Synopsis

The notorious final film from Pier Paolo Pasolini, Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom has been called nauseating, shocking, depraved, pornographic . . . It’s also a masterpiece. The controversial poet, novelist, and filmmaker’s transposition of the Marquis de Sade’s eighteenth-century opus of torture and degradation to Fascist Italy in 1944 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.

Official Review

1975 was a red letter year for cult cineastes with the film adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show arriving in theaters along with Steven Spielberg’s summertime nightmare Jaws and Curt McDowell’s underground art/porn Thundercrack. But 1975 also represented both the birth and death of a different kind of cult animal. On November 2nd, controversial Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini was found dead—having been murdered—on a beach allegedly by a male prostitute–just months after completing his magnum opus Salo. 20 days after his death, Salo would world premiere at the Paris Film Festival and furor that followed would rock the international film community even more than the scandalous death of its creator. …Read More