When you think of Italian Cinema, the first thing that comes to your mind is Federico Fellini. Then you recall Roberto Rossellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Luchino Visconti, Roberto Benigni, Vittorio De Sica, Bernardo Bertolucci, and above all Sergio Leone. But the man that does not come to your mind is Pier Paolo Pasolini.
PPP’s films are not for the mass. It is not for everybody to digest him. He was a film-maker, author, producer, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer and actor. The World did not accept his existence as a gay, Marxist, Atheist being. No wonder the extremist agencies got him at 53.
If you think you have seen and experienced everything in life - then watch Salo (1975). Watching Salo gave an impression that extreme power over other people leads to indescribable cruelty. Fascism not only views violence politically, here it show how fascists use violence as entertainment and arousal. The men of power are always seen as predators of the illiterate, the poor, the young and the weak. It reminds us that human beings are capable of such cruel, unthinkable, unimaginable and inconceivable atrocities over other human that one starts hating and loathing the human kind.
Salo is not about acting, lighting, sound, camera, action – it is about a state of mind of certain class of people.
It is a film one may not like to see it again. The core is helplessness and hopelessness. It is either madness or death.
Meanwhile it was a fortunate thing to discover his other works :: The Decameron (1971), Mama Roma (1962), Accattone (1961), The Gospel According to St Matthew (1964), Teorema (1968), Oedipus Rex (1967), Pigsty (1969), Medea (1969), The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966), The Canterbury Tales (1972).
Word of Caution! - If possible - Stay away from PPP. It is best for the mind to avoid him
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