SALÒ, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM
[SALÒ O LE 120 GIORNATE DI SODOMA]
The notorious final film from Pier Paolo Pasolini, SALÒ, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM, has been called nauseating, shocking, depraved, pornographic — but 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 Fascist Italy in 1944 — a year before Mussolini's death and the end of World War II — 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. Having just collaborated with Pasolini on his life-affirming, lewdly humorous Trilogy of Life (THE DECAMERON, THE CANTERBURY TALES, ARABIAN NIGHTS), Ennio Morricone turned his attention to scoring those films' antithesis, famously using his arrangement of the upbeat "Son Tanto Triste" to bookend SALÒ's horror, adding an incongruent joviality that only deepens its chilling disquiet. (Note adapted from The Criterion Collection.) DIR/SCR Pier Paolo Pasolini, from the novel by the Marquis de Sade; SCR Sergio Citti; PROD Alberto Grimaldi. Italy/France, 1975, color, 117 min. In Italian, French and German with English subtitles. NOT RATED, but comparable to RATED R and viewer discretion is strongly advised.
AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 117 Minutes
Opening Date: Friday, June 14, 2024
Genre: Drama