Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) ( Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma ) ( Salo ou les 120 journées de Sodome )

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) (Blu-Ray) (*)

$37.99

Original Title: Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
Alternate Title: Salo ou les 120 journées de Sodome
Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Dolby Linear PCM )
English ( Mono )
English ( Subtitles )
Italian ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Italian ( Dolby Linear PCM )
Italian ( Mono )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( Blu-Ray/Region B )

Running Time:
117 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
2-DVD Set
Commentary
Documentary
Featurette
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Special Edition
Trailer(s)

Movie filmed in 1975 and produced in:
France ( France, Benelux )
Italy ( Italy, Greece )

Directed By:
Pier Paolo Pasolini

Written By:
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Sergio Citti

Actors:
Paolo Bonacelli ..... The Duke
Giorgio Cataldi ..... The Bishop
Umberto Paolo Quintavalle ..... The Magistrate (as Umberto P. Quintavalle)
Aldo Valletti ..... The President
Caterina Boratto ..... Signora Castelli
Elsa De Giorgi ..... Signora Maggi
Hélène Surgère ..... Signora Vaccari (as Helene Surgere)
Sonia Saviange ..... The Pianist
Sergio Fascetti ..... Male Victim
Bruno Musso ..... Male Victim
Antonio Orlando ..... Male Victim
Claudio Cicchetti ..... Male Victim
Franco Merli ..... Male Victim
Umberto Chessari ..... Male Victim
Lamberto Book ..... Male Victim

Synopsis:

Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom (known in Italian as Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma) provoked howls of outrage and execration on its original release in 1975, and the controversy rages to this day. Until the British Board of Film Classification finally ventured a certificate in 2000, the movie could only be shown at private cinema clubs, and even then in severely mutilated form. The relaxation of the censors' shears allows you to see for yourself what the fuss was about, but be warned--Salò will test the very limits of your endurance. Updating the Marquis de Sade's phantasmagorical novel of the same title from 18th-century France to fascist Italy at the end of World War II, writer-director Pasolini relates a bloodthirsty fable about how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Four upper-class libertines gather in an elegant palazzo to inflict the extremes of sexual perversion and cruelty upon a hand-picked collection of young men and women. Meanwhile, three ageing courtesans enflame the proceedings further by spinning tales of monstrous depravity. The most upsetting aspect of the film is the way Pasolini's coldly voyeuristic camera dehumanises the victims into lumps of random flesh. Though you may feel revulsion at the grisly details, you aren't expected to care much about what happens to either master or slave. In one notorious episode, the subjugated youths are forced to eat their own excrement--a scene almost impossible to watch, even if you know the meal was actually composed of chocolate and orange marmalade. (Pasolini mischievously claimed to be satirising our modern culture of junk food.) Salò is the ultimate vision of apocalypse--and as if in confirmation, the director was himself brutally murdered just before its premiere. You can reject the movie as the work of an evil-minded pornographer, but you won't easily forget it.

The final work of notorious Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, this film updates the Marquis de Sade's most extreme novel to fascist Italy in the final days of WW II. Dispensing with the novel's meditations on sexual liberation and the search for truth, Pasolini presents four decadents who kidnap dozens of young men and women and subject them to the most hideous forms of torture and perversion in an isolated villa. Sexual assault, murder, and a coprophagic banquet are only the beginning of the atrocities on display. Photographed by Tonino Delli Colli, the film also features a lavish score by Ennio Morricone.

Pasolini's adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's 18th-century novel transfers the action to WWII Italy, where Fascist rulers brutalise and torture a group of adolescent girls and boys. Soundly condemned at the time of its release by Italian censors, SALO proffers an unflinching look at the horrors committed by totalitarian regimes and their dehumanising abuse of power.

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 01 October, 2023.

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