Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
Encyclopedia
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma), commonly referred to as Salò, is a controversial 1975
Italian
drama film
written and directed by Italian director
Pier Paolo Pasolini
with uncredited writing contributions by Pupi Avati
. It is based on the book The 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade
. Because of its scenes depicting intensely graphic violence, sadism, and sexual
depravity, the movie was extremely controversial upon its release, and remains banned in several countries to this day. It was Pasolini's last film; he was murdered shortly before Salò was released.
The film focuses on four wealthy, corrupted fascist libertine
s after the fall of Benito Mussolini
's Italy
in 1944 who kidnap a total of eighteen teenage boys and girls and subject them to four months of extreme violence, sadism, sexual
and mental torture
. The film is noted for exploring the themes of political corruption
, abuse of power, sadism, perversion
, sexuality, and fascism
.
Although it remains a controversial film to this day, it has been praised by various film historians and critics, and while not typically considered a horror film
, Salò was named the 65th scariest film ever made by the Chicago Film Critics Association
in 2006 and is the subject of an article in The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural
(1986).
, the Fascist-occupied portion of Italy in 1944. The story is in four segments loosely parallel to Dante
's Inferno: the Anteinferno, the Circle of Mania
s, the Circle of Shit
, and the Circle of Blood
.
Four men of power, the Duke
(Duc de Blangis), the Bishop
, the Magistrate
(Curval), and the President (apparently Durcet) agree to marry each other's daughters as the first step in a debauched ritual. With the aid of several collaborating young men, they kidnap eighteen young men and women (nine of each sex), and take them to a palace near Marzabotto
. Accompanying them are four middle-aged prostitutes, also collaborators, whose function in the debauchery will be to recount erotically arousing stories for the men of power, who, in turn, will sadistically exploit their victims.
The story depicts some of the many days at the palace, during which the four men of power devise increasingly abhorrent tortures and humiliations for their own pleasure. In the Anteinferno segment, the captures of some victims by the collaborators are shown, and, later, the four lords examining them. The Circle of Manias presents some of the stories in the first part of Sade's book, told by Mrs. Vaccari (Hélène Surgère). In the Circle of Shit, the passions escalate in intensity from mainly non-penetrative sex
to coprophagia
. An infamous scene shows a young woman forced to eat the feces
of the Duke; later, the other victims are presented a giant meal of human feces. The Circle of Blood starts with a black mass
-like wedding between the guards and the men of power, after which the Bishop is sodomized by his assistant. The Bishop then leaves to examine the captives in their rooms, where they start systematically betraying each other: one girl is revealed to be hiding a photograph, two girls are shown to be having a secret sexual affair, and finally, a collaborator (Ezio Manni) and the black servant (Ines Pellegrini) are shot down after being found having sex. Toward the end, the remaining victims are murdered through methods like scalping
, branding
, tongue and eyes cut out as each libertine takes his turn to watch, as voyeur.
The film's final shot is of two young soldiers, who had witnessed and collaborated in all of the prior atrocities, dancing a simple waltz together.
's book from 18th century France to the last days of Benito Mussolini
's regime in the Republic of Salò. Salò, a nickname for the Italian Social Republic
(RSI) because Mussolini ruled from this northern town rather than from Rome, was a puppet-state of Nazi Germany
. The Nazis had used the opportunity to round up the many Jews living in that part of Italy and sent them off to extermination camps; heretofore, many Italian officials had refused to implement the "Final Solution
". Additionally, during the RSI period, the Italian Fascist movement was able to build a completely totalitarian state. During the preceding twenty years of Fascist association with the Savoy monarchy of the Kingdom of Italy the Fascists had been restricted in some of their actions by the monarchy.
Salò was rejected by the British Board of Film Censors
in January 1976. It was first screened at the Old Compton Street cinema club in Soho, London in 1977, in an uncut form without certification under advice from BBFC secretary James Ferman
; the premises were raided by the Metropolitan Police
after a few days. A cut version prepared under Ferman's supervision, again without formal certification, was screened under cinema club conditions for some years subsequently. In 2000, in an uncut form, the film was finally passed for theatrical and video distribution in the United Kingdom.
In 1994, an undercover policeman in Cincinnati, Ohio
rented the film from a local gay bookstore, and then arrested the owners for "pandering
". A large group of artists, including Martin Scorsese
and Alec Baldwin
, and scholars signed a legal brief arguing the film's artistic merit; the Court dismissed the case because the police violated the owners' Fourth Amendment
rights, without reaching the question of whether the film was obscene.
It was banned in Australia in 1976, then made briefly legal in 1993, until its re-banning in 1998. Salò was resubmitted for classification in Australia in 2008, only to be rejected once again. The DVD print was apparently a modified version, causing outrage in the media over censorship and freedom of speech. In 2010, the film was submitted again, and passed once again with an R18+ rating. According to the Australian Classification Board
media release, the DVD was passed due to "the inclusion of 176 minutes of additional material which provided a context to the feature film." However the media release also stated that "The Classification Board wishes to emphasise that this film is classified R 18+ based on the fact that it contains additional material. Screening this film in a cinema without the additional material would constitute a breach of classification laws." The majority opinion of the board stated that the inclusion of additional material on the DVD "facilitates wider consideration of the context of the film which results in the impact being no more than high". This decision came under attack by Family Voice Australia (formerly the Festival of Light Australia
), the Australian Christian Lobby
and Liberal Party of Australia
Senator Julian McGauran
, who tried to have the lifted ban overturned, but the Board refused, stating "The film has aged plus there is bonus material that clearly shows it is fiction." The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 8, 2010.
In New Zealand
the film was originally banned in 1976. The ban was upheld in 1993. In 1997 special permission was granted for the film to be screened uncut at a film festival. In 2001 the DVD was finally passed uncut with an 'R18' rating.
.
named the film his fourth favorite film when he voted for the 2002 Sight and Sound poll; director Catherine Breillat
and film critic Joel David also voted for the film. A 2000 poll of critics conducted by The Village Voice
named it the 89th greatest film of the 20th century. In 2006, the Chicago Film Critics Association
named Salò the 65th scariest film ever made. In 2010, the Toronto International Film Festival
placed it at #47 on its list of The Essential 100 films.
(BFI), containing a short scene usually deleted from other prints, in which during the first wedding one of the masters quotes a Gottfried Benn
poem. This version of the film is featured both on the original 2001 DVD release and the remastered 2008 DVD and Blu-ray. Since the remastered version was sourced from the original negative, which does not include the poetry reading, the additional footage was sourced from a 35 mm print of the film held by the BFI National Archive. A note in the DVD booklet explains that this leads to a slight shift in picture quality. Aside from the high-definition transfer, the 2008 BFI releases are identical - the apparent five-minute difference in running time is explained by the Blu-ray running at the theatrical speed of 24 frames per second, while the DVD has been transferred at the slightly faster PAL video rate of 25 frames per second.
In the U.S., Salò suffered intermittent legal troubles. The Criterion Collection
laserdisc
and DVD editions were released for North America; however, the DVD was quickly withdrawn because of licensing conflicts with Pasolini's estate. As a result, Criterion's 1998 DVD release of the film created much collector's interest. Moreover, its rarity inspired bootleg
copies sold as original pressings. The quality of the genuine Salò DVD is inferior by contemporary standards; most notably, the image has a green tinge. Criterion has since reissued the film in a completely remastered two-disc edition, albeit with the same spine number (17) as the original pressing.
Besides the BFI edition with the often missing poetry-quotation scene, there exists a French DVD version, distributed by Gaumont Columbia Tristar Home Video, containing a transfer that is a restored, high-definition, colour-corrected version of the film (superior to the original Criterion and BFI editions), however, it has no English subtitles, as it is a French product for French cinephiles.
The Hawaii film company HK Flix released an NTSC-format Salò through distributor Euro Cult in 2007. It reportedly contains the uncut Criterion Collection release — yet of better quality. The HK Flix edition is an NTSC
version of the BFI's Salò DVD, complete with a factory imperfection at the film's 01:47:19 mark, however, its quality is unequal to that of the Gaumont DVD, and, still, it is missing a scene. The DVD cover is a sketch of Pasolini in sunglasses
; Paolo Bonacelli
's name is printed beside it. Moreover, despite accusations of boot-legging, Euro Cult assert their legal entitlement to distribute the Salò DVD in the U.S.
In its online blog, On Five, the Criterion company said, in November 2006, that they re-acquired the distribution rights for Salò. In May 2008, Criterion released the cover art of the reissue DVD, slated for release in August 2008, comprising two discs: (I) the film (with an optional dubbed-English track) and (II) three documentaries and new interviews.
In August 2008, the BFI announced a new release of Salò on both high-definition Blu-ray and standard-definition DVD, claiming it to be "fully uncut and in its most complete version", and that "the film has been re-mastered from the original Italian restoration negatives" and would be accompanied by a second disc containing extensive additional features. The BFI re-issue does indeed contain the missing 25 second poem intact, but according to Criterion's website this sequence is not an official part of the film, because the footage is not present in the interpositive that the camera negative was struck from (which formed the basis of their transfer).
The Criterion Collection released the film on Blu-ray on October 4, 2011.
1975 in film
The year 1975 in film involved some significant events, with Steven Spielberg's thriller Jaws topping the box office.-Events:*March 26 - The film version of The Who's Tommy premieres in London....
Italian
Cinema of Italy
The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
written and directed by Italian director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...
with uncredited writing contributions by Pupi Avati
Pupi Avati
Giuseppe Avati, better known as Pupi Avati is an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter.-Early life and career:...
. It is based on the book The 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
. Because of its scenes depicting intensely graphic violence, sadism, and sexual
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
depravity, the movie was extremely controversial upon its release, and remains banned in several countries to this day. It was Pasolini's last film; he was murdered shortly before Salò was released.
The film focuses on four wealthy, corrupted fascist libertine
Libertine
A libertine is one devoid of most moral restraints, which are seen as unnecessary or undesirable, especially one who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behavior sanctified by the larger society. Libertines, also known as rakes, placed value on physical pleasures, meaning those...
s after the fall of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in 1944 who kidnap a total of eighteen teenage boys and girls and subject them to four months of extreme violence, sadism, sexual
Sexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
and mental torture
Psychological abuse
Psychological abuse, also referred to as emotional abuse or mental abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder...
. The film is noted for exploring the themes of political corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
, abuse of power, sadism, perversion
Perversion
Perversion is a concept describing those types of human behavior that are a serious deviation from what is considered to be orthodox or normal. Although it can refer to varying forms of deviation, it is most often used to describe sexual behaviors that are seen by an individual as abnormal,...
, sexuality, and fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
.
Although it remains a controversial film to this day, it has been praised by various film historians and critics, and while not typically considered a horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
, Salò was named the 65th scariest film ever made by the Chicago Film Critics Association
Chicago Film Critics Association
The Chicago Film Critics Association is an American film critic association.-Members:Current members include:*Sarah Knight Adamson*Zbigniew Banas*Shelley Cameron*Dave Canfield*Vittorio Carli*Erik Childress*Camerin Courtney*Bonnie DeShong...
in 2006 and is the subject of an article in The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural
The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural
The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural is a reference work on horror fiction in the arts, edited by Jack Sullivan. The book was published in 1986 by Viking Press....
(1986).
Plot
The film is set in the Republic of SalòItalian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
, the Fascist-occupied portion of Italy in 1944. The story is in four segments loosely parallel to Dante
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
's Inferno: the Anteinferno, the Circle of Mania
Mania
Mania, the presence of which is a criterion for certain psychiatric diagnoses, is a state of abnormally elevated or irritable mood, arousal, and/ or energy levels. In a sense, it is the opposite of depression...
s, the Circle of Shit
Human feces
Human feces , also known as a stool, is the waste product of the human digestive system including bacteria. It varies significantly in appearance, according to the state of the digestive system, diet and general health....
, and the Circle of Blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
.
Four men of power, the Duke
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...
(Duc de Blangis), the Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
, the Magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
(Curval), and the President (apparently Durcet) agree to marry each other's daughters as the first step in a debauched ritual. With the aid of several collaborating young men, they kidnap eighteen young men and women (nine of each sex), and take them to a palace near Marzabotto
Marzabotto
Marzabotto is a small town and comune in Italian region Emilia-Romagna, part of the province of Bologna. It is located 27 km SSW of Bologna by rail, and lies in the valley of the Reno...
. Accompanying them are four middle-aged prostitutes, also collaborators, whose function in the debauchery will be to recount erotically arousing stories for the men of power, who, in turn, will sadistically exploit their victims.
The story depicts some of the many days at the palace, during which the four men of power devise increasingly abhorrent tortures and humiliations for their own pleasure. In the Anteinferno segment, the captures of some victims by the collaborators are shown, and, later, the four lords examining them. The Circle of Manias presents some of the stories in the first part of Sade's book, told by Mrs. Vaccari (Hélène Surgère). In the Circle of Shit, the passions escalate in intensity from mainly non-penetrative sex
Non-penetrative sex
Non-penetrative sex is sexual activity without vaginal, anal, or oral penetration, as opposed to the penetrative aspects of those activities...
to coprophagia
Coprophagia
Coprophagia or coprophagy is the consumption of feces, from the Greek κόπρος copros and φαγεῖν phagein . Many animal species practice coprophagia as a matter of course; other species do not normally consume feces but may do so under unusual conditions...
. An infamous scene shows a young woman forced to eat the feces
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
of the Duke; later, the other victims are presented a giant meal of human feces. The Circle of Blood starts with a black mass
Black Mass
A Black Mass is a ceremony supposedly celebrated during the Witches' Sabbath, which was a sacrilegious parody of the Catholic Mass. Its main objective was the profanation of the host, although there is no agreement among authors on how hosts were obtained or profaned; the most common idea is that...
-like wedding between the guards and the men of power, after which the Bishop is sodomized by his assistant. The Bishop then leaves to examine the captives in their rooms, where they start systematically betraying each other: one girl is revealed to be hiding a photograph, two girls are shown to be having a secret sexual affair, and finally, a collaborator (Ezio Manni) and the black servant (Ines Pellegrini) are shot down after being found having sex. Toward the end, the remaining victims are murdered through methods like scalping
Scalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
, branding
Human branding
Human branding or stigmatizing is the process in which a mark, usually a symbol or ornamental pattern, is burned into the skin of a living person, with the intention that the resulting scar makes it permanent. This is performed using a hot or very cold branding iron...
, tongue and eyes cut out as each libertine takes his turn to watch, as voyeur.
The film's final shot is of two young soldiers, who had witnessed and collaborated in all of the prior atrocities, dancing a simple waltz together.
Production
Salò transposes the setting of the Marquis de SadeMarquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle...
's book from 18th century France to the last days of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's regime in the Republic of Salò. Salò, a nickname for the Italian Social Republic
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
(RSI) because Mussolini ruled from this northern town rather than from Rome, was a puppet-state of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. The Nazis had used the opportunity to round up the many Jews living in that part of Italy and sent them off to extermination camps; heretofore, many Italian officials had refused to implement the "Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
". Additionally, during the RSI period, the Italian Fascist movement was able to build a completely totalitarian state. During the preceding twenty years of Fascist association with the Savoy monarchy of the Kingdom of Italy the Fascists had been restricted in some of their actions by the monarchy.
Controversies
Salò has been banned in several countries, because of its graphic portrayals of rape, torture, and murder — mainly of people thought to be younger than eighteen years of age.Salò was rejected by the British Board of Film Censors
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
in January 1976. It was first screened at the Old Compton Street cinema club in Soho, London in 1977, in an uncut form without certification under advice from BBFC secretary James Ferman
James Ferman
James Alan Ferman was an American television and theatre director. He was the Secretary of the British Board of Film Classification from 1975 to 1999....
; the premises were raided by the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
after a few days. A cut version prepared under Ferman's supervision, again without formal certification, was screened under cinema club conditions for some years subsequently. In 2000, in an uncut form, the film was finally passed for theatrical and video distribution in the United Kingdom.
In 1994, an undercover policeman in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
rented the film from a local gay bookstore, and then arrested the owners for "pandering
Procuring (prostitution)
Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. Examples of procuring include:*trafficking a prostitute into a country for the purpose of soliciting sex...
". A large group of artists, including Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
and Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
, and scholars signed a legal brief arguing the film's artistic merit; the Court dismissed the case because the police violated the owners' Fourth Amendment
Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause...
rights, without reaching the question of whether the film was obscene.
It was banned in Australia in 1976, then made briefly legal in 1993, until its re-banning in 1998. Salò was resubmitted for classification in Australia in 2008, only to be rejected once again. The DVD print was apparently a modified version, causing outrage in the media over censorship and freedom of speech. In 2010, the film was submitted again, and passed once again with an R18+ rating. According to the Australian Classification Board
Australian Classification Board
The Australian Classification Board is a statutory classification body formed by the Australian Government which classifies films, video games and publications for exhibition, sale or hire in Australia since its establishment in 1970. The Australian Classification Board was originally incorporated...
media release, the DVD was passed due to "the inclusion of 176 minutes of additional material which provided a context to the feature film." However the media release also stated that "The Classification Board wishes to emphasise that this film is classified R 18+ based on the fact that it contains additional material. Screening this film in a cinema without the additional material would constitute a breach of classification laws." The majority opinion of the board stated that the inclusion of additional material on the DVD "facilitates wider consideration of the context of the film which results in the impact being no more than high". This decision came under attack by Family Voice Australia (formerly the Festival of Light Australia
Festival of Light Australia
Festival of Light Australia was an Australian ministry promoting Christian family values from 1973 to 2008, when its name was changed to FamilyVoice Australia....
), the Australian Christian Lobby
Australian Christian Lobby
The Australian Christian Lobby is a Christian political lobby group having a head office in Canberra and branches in six Australian states and territories. Its motto is "Voice for values". Its managing director is Jim Wallace AM....
and Liberal Party of Australia
Liberal Party of Australia
The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...
Senator Julian McGauran
Julian McGauran
Julian McGauran , Australian politician, was a member of the Australian Senate, representing the state of Victoria. Elected as a member of the National Party, he resigned from the Nationals and joined the Liberal Party of Australia in February 2006...
, who tried to have the lifted ban overturned, but the Board refused, stating "The film has aged plus there is bonus material that clearly shows it is fiction." The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on September 8, 2010.
In New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
the film was originally banned in 1976. The ban was upheld in 1993. In 1997 special permission was granted for the film to be screened uncut at a film festival. In 2001 the DVD was finally passed uncut with an 'R18' rating.
Documentaries about the film
An exhibition of photographs by Fabian Cevallos depicting scenes which were edited out of the film was displayed in 2005 in Rome. Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Bertolucci released a documentary in 2006, Pasolini prossimo nostro, based on an interview with Pasolini done on the set of Salò in 1975. The documentary also includes photographs taken on the set of the film. The film is also the subject of a 2001 documentary written and directed by Mark KermodeMark Kermode
Mark Kermode is an English film critic, musician and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He contributes to Sight and Sound magazine, The Observer newspaper and BBC Radio 5 Live, where he presents Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews with Simon Mayo on Friday afternoons...
.
Acclaim
The film is considered a masterpiece by some artists. Acclaimed director Michael HanekeMichael Haneke
Michael Haneke is a German born Austrian filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style. His films often document problems and failures in modern society. Haneke has worked in television‚ theatre and cinema. He is also known for raising social issues in his work...
named the film his fourth favorite film when he voted for the 2002 Sight and Sound poll; director Catherine Breillat
Catherine Breillat
Catherine Breillat is a French filmmaker, novelist and Professor of Auteur Cinema at the European Graduate School.-Life and career:Breillat was born in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres, but grew up in Niort...
and film critic Joel David also voted for the film. A 2000 poll of critics conducted by The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
named it the 89th greatest film of the 20th century. In 2006, the Chicago Film Critics Association
Chicago Film Critics Association
The Chicago Film Critics Association is an American film critic association.-Members:Current members include:*Sarah Knight Adamson*Zbigniew Banas*Shelley Cameron*Dave Canfield*Vittorio Carli*Erik Childress*Camerin Courtney*Bonnie DeShong...
named Salò the 65th scariest film ever made. In 2010, the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
placed it at #47 on its list of The Essential 100 films.
Versions
Several versions of the film exist. Salò originally ran 145 minutes, but director Pasolini himself removed 25 minutes for story pace. The longest available version is the DVD published by the British Film InstituteBritish Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
(BFI), containing a short scene usually deleted from other prints, in which during the first wedding one of the masters quotes a Gottfried Benn
Gottfried Benn
Gottfried Benn was a German essayist, novelist, and expressionist poet. A doctor of medicine, he became an early admirer, and later a critic, of the National Socialist revolution...
poem. This version of the film is featured both on the original 2001 DVD release and the remastered 2008 DVD and Blu-ray. Since the remastered version was sourced from the original negative, which does not include the poetry reading, the additional footage was sourced from a 35 mm print of the film held by the BFI National Archive. A note in the DVD booklet explains that this leads to a slight shift in picture quality. Aside from the high-definition transfer, the 2008 BFI releases are identical - the apparent five-minute difference in running time is explained by the Blu-ray running at the theatrical speed of 24 frames per second, while the DVD has been transferred at the slightly faster PAL video rate of 25 frames per second.
In the U.S., Salò suffered intermittent legal troubles. The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
and DVD editions were released for North America; however, the DVD was quickly withdrawn because of licensing conflicts with Pasolini's estate. As a result, Criterion's 1998 DVD release of the film created much collector's interest. Moreover, its rarity inspired bootleg
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
copies sold as original pressings. The quality of the genuine Salò DVD is inferior by contemporary standards; most notably, the image has a green tinge. Criterion has since reissued the film in a completely remastered two-disc edition, albeit with the same spine number (17) as the original pressing.
Besides the BFI edition with the often missing poetry-quotation scene, there exists a French DVD version, distributed by Gaumont Columbia Tristar Home Video, containing a transfer that is a restored, high-definition, colour-corrected version of the film (superior to the original Criterion and BFI editions), however, it has no English subtitles, as it is a French product for French cinephiles.
The Hawaii film company HK Flix released an NTSC-format Salò through distributor Euro Cult in 2007. It reportedly contains the uncut Criterion Collection release — yet of better quality. The HK Flix edition is an NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
version of the BFI's Salò DVD, complete with a factory imperfection at the film's 01:47:19 mark, however, its quality is unequal to that of the Gaumont DVD, and, still, it is missing a scene. The DVD cover is a sketch of Pasolini in sunglasses
Sunglasses
Sunglasses or sun glasses are a form of protective eyewear designed primarily to prevent bright sunlight and high-energy visible light from damaging or discomforting the eyes. They can sometimes also function as a visual aid, as variously termed spectacles or glasses exist, featuring lenses that...
; Paolo Bonacelli
Paolo Bonacelli
Paolo Bonacelli is an Italian actor.He is best known for his performance as The Duke de Blangis in Pasolini's notorious Salò...
's name is printed beside it. Moreover, despite accusations of boot-legging, Euro Cult assert their legal entitlement to distribute the Salò DVD in the U.S.
In its online blog, On Five, the Criterion company said, in November 2006, that they re-acquired the distribution rights for Salò. In May 2008, Criterion released the cover art of the reissue DVD, slated for release in August 2008, comprising two discs: (I) the film (with an optional dubbed-English track) and (II) three documentaries and new interviews.
In August 2008, the BFI announced a new release of Salò on both high-definition Blu-ray and standard-definition DVD, claiming it to be "fully uncut and in its most complete version", and that "the film has been re-mastered from the original Italian restoration negatives" and would be accompanied by a second disc containing extensive additional features. The BFI re-issue does indeed contain the missing 25 second poem intact, but according to Criterion's website this sequence is not an official part of the film, because the footage is not present in the interpositive that the camera negative was struck from (which formed the basis of their transfer).
The Criterion Collection released the film on Blu-ray on October 4, 2011.
External links
- Criterion Collection essay on Salò, by John Powers
- Rare OOP DVDs Guide to identify original Criterion DVD.
- DVDBeaver.com Version Comparison Features, image, and sound quality comparison of the different DVD releases.