Salò (120 Days of Sodom)

  This has got to be the most sinful movie I’ve watched so far.  It belongs to the Top 10 Most Controversial Films and honestly, I haven’t had the courage to finish it–as it is too disturbing and revolting for my tastes.

According to some research, this film was based on the book 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade.  It was made in 1975 by Pier Paolo Pasolini.  It has been banned from many countries, but heavily-cut versions have been shown in some. 

The movie is about four men who hand picked 16 perfect-bodied boys and girls.  They all stayed in one house.  In there, the pleasures of the four men were satisfied using the Circle of Manias, the Circle of Feces and the Circle of Blood, with the help of four other women, and at the account of the boys and girls.

The copy we watched has been digitally restored, its colors no longer B&W.  It was from a friend lent by a friend who downloaded it from the internet and burned it on a DVD.  If I’d give it a rating, it’d be Rated XXX.

The movie, at first, gave me an impression of peacefulness.  The music was minimal, the atmosphere calm and serene.  The actors spoke in mild voices and there were hardly any screams.  My impression changed when I began to understand what they were actually doing.  They treated the boys and girls like animals, and made them undergo rape, torture and mutilation.

What’s really scary about this film was the way they performed everything ceremoniously.  It was very formal.  Unlike the recent horror films Wrong Turn or Hills Have Eyes, the antagonists had hideous faces.  You had a real good reason to scream because what you saw was strikingly ugly.  But this film, the antagonists looked decent and respectable.  The four men wore suits and their hair were styled.  The four women wore make-up and expensive gowns.  But when they performed their acts on the boys and girls, their faces show no emotion.  Their actions were calculated, their composures perfect.  They moved mechanically to satisfy their pleasures, sort of like robots, completely disregarding the feelings of everyone but their own.

The direction of the film had been effective in showing the horrific Circles of Manias, Feces and Blood.  It was too scary, that at one time, I woke up and couldn’t sleep again because I had flashbacks of the film running in my mind.  I wouldn’t dare read the book or watch the movie again.  What I saw was enough.