizing along with the characters--well, it'll make you pay.
Good luck, Empress!
Wait... what did I say?
Mr. K--I remember you mentioning the dearth of musical numbers back when I was writing up "Salon Kitty" with the Vicar :) Tho' I might've misquoted you in which case I apologize!
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