Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
63 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Descent Into The Empyrean, 26 Aug 2008
There are few movies out there, if any, that can generate as much ire and disgust as Pasolini's "Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma". Over the years, the film has created this almost mythical quality around itself, if mostly for the fact that it's still banned / badly cut in many countries around the World (Including Australia; so much for the Enlightenment). Not so for us lucky Brits - The BBFC has passed the uncut edition since the Halcyon Days of 2000, when I was lucky enough to view it on Film4 late at night. Make no mistakes, if any film has the ability to transform you into a gibbering, crying mess, it's this one.
Not for the Faint-Hearted? You'd better believe it.
And thus, it's hard to really "recommend" this film to anyone, as you wouldn't really "recommend" divorce - But it's a life experience you can gain valuable knowledge from. The film takes it's inspiration / Modus Operandi from the Marquis De Sade's notorious novel "The 120 Days of Sodom" , which, if you have read it, you will know perfectly well what you can expect from the film. Transporting the setting to Mussolini-Era Fascist Italy, four Aristocratic Libertines subject their young subjects to Sexual Manipulation and Torture, both physical and psychological. Pasolini does not shun from showing these in all their brightest colours, and considering that the great man was murdered mere months after the film's premiere, it can be surmised that it raised much anger amongst those artistically inclined. Watch at your peril, without Mother and Children preferably.
Notes on the 2-Disc BFI edition itself - The film has been released before, on Criterion and BFI in the '90s. Both were of poor quality and, thanks to Pasolini's estate revoking Criterion's rights to sell the film, made this edition the rarest / most expensive in the World; well, no longer a problem. The BFI has ported over the Criterion release mainly (Here's hoping it isn't a direct NTSC-to-PAL port, the quality will suffer), apart from one particular bonus: a 25-second sequence that has never been released before showing a reading of a Gottfried Benn poem. Nothing remarkable, but it's something.
It's been said before that for Art to be effective, it must be dangerous. "Salò" is more dangerous than Ebola.
|
|
|
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Uncomfortable but Still Worth Watching, 16 Jul 2007
This is a version of the Marquis de Sade's story, The 120 Days of Sodom, a story about four powerful men who enslave two dozen teenagers and torture them repeatedly. Unlike the book the film is set in the Salò Republic, the Nazi puppet state in northern Italy, in the year 1944. Pier Paolo Pasolini directs his final film. The four powerful men in the story are referred to as the Duke, the Magistrate, the President and the Bishop. To kick things off they marry each other's daughters and then begin to have young males and females kidnapped (18 in all, 9 of each gender). They also have four older prostitutes join in and this whole multitude marches over to some palace. Mind you, the time period means that the Nazi occupied Salò Republic is on its last legs and on the cusp of being crippled by the Allied forces. So the setting gives us sort of an end of days feeling right from the get-go. The content and commentary certainly continue with that subject matter throughout.
The film is set up in four stages, the first being the ante-inferno, which refers to those who are not quite condemned to hell but also not allowed into heaven either. The film's setting is meant to feel like a brief moment in purgatory with its isolated party of characters doing unspeakable things before judgment, and then it all must end. The second stage is the circle of manias, or obsession, where we see the sexual humiliation of the film manifest itself further. The third stage is the circle of excrement, which is where we see the characters consume feces. Pasolini has used this as a metaphor broadly for the perverse level of consumption depicted in the film overall, and directly as a commentary on mass-produced foods and consumerism. The fourth stage is the circle of blood, this is where those who do not partake in this bizarre corruption are brutally murdered in various ways. The stages bring us further and further downward into degeneracy, which Pasolini has applied strongly as a denunciation against capitalism and fascism.
If you found any interest in the above commentary, then I assume Salò may be just the film for you, but I assure you that the film is definitely not for everyone. It is up front with its content. It's controversial for many different reasons, but primarily it is the visual content that turns people away. Yes, it's not as violent as Saw and the nudity is not quite as pretty as it is in some movies, but Salò is anything other than an exploitation film. One may even argue that it is the exact opposite of exploitation. Perhaps it is Salò's censure of exploitation that makes it truly disturbing as a modern social commentary.
|
|
|
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It does just what it says on tin, disturbs the trousers off've you!, 14 Jul 2007
Pasolini's last film "Salo..." is extremly unsettling it has a way of staying with you ages after you watch it and the ability to linger in your mind leaving you with no choice but think about the horrific scenes constantly which include rape, excrement eating and drinking urine among many more.
I have only ever been able to watch this film once due to it's content and even the first time I found it hard. Although it is very disturbing it is actually a very good film which paints a very accurate portrait of fascism and in a way it is morbidly interesting to see what horrors these people went through. The way the director shows how having power affects people is also very good which he does through the fascist libertines.
Do not buy this though if you're expecting an exploitive horror movie filled you gore, it's nothing like that it has a very serious tone and will probably put you off you're gore-fests.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
![Salo, Or The 120 Days Of Sodom [DVD] [1975]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31KPBX3ZN5L._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Caligula [1979] (Imperial Edition) [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nUfDVGsHL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Shortbus [DVD] [2006]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fxlMJ5bLL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Mon Amour [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lIwccwZDL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Decameron [Blu-ray] [1970]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RnKIKHDAL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![Arabian Nights [Blu-ray] [1974]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51k5tM%2BHSUL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![Caligula [1979] (Imperial Edition) [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nUfDVGsHL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Canterbury Tales [Blu-ray] [1972]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511Js5ZPi7L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Red Desert [Blu-ray] [1964]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51u-s4%2B2P0L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
