- Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
- Writers: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Sergio Citti, Marquis de Sade
- Starring: Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Umberto Paolo Quintavalle
- Run time: 1 Hour, 57 Minutes
- Amazon Link: https://amzn.to/2rIuVZN
Synopsis
We start out in Northern Italy at the end of WWII, in the town of Salo. A group of guys with machine guns stop a trio of bicyclists and take them away. Another boy is taken from his mother. A group of soldiers then spit on and round up a bunch of girls, and it turns out the President, the Duke, the Bishop, and the Magistrate all plan to marry each others’ daughters to ensure their loyalty to each other.
All the captured boys are lined up in front of these men. Some of them are chosen, and they’re told to expose themselves,and the crowd looks on. A number of boys and several girls are chosen, and it appears that they are intended for some kind of sexual slavery. It’s wartime, so nobody is going to miss these young people. They are read the rules concerning the upcoming orgies and what will be expected of them.
Everyone, the four men and all the young people, are now in “the room of orgies,” and an old woman comes in and tells the story of her first sexual encounter in order to set the stage for the party. A man leaves the room with one of the young men and later storms back in demanding the boy be punished for pulling away from him. Later, they have a big dinner served by naked girls. Then they all sing as if it were just a big sleepover. One girl screams and runs away, so they cut her throat and dump her in the middle of the room. A young pair is chosen to be married, and the men watch them consummate it.
Over the next hour or so, we see the group of young people narrow down and eventually are left with a group of more-or-less submissive sex-slaves. There are scenes of debasement and cruelty intertwined with the Madame, Signora Maggi’s, weird old stories and experiences.
Then things start getting a little twisted. The Madame tells a tale where she had to eat one of her clients’ excrement. One of the men forces one of the girls to do the same. Soon after, all the rest, including the men, have to eat a plate of poop as well.
The remainder of the film is filled with torture, degradation, and death. There’s not really any gore until the last ten minutes, and by that time, there’s some really cringeworhty stuff going on.
Commentary
It’s slow moving, and the scenery and cinematography are good. Everything is bright and colorful, but still has a dingy, war-weary look to it. It takes place in a dark old house, but everything is very well lit, and everything is sharp and clear on screen. Salo is a real town in Italy associated with Mussolini and his fascist government, and it seems likely this is all at least partially a metaphor for the atrocities that were committed there. Although in reality, this is partially based on a book by the Marquis de Sade.
There was no real end to the story, and the four “villains” get away with everything. There were no character arcs, no comeuppances, and no lessons learned. Some bad guys did bad things to a bunch of innocent young people because they had fun doing it.