Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (
Italian:
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma), titled
Pasolini's 120 Days of Sodom on English-language prints
[2] and commonly referred to as simply
Salò (
Italian: [saˈlɔ]), is a 1975 Italian-French
horror art film directed by
Pier Paolo Pasolini. It is based on the book
The 120 Days of Sodom by the
Marquis de Sade. The film focuses on four wealthy, corrupt Italian
libertines, during the time of the
fascist Republic of Salò (1943-1945). The libertines kidnap eighteen teenagers and subject them to four months of extreme violence, sadism, and sexual and mental
torture. The film explores the themes of
political corruption, abuse of power, sadism, perversion, sexuality and fascism. The story is in four segments, inspired by
Dante's
Divine Comedy: the Anteinferno, the Circle of
Manias, the Circle of Shit and the Circle of Blood. The film also contains frequent references to and several discussions of
Friedrich Nietzsche's 1887 book
On the Genealogy of Morality,
Ezra Pound's poem
The Cantos, and
Marcel Proust's novel sequence
In Search of Lost Time.
It was Pasolini's last film; he was murdered shortly before
Salò was released. Because it depicts youths subjected to intensely graphic violence, relentless
sadism, sexual deviance, and brutal murder, the film was extremely controversial upon its release, and remains banned in several countries. For instance, it was only in the year 2000 that it was granted an uncut release in the UK. It has been praised by various film historians and critics and was named the 65th scariest film ever made by the
Chicago Film Critics Association in 2006
[3] and is the subject of an article in
The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural (1986).
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
waltztogether.
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