There is much that has been written about this movie and there is no way in hell, practically speaking, this 'review' should be of any interest to anybody. Normally, this fact alone should have dissuaded me from writing it. But after days of seeing this movie,I am thinking about it...which is the reason i will give this a shot. Pier Paolo Pasolini's last film is set in Nazi-controlled Salo in 1944,where four dignitaries round up sixteen perfect specimens of youth and take them together with guards, servants to a palace which is essentially to turn into the 'Antechamber to hell'.
For 120 days, three middle aged prostitutes recount arousing (?) stories from their past as the captives are subjected to every perversity imaginable by the four..at the end of which, every 'human being' involved has spiraled into hell, real and otherwise.
I felt nothing throughout most of the movie. Nothing at all. Which is essentially the essence of it. It's horror lies in the slow, perverse descent into depravity and nothingness of its characters.In a sense, every sexual act portrayed is an act of necrophilia. And it wasn't the infamous 'Shit Eating' scene and others featuring extreme acts of physical violence that I felt were the most horrific.
For example, One of the captive boys kissing his tormentor with a seductive smile...A highly effective portrayal the victim's acknowledgement of the hopeless hell from which there is no escape. For anyone.The scene where the 4 fascists determine who has the 'Best Rear'...As they examine the captives who are bent completely on their fours.Some of the sexual ( and otherwise) acts in the movie are so depraved that they seemed ridiculous to me...and yet, the perfect portrayal of the sheer stripping down of humanity to something that is beyond the realm of evil...so evil that it is 'nothing'.
The cubist / Minimalistic set design is fabulously apt. The narrative which is unremarkably linear,drawls on and effectively conveys the horror of its empty, 'pointlessness'. The Cast is frighteningly brilliant . I for one, had to remind myself that this was not a documentary I was wishing was not real.The movie, of course, remains banned in many countries and has predictably been buried under the controversy of the acts portrayed. Typical, I would say.
There is, as Pasolini himself has admitted,a lot of symbolism that runs throughout the movie...which has been talked about a lot.But I personally believe, which is why i haven't mentioned it all here,that the films works effectively without the conscious realisation of the same.
Will I ever watch it again? I am not sure. But should you watch it atleast once? Absolutely.
