Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

Plot

In 1944 in the Republic of Salò, the Fascist-occupied portion of Italy, four wealthy men of power, the Duke, the Bishop, the Magistrate and the President, agree to marry each other's daughters as the first step in a debauched ritual. They recruit four teenage boys to act as guards (dressed with uniforms of Decima Flottiglia MAS) and four young soldiers (called "studs", "cockmongers" or "fuckers"), who are chosen because of their big penises. They then kidnap nine young men and nine young women and take them to a palace near Marzabotto. Accompanying them are four middle-aged prostitutes, also collaborators, who recount arousing stories for the men, who sadistically exploit their victims.

During the many days at the palace, the four men devise increasingly abhorrent tortures and humiliations for their own pleasure. During breakfast, the daughters enter the dining hall naked to serve food. One of the studs trips and rapes a daughter in front of the crowd, which laughs at her cries of pain. Intrigued, the President moons several slaves before prompting the stud to perform anal sex on him and the Duke sings 'Sul Ponte di perati' and everybody sings also. A girl who tries to escape is slain and a middle-aged prostitute continues with her story. Two victims are forced to marry. The ceremony is interrupted when the Duke fondles several victims and prostitutes. At the end, the bride and groom are forced to fondle each other and the men rape them to stop them from having sex with each other. During this, the Magistrate engages with the Duke in three-way intercourse.

Another day, the victims are forced to act like dogs. When one of the victims, Lamberto, refuses, the Magistrate whips him and tortures the President's daughter by tricking her into eating food containing nails. Non-penetrative sex gives way to coprophagia. As Signora Maggi tells her story, the President notices that one of the studs has an erection and fondles him. Another stud uses a female victim's hand to masturbate himself. Signora Maggi relates how she killed her mother, and Renata cries, remembering the murder of her own mother. The Duke, sexually excited at the sound of her cries, begins verbally abusing her. The Duke orders the guards and studs to undress her. During this, she begs God for death, and the Duke punishes her by defecating and forcing her to eat his feces. The President leaves to masturbate. Later, the other victims are presented with a meal of human feces. During a search for the victim with the most beautiful buttocks, Franco is picked and promised death in the future.

Later, there is a black mass-like wedding between the studs and the men of power. The men angrily order the children to laugh, but they are too grief-stricken to do so. The Pianist and Signora Vaccari tell jokes to make the victims laugh. The wedding ceremony ensues with each man of power exchanging rings with a stud. After the wedding, the Bishop is sodomized by his stud. The Bishop then leaves to examine the captives in their rooms, where they start systematically betraying each other: Claudio reveals that Graziella is hiding a photograph, Graziella reveals that Eva and Antiniska are having a secret sexual affair, and Ezio, a collaborator and the black servant are shot dead after being found having sex, but not before Ezio makes a defiant socialist salute. Victim Umberto Chessari is appointed to replace Ezio. Toward the end, the remaining victims are called out to determine which of them will be punished. Graziella is spared due to her betrayal of Eva, and Rino is spared due to his submissive relationship with the Duke. Those who are called are given a blue ribbon and sentenced to a painful death. The victims huddle together and cry and pray in the bathroom. They are then tortured and murdered through methods such as branding, hanging, scalping, burning, and having their tongues and eyes cut out, as each libertine takes his turn to watch as voyeur. The soldiers shake hands and bid farewell, and the Pianist commits suicide due to her grief.

The film's final shot is of two young soldiers, who had witnessed and collaborated in all the atrocities, dancing a simple waltz together.

Masters

Storytellers, Middle-age prostitutes

Soldiers or Studs

Collaborators

Servants

Male Victims

Female Victims

Production

Salò transposes the setting of the Marquis de Sade's book from 18th-century France to the last days of Benito Mussolini's regime in the Republic of Salò. Salò is a toponymical metonymy for the Italian Social Republic (RSI) (because Mussolini ruled from this northern town rather than from Rome), which was a puppet state of Nazi Germany.

In the film almost no background is given on the tortured subjects and for the most part they almost never speak.

Trilogy of Death

In contrast to his "Trilogy of Life" (Il Decameron, I racconti di Canterbury and Il fiore delle Mille e una notte), Pasolini initially planned "The 120 days of Sodom" and "Salò" as separate stories but noting similarity between both concepts and based on their experiences in the Republic of Salò conceived the idea of "Salò or the 120 days of Sodom". Pasolini established that the violence scenes in Salò were symbolic and reducing the romanticism of his previous films although knowing that once the film was premiered would be considered as damn.

During the creation of the first drafts of the script, Pasolini appealed to several of his usual collaborators, among them Sergio Citti, Claudio Masenza, Antonio Troisi and specially Pupi Avati. As a continuation, Pasolini planned to bring to the cinema the life of the murderer and pederast Gilles de Rais, but after his death, the idea was aborted.

Cast

Initially Ninetto Davoli was chosen to play Claudio, a young collaborationist but due to legal problems he had to decline the role being replaced by Claudio Troccoli, a young man who had a similarity to Davoli in his first films. Pupi Avati, being the writer is not officially accredited due also by legal problems. Most of the actors of the cast although they were natural actors, many of them models that did not have modesty to show their naked bodies and most of them retaining their original name. Franco Merli was considered like a prototype of pasolinian boy. Ezio Manni remembers during filming: "The same with Franco Merli, the boy chosen for the seat more beautiful. When to reward the link the gun to his head, he had a rebellious snap, could not withstand that gesture. Then, there, too, he came the assistant director and if it is embraced.

Franco Citti was going to play one of the soldiers studs but he did not appear. Laura Betti was also going to play Signora Vaccari but also because of legal problems and her commitments to the movie "Novecento" declined the role even though she doubled the voice of Hélène Surgère .

Umberto Paolo Quintavalle (the Magistrate) was a writer, he knew Pasolini working on the newspaper Corriere della Sera. He was chosen for the role because he had all "the characteristics of a decadent intellectual".

Aldo Valletti (the President) was a friend of Pasolini from the time of ¨Accattone¨. Giorgio Cataldi (the bishop) another friend of Pasolini, a clothes seller in Rome.

Paolo Bonacelli (El Duque) had participated in several small Italian productions of the 50 and 60.

Filming

Several outdoor scenes were filmed in Villa Aldini. a neoclassical building on the hills of Bologna. The interiors are been shot in Villa Sorra near Castelfranco Emilia. The noble hall of the building and the courtyard were filmed in the Cinecittà studios. The town on the Reno replaces the fictional location in Marzabotto.

The shooting, carried out mainly in the sixteenth century Villa Gonzaga-Zani in Villimpenta in the spring of 1975 were difficult; not so much at the technical level (the cinematographer was Tonino Delli Colli) but because the scenes of homophilia, coprophagia and sadomasochism required a patience that only savoir faire and charisma of Pasolini made it acceptable. The courtyard of the sequence, then, in which torture culminate, caused abrasions and burns on some bodies (naked) of the actors.

However, interruption of work were often playful, with long tables in the meals - preferably made of risotto - and a football game was played against the crew of Bernardo Bertolucci's Novecento, which ran nearby. It also marked the reconciliation between the then young director (34 years old at the time) and his master (53 year old) after several disagreements followed criticism that the latter had reserved for Last Tango in Paris (1972), without defending it from drastic censorship measures.

Music

The original music corresponds to Ennio Morricone interpreted at the piano by Arnaldo Graziosi. Other non-original music was Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in Veris leta facies at the nearly end of the film during Circle of blood. Other music was several Frédéric Chopin's pieces Preludes Op.28 nº 20 and nº4 and Valses Op. 34 nº 2 in La minor).

Stolen film coils

During the making of the film, some reels were stolen, and the thieves demanded a ransom for their return. They reshot the scenes, using doubles: the same scenes, but from a different angle. At the trial for Pasolini's murder, it was hypothesized that Pasolini was told the film reels were discovered in Ostia lido. He was led there by Pelosi, the accused, and fell victim to an ambush, where he died.

Controversies

Salò has been banned in several countries, because of its graphic portrayals of rape, torture, and murder—mainly of people thought to be younger than eighteen years of age. The film remains banned in several countries to this day.

The film was rejected by the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) in January 1976. It was first screened at the Old Compton Street cinema club in Soho, London in 1977, in an uncut form and without certification from BBFC secretary James Ferman; the premises were raided by the Metropolitan Police after a few days. A cut version prepared under Ferman's supervision, again without formal certification, was subsequently screened under cinema club conditions for some years. In 2000, in an uncut form, the film was finally passed for theatrical and video distribution in the United Kingdom.

In 1994, an undercover policeman in Cincinnati, Ohio, rented the film from a local gay bookstore, and then arrested the owners for "pandering". A large group of artists, including Martin Scorsese and Alec Baldwin, and scholars signed a legal brief arguing the film's artistic merit; the Ohio state court dismissed the case because the police violated the owners' Fourth Amendment rights, without reaching the question of whether the film was obscene.

It was banned in Australia in 1976 for reasons of indecency. After a 17-year-long ban, the Australian Classification Board passed the film with a R-18+ (for 18 and older only) uncut for theatrical release in July 1993. However, the Australian Classification Review Board overturned this decision in February 1998 and banned the film outright, for "offensive cruelty with high impact, sexual violence and depictions of offensive and revolting fetishes". The film was then pulled from all Australian cinemas. Salò was resubmitted for classification in Australia in 2008, only to be rejected once again. The DVD print was apparently a modified version, causing outrage in the media over censorship and freedom of speech. In 2010, the film was submitted again, and passed with an R18+ rating. According to the Australian Classification Board media release, the DVD was passed due to "the inclusion of 176 minutes of additional material which provided a context to the feature film." The media release also stated that "The Classification Board wishes to emphasise that this film is classified R18+ based on the fact that it contains additional material. Screening this film in a cinema without the additional material would constitute a breach of classification laws." The majority opinion of the board stated that the inclusion of additional material on the DVD "facilitates wider consideration of the context of the film which results in the impact being no more than high." This decision came under attack by FamilyVoice Australia (formerly the Festival of Light Australia), the Australian Christian Lobby and Liberal Party of Australia Senator Julian McGauran, who tried to have the ban reinstated, but the Board refused, stating "The film has aged plus there is bonus material that clearly shows it is fiction." The film was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on 8 September 2010.

In New Zealand, the film was originally banned in 1976. The ban was upheld in 1993. In 1997, special permission was granted for the film to be screened uncut at a film festival. In 2001, the DVD was finally passed uncut with an 'R18' rating.

Documentaries about the film

The film is also the subject of the 2001 documentary Salò: Fade to Black written by Mark Kermode and directed by Nigel Algar. An exhibition of photographs by Fabian Cevallos depicting scenes which were edited out of the film was displayed in 2005 in Rome. Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Bertolucci released a documentary in 2006, Pasolini prossimo nostro, based on an interview with Pasolini done on the set of Salò in 1975. The documentary also included photographs taken on the set of the film.

Home video

The Criterion Collection first released the film in 1998 on DVD. In 2011 The Criterion Collection released it on Blu-ray and DVD.

Critical reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 71% of 28 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.4/10. Director Michael Haneke named the film his fourth favorite film when he voted for the 2002 Sight and Sound poll; director Catherine Breillat and film critic Joel David also voted for the film. David Cross and Gaspar Noé named it one of their favorite films. Rainer Werner Fassbinder also cited it as one of his 10 favorite movies. A 2000 poll of critics conducted by The Village Voice named it the 89th greatest film of the 20th century. In 2006, the Chicago Film Critics Association named Salò the 65th scariest film ever made. In 2010, the Toronto International Film Festival placed it at No. 47 on its list of The Essential 100 films. Director John Waters said, "Salo is a beautiful film...it uses obscenity in an intelligent way...and it's about the pornography of power."

TV Guide gave the film a mixed review awarding it a score of 2.5/4, stating, "despite moments of undeniably brilliant insight, is nearly unwatchable, extremely disturbing, and often literally nauseous".

The film's reputation for pushing boundaries has led some critics to criticize or avoid it. Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "Salo is, I think, a perfect example of the kind of material that, theoretically, anyway, can be acceptable on paper but becomes so repugnant when visualized on the screen that it further dehumanizes the human spirit, which is supposed to be the artist's concern." In 2011 Roger Ebert wrote that he owned the film since its release on Laserdisc but had not watched it, citing the film's transgressive reputation. In 2011, David Haglund of Slate surveyed five film critics, and three of them said that it was required viewing for any serious critic or cinephile. Haglund concluded that he still would not watch the film.

Alternative endings

It seems that Pasolini was undecided on what type of conclusion the film should have, to the point of having conceived and shot four different endings: the first was a shot of a red flag in the wind with the words "Love You," but it was abandoned by the director because he thought it "too pompous" and "prone to the ethics of psychedelic youth" which he detested. The second showed all the actors in the film, other than the four gentlemen, the director and his troupe perform a wild dance in a room of the villa furnished with red flags, and the scene was filmed with the purpose of using it as a background during the credits, but was discarded because it appeared, in the eyes of Pasolini, chaotic and unsatisfactory. Another final scene, discovered recently and which was only in the initial draft of the script, showed, after the torture's end, the four gentlemen walk out of the house and drawing conclusions about the morality of the whole affair. Finally, keeping the idea of dance as the summation of carnage Pasolini chose to mount the so-called final "Margherita," with the two young soldiers dancing.

Influence

In 2008, British opera director David McVicar and Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan have produced a performance of Richard Strauss' 1905 opera Salome based on the film, setting it in a debauched palace in Nazi Germany, for the Royal Opera House in London, with Nadja Michael as Salome, Michaela Schuster as Herodias, Thomas Moser as Herod, Joseph Kaiser as Narraboth, and Michael Volle as Jokanaan. This performance was recorded by Jonathan Haswell and later that year was released on DVD by Opus Arte.

Nikos Nikolaidis' 2005 The Zero Years has been compared to the film.

Several images from Madonna's controversial 1992 photo book Sex are inspired by the film.

The music video for the Cradle of Filth song "Babalon A.D." is also based on Salò.