Cast: Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Uberto Paolo Quintavalle Review by Colin Dibben
There is no way to make the plot sound healthy. It is 1943 and in Mussolini’s short-lived Fascist Republic of Salò, four libertines round up nine adolescent boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of torture, rape and murder, although I do not think anyone is counting.
The same cannot be said for the primary source, the Marquis de Sade’s notoriously horrific, schematic and quite literally by-the-numbers ‘novel’ The 120 Days of Sodom, written on a scroll of waste paper as he languished in Paris’ Bastille prison in 1785. The manuscript was lost and then finally published in 1904. Stylistically, the novel quickly becomes a list of numbered atrocities.
Pasolini’s task was to develop this provocation, to make it fit his own conceptual despair at the failure of post-68 Marxism/ leftist revolution and the catastrophic triumphs of late capitalist power and consumerism. The development – which should answer the question “what is the point of all this unpleasantness?” – is slightly oblique but the extras here set out the bigger picture.
Context is important too. It is worth watching the three films Pasolini made before this – often called The Trilogy of Life – to see what had failed, as far as Pasolini was concerned, by the time he made Salò. The connection between these films – and the inherent political changes they map – may appear oblique; but the short Interview Under The Tree included as an extra pinpoints the anger and despair Pasolini felt at the time. This was to be his last film; he was murdered three weeks after it came out.
The days of torture enacted are further templated by references to Dante’s description of Hell as a set of circles in his early 1300s narrative poem Inferno. The Circle of Shit will leave most viewers glad they didn’t have a heavy supper before viewing; whereas the torture-homicides in the Circle of Blood are lensed with a highlighted discreet detachment.
Salò is a film about the exercise of power on bodies and the ultimate, necessary degradation that ensues. Banned and censored around the world since its release, Salò is presented here in a new 4K restoration, with the extras on a standard Blu-ray disc. The film still shocks and repels but at least it now looks like a cinematic milestone.
Special features
- Restored 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Audio Commentary by film critic Kat Ellinger (2019)
- Audio commentary by film historians Troy Howarth and Eugenio Ercolani (2026)
- Pier Paolo Pasolini: The Interview Under the Tree (1975, 6 mins) an interview with the director conducted by Gideon Bachmann
- ‘OSTIA (The Death of Pasolini)’ Coil’s 1986 track with video accompaniment from 2008
- Open Your Eyes! (2008, 21 mins): Pasolini and his actors at work on the set of Salò
- Walking with Pasolini (2008, 22 mins): documentary featuring Neil Bartlett and Noam Chomsky
- Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die (1981, 61 mins): documentary on the life and death of Pasolini
- Salò: Fade to Black (2001, 24 mins): documentary exploring Pasolini’s Salò
- Ostia (1987, 27 mins): features Derek Jarman, and also includes optional audio commentary by Julian Cole
- The End of Salò (2008, 41 mins): documentary looking at the film’s production
- Enfants de Salò (2002, 19 mins): French filmmakers including Gaspar Noé deconstruct Salò
- Original Italian trailer
The first pressing also includes an illustrated booklet featuring a new essay by Zoë Rose Smith, archive writing by the late Sam Rohdie and Peter Christopherson, a look at the film’s historic censorship in the UK, notes on the special features and credits.
Salò is out on 4K UHD on 26 October from the British Film Institute.
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