gralety saford lavenyt
Karon Howey
Premiering at the Paris Film Festival on 23 November 1975, the film had a brief theatrical run in Italy before being banned in January 1976, and was released in the United States the following year on 3 October 1977. Because it depicts youths subjected to graphic violence, torture, sexual abuse, and murder, the film was controversial upon its release and has remained banned in many countries.
Accompanying the libertines at the palace are four middle-aged prostitutes, also collaborators, whose job it is to orchestrate debauched interludes for the men, who sadistically exploit their victims. During the many days at the palace, the four men devise increasingly abhorrent tortures and humiliations for their own pleasure. During breakfast, the daughters enter the dining hall naked to serve food. One of the studs trips and rapes Liana, the Duke's elder daughter, in front of the crowd, who laugh at her cries of pain. Intrigued, the President moons several slaves before prompting the stud to perform anal sex on him and the Duke sings "Sul Ponte di perati". Signora Vaccari uses a mannequin to demonstrate to the young men and women how to properly manually stimulate a penis and one of the girls tries to escape, only to have her throat cut. Signora Vaccari continues with her story. Two victims named Sergio and Renata are forced to get married. The ceremony is interrupted when the Duke fondles several victims and prostitutes. At the end, Sergio and Renata are forced to fondle each other and the men rape them to stop them from having sex with each other. During this, the Magistrate engages with the Duke in three-way intercourse.
On another day, the victims are forced to get naked and act like dogs. When one of the victims, Lamberto, refuses, the Magistrate whips him and tortures the President's daughter by tricking her into eating a slice of polenta containing nails.
Signora Maggi relates her troubled childhood and her coprophilia. As she tells her story, the President notices that one of the studs has an erection and fondles him; another stud uses a female victim's hand to masturbate. She also explains how she killed her mother over a dispute about her prostitution and Renata cries, remembering the murder of her own mother. The Duke, sexually excited at the sound of her cries, begins verbally abusing her. The Duke orders the guards and studs to undress her. During this, she begs God for death and the Duke punishes her by defecating on the floor and forcing her to eat his feces with a spoon. The President leaves to masturbate. Later, at a mock wedding reception for the Magistrate and Sergio, the victims are presented with a meal of human feces. During a search for the victim with the most beautiful buttocks, Franco is picked and promised death in the future.
Later, there is a Black Mass-like wedding between the studs and the men of power while the latter are dressed in drag. The men angrily order the children to laugh, but they are too grief-stricken to do so. The Pianist and Signora Vaccari tell dark jokes to make some of the victims laugh. The wedding ceremony ensues with each man of power exchanging rings with a stud. After the wedding, the Bishop consummates the marriage and receives intense and passionate anal sex from his stud. The Bishop then leaves to examine the captives in their rooms, where they start systematically betraying each other: Claudio reveals that Graziella is hiding a photograph, Graziella reveals that Eva and Antiniska are having a secret sexual affair. Victim Umberto is appointed to replace Ezio, who is shot to death for having sex with one of the staff and revealing himself to be a communist.
Toward the end, the remaining victims are called out to determine which of them will be punished. Graziella is spared due to her betrayal of Eva, and Rino is spared due to his submissive relationship with the Duke. Those who are called are given a blue ribbon and sentenced to a painful death, while those who have not been called, as long as they kept collaborating with the libertines, can hope to return home. The victims huddle together and cry and pray in the bathroom. They are then taken outside and raped, tortured and murdered through methods such as branding, hanging, scalping, burning and having their tongues and eyes cut out, as each libertine takes his turn to watch as a voyeur. The soldiers shake hands and bid each other farewell. The Pianist, looking out an open window, suddenly realises with horror what atrocities are being committed and, climbing out, throws herself to her death.
Pasolini's writing collaborator Sergio Citti had originally been attached to direct the intended adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's The 120 Days of Sodom.[6] During the creation of the first drafts of the script, Pasolini appealed to several of his usual collaborators, among them Citti, Claudio Masenza, Antonio Troisi and specially Pupi Avati.[7]
While collaborating with Citti on the script, Pasolini was compelled to transpose the setting of Sal from 18th-century France (as depicted in de Sade's original book) to the last days of Benito Mussolini's regime in the Republic of Sal in the spring of 1944.[8] Sal is a toponymical metonymy for the Italian Social Republic (RSI) (because Mussolini ruled from this northern town rather than from Rome), which was a puppet state of Nazi Germany.[9] While writing the script, it was decided between Citti and Pasolini that the latter would direct the project, as Citti had planned to write a separate project after completing Sal.[10] Pasolini noted his main contribution to Citti's original screenplay as being its "Dante-esque structure",[11] which Pasolini felt had been de Sade's original intention with the source material.[12]
In the film, almost no background is given on the tortured subjects and, for the most part, they almost never speak.[13] Pasolini's depiction of the victims in such a manner was intended to demonstrate the physical body "as a commodity... the annulment of the personality of the Other."[14] Specifically, Pasolini intended to depict what he described as an "anarchy of power",[15] in which sexual acts and physical abuse functioned as metaphor for the relationship between power and its subjects.[16] Aside from this theme, Pasolini also described the film as being about the "nonexistence of history" as it is seen from Western culture and Marxism.[17]
Interior designs was chosen to feature paintings and art by artists such as Severini, Duchamp and Feininger. Pasolini also stated that the four fascist libertines were written as highly educated characters and were to refer to themes brought up by, among others, Blanchot, Nietzsche and Klossowski.[18][19]
Initially, Ninetto Davoli was chosen to play Claudio, a young collaborationist, but due to legal problems he had to decline, the role being replaced by Claudio Troccoli, a young man who had a similarity to Davoli in his first films. Pupi Avati, being the writer, is not officially accredited also due to legal problems. Most of the actors of the cast, although they were natural performers, were non-professionals with minimal or no prior on-camera acting experience. Many of them were models, cast for their willingness to appear naked on-screen.
Pasolini regular Franco Citti was to play one of the soldiers' studs, but he did not appear. Laura Betti was also going to play Signora Vaccari, but also because of legal problems and prior commitments to Novecento declined the role, though she doubled the voice of Hlne Surgre in post-production.[citation needed]
Uberto Paolo Quintavalle (the Magistrate) was a writer; he knew Pasolini working on the newspaper Corriere della Sera. He was chosen for the role because he had all "the characteristics of a decadent intellectual".[21]
Several outdoor scenes were filmed in Villa Aldini,[22] a neoclassical building on the hills of Bologna. The interiors were shot in Villa Sorra near Castelfranco Emilia.[23] The noble hall of the building and the courtyard were filmed in the Cinecitt studios. The town on the Reno replaces the fictional location in Marzabotto.
The shooting, carried out mainly in the 16th-century Villa Gonzaga-Zani in Villimpenta in the spring of 1975, was difficult and involved scenes of homophilia, coprophagia and sadomasochism. The acts of torture in the courtyard caused some of the actors to suffer abrasions and burns.[24] Actress Hlne Surgre described the film shoot as "unusual", with nearly 40 actors being on set at any given time, and Pasolini shooting "enormous" amounts of footage.[25] She also noted the mood on the set as "paradoxically jovial and immature" in spite of the content.[26] In-between working, the cast shared large meals of risotto and also had football games played against the crew of Bernardo Bertolucci's Novecento, which was being filmed nearby.[27] It also marked the reconciliation between the then 34-year-old Bertolucci and his old mentor after several disagreements following Pasolini's criticism of Last Tango in Paris (1972) and his failure to defend it from drastic censorship measures.[28]
During production, some reels were stolen and the thieves demanded a ransom for their return. Using doubles, the same scenes were reshot but from a different angle. At the trial for Pasolini's murder, it was hypothesized that Pasolini was told the film reels were discovered in Ostia Lido. He was led there by Pelosi, the accused, and fell victim to an ambush, where he was murdered.[29]
The original music corresponds to Ennio Morricone interpreted at the piano by Arnaldo Graziosi. Other non-original music was Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in Veris leta facies at the nearly end of the film during Circle of Blood. Other music was several Frdric Chopin's pieces Preludes Op.28 n 17 and n4 and Valses Op. 34 n 2 in La minor.[citation needed]
Like most Italian films of the time, Sal was shot MOS (without direct sound), with all dialogue and foley effects dubbed in post-production. The controversy surrounding the production dissuaded the actors playing the Masters to return to loop their lines, so they were all re-dubbed by other (uncredited) actors. French actress Hlne Surgre (Vaccari) had her dialogue dubbed by Laura Betti.
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