Pier Paolo Pasolini's notorious final film, Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, has been called nauseating, shocking, depraved, pornographic ... it s also a masterpiece. The controversial poet, novelist, and filmmaker's transposition of the Marquis de Sade's 18th-century opus of torture and degradation to 1944 Fascist Italy remains one of the most passionately debated films of all time, a thought-provoking inquiry into the political, social, and sexual dynamics that define the world we live in.
Salo moves the Marquis' story from eighteenth century France to Italy at the end of World War II. The film is set in the Republic of Salo as the final battles of the war are being waged elsewhere. Four gentlemen (the Duke, the Magistrate, the Bishop, and the President) decide to sequester themselves in a chateau to act out a series of grisly rituals on some of the local youths. These four men attempt to set up an alternate society with new rules (like no defecating without permission), which will delight their libertine senses. Over the course of the next few months, teenagers will be subjected to an ever-increasing series of horrors.
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Umberto Paolo Quintavalle
Country: Italy, France
Genre: Drama, War
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