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#1 Most Disturbing Film, #56 Favorite Film, 1975 Films, Aldo Valletti, Art, Caterina Boratto, Drama, Elsa De Giorgi, Giorgio Cataldi, International, Italian, Laura Betti, Paolo Bonacelli, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Political Drama, Top 10 Most Disturbing Films, Top 100 Films, Top 250 Films

Salo-1975

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Salo-1975

Director Pier Paolo Pasolini

Starring Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Caterina Boratto

Top 250 Films #56

Top 10 Most Disturbing Films #1    

Scott’s Review #183 

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Reviewed October 9, 2014

Grade: A

 Salo is a disconcerting, highly controversial Italian art film from 1975 that is not for the squeamish nor the prudish.

Many people will revile this film for its distastefulness and despise it entirely — that is, if they even give it a chance, which, unfortunately, many will refuse to do.

But beyond the filth, perversion, and hatefulness that are themes of Salo lies a film that is a work of art and must be experienced by the most open-minded of cinema lovers.

The film is a dreamlike experience that centers on four wealthy Fascist Italian men of great importance and power, circa 1944, who decide to kidnap eighteen teenage boys and girls- the youngsters must be the cream of the crop and flawless in appearance, only the most attractive will do- one girl missing a tooth is immediately cast aside as a reject.

Whether the girl flaunted her marred appearance is open to interpretation.

The youths are then taken to an enormous palace where they are stripped of all clothing and forced to endure four months of torture, sexual perversions, and humiliations at the whim of and for the entertainment of their captors.

Finally, at the end of their terms, most are tortured to death by way of scalping, removal of tongues, or having their sexual organs burned off.

Also living in the palace are four aging prostitutes who enthrall the men, along with the reluctant prisoners, with tales of kinky and perverted sexual encounters from their younger days, mostly involving anal sex.

The film is divided into four sections based on Dante’s Divine Comedy: the Ante Inferno, the Circle of Manias, the Circle of Shit, and the Circle of Blood.

In one sadistically disturbing scene, one of the young girls is forced to eat human excrement by one of her wealthy captors.

In another, during the Circle of Shit, everyone dines on a meal consisting of human excrement, where lewd sex occurs.

One of the female prisoners is tricked into eating food laced with nails- a contest to determine who has the best buttocks results in the winner being brutally murdered.

Everyone in the film is bisexual, and there are repeated scenes of extreme, almost pornographic, violent sex scenes.

On a side note, most of the youngsters (non-actors) reported having a ball while filming Salo and knew not what the film was really about, so the feeling on the set was light-hearted, nothing like the finished product.

While deeply disturbing, Salo is a film that some, or many, will not get or look beyond the obvious for a deeper message. It is a masterpiece in its ugliness, rawness, and political statements, and quite artistic once one gets past the film’s brutality.

Salo contains much political symbolism- the excrement serves as the filth of Nazi Germany and authoritarian figures throughout Europe such as Hitler and Mussolini, the abuse of power that was rampant during the time of the film (World War II era), and the entire film is about the abuse that powerful people (the wealthy fascists equate to powerful Germans) inflicted on the weak (the innocent boys and girls mirror the Jews and the weak).

Is Salo a disturbing, grotesque film? It is. Is it mindless torture for the sake of torture, like movies as extreme as Saw and Hostel? It is not. It is an art film, not a horror film.

Banned in many countries for decades due to the extreme content of rape, murder, and torture of individuals thought to be under the age of eighteen, it remains widely banned to this day in several countries.

Many filmmakers, actors, and historians struggle to preserve the film’s artistic merit.

To fully grasp Salo, one must delve into the filmmakers’ minds and recognize that it is a statement film, filled with symbolism that challenges and questions the politics of its time.

Director Pier Paolo Pasolini was brutally murdered by a male prostitute shortly before the film’s release.

Salo (1975) is one of the most disturbing films I have ever viewed.

#201 Favorite Film, 1977 Films, Alida Valli, Bernardo Bertolucci, Burt Lancaster, Dominique Sanda, Donald Sutherland, Drama, Ellen Schwiers, Epic, Francesca Bertini, Gerard Depardieu, Historical Drama, Laura Betti, Period Drama, Robert De Niro, Romolo Valli, Stefania Casini, Stefania Sandrelli, Sterling Hayden, Top 250 Films

1900 (Novecento)-1977

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1900 (Novecento)-1977

Director Bernardo Bertolucci

Starring Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda

Top 250 Films #201

Scott’s Review #984

Reviewed January 28, 2020

Grade: A

An epic to rival all epics, 1900 (Novecento) (1977) is a grandiose offering of monumental proportions featuring legendary actors and created by a brilliant director.

With a running time of a whopping 317 minutes in its original version, 1900 is known as one of the longest commercially released films ever made.

The cinematography is breathtaking, and the historical themes, such as friendship, class distinctions, and rivalry, are explored in depth.

The key is to let the experience marinate and blossom through a slow, patient build.

Brilliant director Bernardo Bertolucci’s tale follows the lives of two Italian men, a peasant named Olmo (Gerard Depardieu) and landowner Alfredo (Robert De Niro), both ironically born on January 1, 1900.

Inseparable as children, the two become estranged as their differing social statuses pull them apart. Their conflicts mirror the political events in Italy, as both fascism and socialism gained prominence there.

Here is a bit of background on the film.

Due to its length, the film was presented in two parts when originally released in many countries, including Italy, East and West Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Colombia, Pakistan, and Japan.

In other countries, such as the United States, a single edited-down version of the film was released.

The latter is not the way to watch this film. I do not like heavily edited films, especially in an epic like 1900, so the full-length version is highly recommended.

The film opens on April 25, 1945, the day Italy is liberated from the fascists, and this is key to the political message Bertolucci crafts. As peasants revolt against the landowner, Alfredo (De Niro) and female laborers wield deadly pitchforks, creating an atmosphere of chaos.

We know nothing of Alfredo yet, but we know enough to realize he is rich and perceived as a tyrant. The natural reaction is to sympathize with them because they are oppressed.

As the film backtracks to the turn of the century, a more elegant scene emerges: the births of two infants, Alfredo and Olmo. The sequence is sweet, and both babies are bright and filled with promise.

Sadly, this is not meant to be.

A railway track is an important addition to the film, culminating in the finale.

The most interesting aspect of the film is the dynamic development of Alfredo and Olmo as they grow. Alfredo resents his family’s wealth and sides with Olmo, a socialist. Alfredo sees his family as false and Olmo and his family as genuine.

This aspect is timeless and can be related to by any viewer with any intelligent sense of the world today. The obvious analogy between the haves and have-nots is clearer than ever in this film. Frightening is that some have-nots are convinced they will one day become the haves.

The messages and feelings elicited in 1900 are strong and emotional. Aren’t all men created equal? On the surface, they are, but Alfredo and Olmo are not equal. As the birth scene reveals and as Bertolucci makes clear, they are born with advantages and disadvantages.

These characteristics are what they are, and as human beings grow and learn social norms, financial differences become more pronounced and humanistic connections weaker.

If the social aspects of the film or the brilliant cinematography are not enough to please a viewer, the historical lessons presented are second to none. One can revel in the political and historical excitement that characterized Europe throughout the forty-five years the film is set.

I wish Hollywood made more films like this.

1900 (Novecento) (1977) can be enjoyed as both a grandiose, dramatic period piece, revered for its majestic and flourishing design, and as a thought-provoking film about unresolved social class distinctions in the world.

I found the film a treasure that works on all levels and showcases just how good a director Bertolucci is.

This film is not his best-known work, but for fans of cinema as an art form, this is a must-see.