Film Snail

6.4

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

NR·1976·116m

Horror

Drama

War

Horror

Drama

War

Summary

Four corrupted fascist libertines round up 9 teenage boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of sadistic physical, mental and sexual torture.

Cast

Paolo Bonacelli

The Duke

Giorgio Cataldi

The Bishop

Uberto Paolo Quintavalle

The Magistrate

Aldo Valletti

The President

Caterina Boratto

Signora Castelli

Elsa De Giorgi

Signora Maggi

Hélène Surgère

Signora Vaccari

Sonia Saviange

The Pianist

Sergio Fascetti

Sergio - Male Victim

Bruno Musso

Carlo Porro - Male Victim

Antonio Orlando

Tonino - Male Victim

Claudio Cicchetti

Male Victim

Franco Merli

Male Victim

Umberto Chessari

Male Victim

Lamberto Book

Lamberto Gobbi - Male Victim

Gaspare Di Jenno

Rino - Male Victim

Giuliana Melis

Female Victim

Faridah Malik

Fatimah - Female Victim

Graziella Aniceto

Female Victim

Renata Moar

Female Victim

Dorit Henke

Doris - Female Victim

Antiniska Nemour

Female Victim

Benedetta Gaetani

Female Victim

Olga Andreis

Eva - Female Victim

Tatiana Mogilansky

Daughter

Susanna Radaelli

Daughter

Giuliana Orlandi

Daughter

Liana Acquaviva

Daughter

Rinaldo Missaglia

Guard

Giuseppe Patruno

Guard

Guido Galletti

Guard

Efisio Etzi

Guard

Claudio Troccoli

Collaborator

Fabrizio Menichini

Collaborator

Maurizio Valaguzza

Collaborator

Ezio Manni

Collaborator

Paola Pieracci

Wife

Carla Terlizzi

Wife

Anna Maria Dossena

Wife

Anna Recchimuzzi

Wife

Ines Pellegrini

The Slave Girl

Alessandro Gennari

OVRA Officer (uncredited)

Marco Lucantoni

First Male Victim (uncredited)

Dante Trazzi

Boys Recruiter (uncredited)

Anna Troccoli

First Female Victim (uncredited)

Crew

Director, Writer

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Novel

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade

Writer

Pupi Avati

Writer

Sergio Citti

Reviews

Geronimo1967

August 29, 2022

Well you have to hand it to Pier Paolo Pasolini - he had one hell of an imagination. Here he devises a story of a group of nine young men and women who are apprehended by four powerful Fascist officials and held captive for use in some of the most degrading and painful games of sex, humiliation and abuse. I was warned not to eat chocolate before I saw this, and towards the end of this bizarre depiction of cruelty, depravity and exploitation it became quite clear why - and I'd reiterate that here. There is something profoundly desperate about the film. It has nothing even vaguely redeeming about it. Is it allegorical? Perhaps Pasolini is swiping at what he perceived to be the beginning of the disposable culture? Perhaps the illustration of mankind at it's more obscene offers us his perspective on just what humanity had become by the mid 1970s? In any case, this is frankly rather a disgusting film to watch and though I did feel the ending had a great deal of suitable retribution to it, I still struggled to quite get my head around this epitome of man's inhumanity to their own kind. I doubt I shall ever watch it again, but it packed out the cinema in which I watched it and there was plenty of provocative conversation in the bar about it afterwards...