Salò
I first saw Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò at a Darkmatter show back in 2002 (thank you Darkmatter crew!) at the tender age of sixteen; to say the very least it disgusted, intrigued, and shocked my tender young mind. For years to come I held it as the ultimate shock movie, the craziest of the craziest but regretably, I never really gave it another chance much less invested any time in trying to understand it.
Last year I happened to walk into a gallery in Chinatown that was exhibiting an installation by artist Patrick Lackey called An Abyss of Folly, in which he compared the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal to the Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom as well as Pasolini's adaptation of Salo. Needless to say, it was fucking scary.
A few weeks ago, Brian downloaded it although we've yet to see it.. but just two weeks ago I picked up short book by Gary Indiana reviewing the film. The book opens with a quote from Angela Carter which reads :
"When pornography abandons it's quality of existential solitude and moves out of kitsch area of timeless, placeless fantasy and into the real world, then it loses it's function of safety valve. It begins to comment on the real world."
This paragraph alone made me want to see the film again :
"The consumer culture has come more and more to resemble in psychic terms, the model of life Pasolini depicted in Salo, where a limitless choice of gratifications disguises an absence of all choice and all resistance, where nothing can disrupt the smooth operation of a system that turns art into products and people into things."
It literally sent a chill down my spine and hit me on the face like a door swinging wide open against it. It also makes me feel a bit embarassed for having reacted like such a puritan upon first watching it - although granted, sixteen year olds aren't the best at decyphering such serious social commentary hidden in scat munching and whatnot. Interestingly enough Indiana writes :
"One way that Salò differs from the unbashedly perverse epiphanies of the cinema of shock is in its pedantic moralism, which might have ruined it if the shock part didn't so thuroughly overwhelm the moralism. There is something absurdly winning about Pasolini's explanation of the shit-eating in Salò as a commentary on processed foods, and the fact that Pasolini was being sincere when he said it."
Anyhow, if you can get your hands on a copy of this film, I urge you to and keep that paragraph in mind. I'm not a fan of de Sade's work ('cos bourgeoisie backed rapists - or any rapist period is not okay with me ), but I think Pasolini's film deserves to be talked about, viewed, and shown to a greater audience - ESPECIALLY in America in 2008.
Last year I happened to walk into a gallery in Chinatown that was exhibiting an installation by artist Patrick Lackey called An Abyss of Folly, in which he compared the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal to the Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom as well as Pasolini's adaptation of Salo. Needless to say, it was fucking scary.
A few weeks ago, Brian downloaded it although we've yet to see it.. but just two weeks ago I picked up short book by Gary Indiana reviewing the film. The book opens with a quote from Angela Carter which reads :
"When pornography abandons it's quality of existential solitude and moves out of kitsch area of timeless, placeless fantasy and into the real world, then it loses it's function of safety valve. It begins to comment on the real world."
This paragraph alone made me want to see the film again :
"The consumer culture has come more and more to resemble in psychic terms, the model of life Pasolini depicted in Salo, where a limitless choice of gratifications disguises an absence of all choice and all resistance, where nothing can disrupt the smooth operation of a system that turns art into products and people into things."
It literally sent a chill down my spine and hit me on the face like a door swinging wide open against it. It also makes me feel a bit embarassed for having reacted like such a puritan upon first watching it - although granted, sixteen year olds aren't the best at decyphering such serious social commentary hidden in scat munching and whatnot. Interestingly enough Indiana writes :
"One way that Salò differs from the unbashedly perverse epiphanies of the cinema of shock is in its pedantic moralism, which might have ruined it if the shock part didn't so thuroughly overwhelm the moralism. There is something absurdly winning about Pasolini's explanation of the shit-eating in Salò as a commentary on processed foods, and the fact that Pasolini was being sincere when he said it."
Anyhow, if you can get your hands on a copy of this film, I urge you to and keep that paragraph in mind. I'm not a fan of de Sade's work ('cos bourgeoisie backed rapists - or any rapist period is not okay with me ), but I think Pasolini's film deserves to be talked about, viewed, and shown to a greater audience - ESPECIALLY in America in 2008.