Monday, November 9, 2009

Salo or 120 days of Sodom when I was 16.


120 Days of Sodom - Trailer (Salo 120 Días de Sodoma)

When I was teenager, I used to go to a local theatre that every Tuesdays they will have Foreign movies. They will show Japanese movies, Swedish, French, Spanish, Chinese.

I used to get a kick out of them. Specially the karate flicks I used to bring my neighbors for the Karate flicks and they were uncontrollable. They will run through out the theater kicking and fight acting, I used to love the fact that people will get annoyed with them and cursed them out. They gave a shit what people thought of them. One time a woman told one of them to stop jumping from the seat to seat and jimmy pull down his pants and farded at the woman’s face. I was on the floors laughing like a hyena.

Well one time there was this film whose director I did not know his work, Pier Paolo Pasolinni. The movie called my attention right away because it was x rated. So here I went thinking of the hand job that I was going to entertain following the movie. I paid my entrance and alone I sat down to watch the most decadent perverse frightening movie of my life. Up until this day I can’t honestly say that I like the movie, but is that kind of experience that you can never erase. Imagine Caligula X version, with a more contemporary look, and ten times more perverse.

I know that a lot of the members of the queer community have lots of issues with the movie. But this was not even a movie about queer constructions. Peir Paolo Pasolinni himself was queer. He has the most wonderful collection of movies with a huge preoccupation with human sexuality. Arabian Nights, beautiful dream like movie, Canterbury tales, awesome dialogue between the fairy tales and the sexuality meant to provoke. Salo was about Fascism during Mussolini’s time and how in a corrupt society the church, the army, the law, and the government in its patriarchal formation can get away with genocide.

There is a part in the movie were one of the Main Characters, tells to a group of youngsters when they arrived that they should consider themselves dead from the moment of arrival. Recently I went back to recap some of the trailers, I was 16 years old when I saw the movie and was amazed at one of the statements the character made. He said that Fascists are the true anarchists because they a urge for power.

Not long ago Ramona had a post in where she was talking about the fringe like the birther, as anarchist and I on the other hand consider them fascists nor anarchist, but Pier Paolo Pasolini summarixed them and in one singe sentence Pasolinni was capable of mapping their trajectory. Rumor has it that Passolini was kill right after the movie debuted in retaliation against the movie. I warned you be prepared to be shocked. But in a fictional historical context the movie has great relevance.

2 comments:

  1. What the hell??!!
    "...most decadent perverse frightening movie of my life." I'll agree with you on that, on just the trailer alone! This makes me wonder what John Waters could have done if he had some money back in his early years.

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  2. But Larry the movie does have historical value. It really shows the degradation that took place in Italy during Mussolini's time. But if you want to see a sexy movie watch Arabian Nights

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