Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by horseflesh

Pro-B, is there any likelihood of the French release being an improvement over the UK one?

Unfortunately, I have not received this disc yet. Will provide more information soon

Pro-B

[demoni]

Originally Posted by pro-bassoonist

Unfortunately, I have not received this disc yet. Will provide more information soon

Pro-B

Looking forward to your review. Region code, the extra "lost" scene, picture quality, sound...

[toddly6666]

The blu-ray quality was excellent. The movie was pretty interesting as well, but I don't think I could watch it again. Does anyone want to buy ($12) or trade for my copy?

[crazybeats]

Does anyone remember about 10 years ago there was over 50 minutes of footage found in a vault? I remember the article online was not in English but it wasn't too long after the original BFI blu ray and I remember there was talk at the time of a possible reissue with this extra footage. I think the footage was also screened on it's own but it was said that even though the deleted scenes totalled over 50 minutes, there was no gore in it. I wish I could find the article online or details of what was in the footage again and see if they ever found any more footage. Why has no company tried to release the movie again and reinserting nearly an hours worth of footage?

[Olmo]

Originally Posted by crazybeats

Does anyone remember about 10 years ago there was over 50 minutes of footage found in a vault? I remember the article online was not in English but it wasn't too long after the original BFI blu ray and I remember there was talk at the time of a possible reissue with this extra footage. I think the footage was also screened on it's own but it was said that even though the deleted scenes totalled over 50 minutes, there was no gore in it. I wish I could find the article online or details of what was in the footage again and see if they ever found any more footage. Why has no company tried to release the movie again and reinserting nearly an hours worth of footage?

Inserting 1 second of footage the director deemed superfluous never mind 50 minutes into their film would be breathtakingly irresponsible is why, I would imagine.

[crazybeats]

Well they could just include it as a feature on it's own. From what I remember it was complete with sound. I remember someone did the translation and the majority of the footage was prior to the teenagers arriving and before anything bad happened but there was a few other scenes that would have been included in the final scenes but there was no gore.

And at the end of the day the UK version has a 24 second scene which is not on any of the negatives or prints at the Pasolini foundation. So if it's not in any of their prints or the negatives then why was it released here? Because it was in the prints they had. Just like these 50+ minutes exist. No reason why those scenes can't be inserted back in where they would have originally been and would take the film well over the 3 hour mark.

[Bobbyjoe766]

While this film is an acquired taste, I would buy a set with multiple (all) cuts.

A new version with the missing 50 minutes could be included as a bonus extra.

[crazybeats]

I would too. I know there are stills showing missing scenes also, since it's been so long since those 50 minutes were found and I've heard nothing since then other than they were screened and what was on them, I thought maybe more footage was found.

[AlexIlDottore]

Originally Posted by crazybeats

Well they could just include it as a feature on it's own. From what I remember it was complete with sound. I remember someone did the translation and the majority of the footage was prior to the teenagers arriving and before anything bad happened but there was a few other scenes that would have been included in the final scenes but there was no gore.

And at the end of the day the UK version has a 24 second scene which is not on any of the negatives or prints at the Pasolini foundation. So if it's not in any of their prints or the negatives then why was it released here? Because it was in the prints they had. Just like these 50+ minutes exist. No reason why those scenes can't be inserted back in where they would have originally been and would take the film well over the 3 hour mark.

Fan edit. No thanks

[RazorwireRyan]

I'm such an avid fan of Salo, that I had to make my own fan edit of it, even though I fundamentally don't agree with anything fan edits stand for. I hasten to say I "improved" the film, as these things are all subjective, but I would at least say it's now my preferred version, and the definitive cut for my own personal enjoyment

You can check it out here, don't @ me.

[Show spoiler]

Longest blank video ever uploaded to Youtube (1 hour 46 minutes 39 seconds, no audio or video) - YouTube

[Takeshi666]

Originally Posted by RazorwireRyan

an avid fan of Salo

And I thought I had made questionable life choices.

[jmat91]

I've always enjoyed this film. Even my first viewing experience on that awful green criterion dvd from 1998, It still stuck with me.

[Fnord Prefect]

Originally Posted by Takeshi666

And I thought I had made questionable life choices.

Did you click the spoiler?

[moorje]

Originally Posted by crazybeats

Well they could just include it as a feature on it's own. From what I remember it was complete with sound. I remember someone did the translation and the majority of the footage was prior to the teenagers arriving and before anything bad happened but there was a few other scenes that would have been included in the final scenes but there was no gore.

And at the end of the day the UK version has a 24 second scene which is not on any of the negatives or prints at the Pasolini foundation. So if it's not in any of their prints or the negatives then why was it released here? Because it was in the prints they had. Just like these 50+ minutes exist. No reason why those scenes can't be inserted back in where they would have originally been and would take the film well over the 3 hour mark.

What needs to be taken into consideration though is how would inserting this footage into the existing film affect the narrative structure? These cuts will have been made for a reason and putting them back in can completely spoil the pacing of the film or the dramatic impact of certain scenes. The director's cut of Leon is a good example which turns a noirish thriller into a comedy.

[RazorwireRyan]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

Did you click the spoiler?

Day made!

[El_Fez]

In capping off my Video Nasty Project, we did an episode where we played Mary Whitehouse and came up with a list of movies that we would put on the list. One of my choices was Salo - never seen it before, but I knew it by reputation as depraved.

Holy shit, was this one ****ed-up movie. I'm trying to figure out which offended me more: this or Pink Flamingos.

But the thing that gets me? Okay, eating shit and constant rape and degradation is offensive, but the thing that I hated the most? That it was boring as hell. Okay, more sex. Sex, sex. Oh here comes a beating. oh good, another rape. My friend even asked, once we got about half way though it, why the hell are we finishing this? "I gotta know the punchline! How does this damn thing end!"

Sadly the punchline wasn't worth it.

Perhaps there was a message in there about how "Nazis/fascists are bad people" or whatever, but the movie was so poorly executed in delivering that message that I couldn't care.

I will give the movie this - it was gorgeously shot and composed. The sets, the shots, it all looked great. Full marks for that!

(BTW, for more disgusting, I think I'll have to give Pink Flamingos the edge. Everything in Salo is simulated (I hope). But actual shit came out of an actual's dog's actual ******* and went into Divine's actual mouth. That trumps two hours of fascist rape any day of the week)

[Fnord Prefect]

Originally Posted by El_Fez

In capping off my Video Nasty Project, we did an episode where we played Mary Whitehouse and came up with a list of movies that we would put on the list. One of my choices was Salo - never seen it before, but I knew it by reputation as depraved.

Holy shit, was this one ****ed-up movie. I'm trying to figure out which offended me more: this or Pink Flamingos.

But the thing that gets me? Okay, eating shit and constant rape and degradation is offensive, but the thing that I hated the most? That it was boring as hell. Okay, more sex. Sex, sex. Oh here comes a beating. oh good, another rape. My friend even asked, once we got about half way though it, why the hell are we finishing this? "I gotta know the punchline! How does this damn thing end!"

Sadly the punchline wasn't worth it.

Perhaps there was a message in there about how "Nazis/fascists are bad people" or whatever, but the movie was so poorly executed in delivering that message that I couldn't care.

I will give the movie this - it was gorgeously shot and composed. The sets, the shots, it all looked great. Full marks for that!

(BTW, for more disgusting, I think I'll have to give Pink Flamingos the edge. Everything in Salo is simulated (I hope). But actual shit came out of an actual's dog's actual ******* and went into Divine's actual mouth. That trumps two hours of fascist rape any day of the week)

Talking about Pink Flamingos reminds me that in one of his books John Waters describes Salo's four protagonists as "scarier than the Wicked Witch off the West" Not much to add to that.

I don't buy into the it's a critique of fascism line, in part because earlier films that trod similar lines such as Cabaret and Salon Kitty had already done that and done it better (or perhaps I mean in a concise and accessible way), I just think Pasolini wanted to make a film of 120 Days of Sodom and with Mussolini (not to mention World War Two) still part of the living memory of most Italians making such claims was as good a justification as any.

Add to that the fact Salo is the only film I know of who's opening credits include a reading list (about 2:24 in the below video), all 5 titles of which deal with Sade's life and/or work. If he was commenting on fascism it would make sense to site literature pertaining to that subject.

120 Days of Sodom (opening) - YouTube

[bigshot]

Pink Flamingos is fun. And the worst scene in it isn't the last one, it's the chicken shack scene. The rest is just funny. Serbian Film and Salo are just ugly. Even Andy Warhol's Bad isn't all that bad if you've had a few beers. Italians can possibly make funny films, but Serbians I don't think are capable of that.

.

[Olmo]

Originally Posted by Fnord Prefect

Talking about Pink Flamingos reminds me that in one of his books John Waters describes Salo's four protagonists as "scarier than the Wicked Witch off the West" Not much to add to that.

I don't buy into the it's a critique of fascism line, in part because earlier films that trod similar lines such as Cabaret and Salon Kitty had already done that and done it better (or perhaps I mean in a concise and accessible way), I just think Pasolini wanted to make a film of 120 Days of Sodom and with Mussolini (not to mention World War Two) still part of the living memory of most Italians making such claims was as good a justification as any.

Add to that the fact Salo is the only film I know of who's opening credits include a reading list (about 2:24 in the below video), all 5 titles of which deal with Sade's life and/or work. If he was commenting on fascism it would make sense to site literature pertaining to that subject.

120 Days of Sodom (opening) - YouTube

Cabaret isn't so much a critique of fascism but a comment on the rise of Nazism in Weimar Germany as seen from the protagonist (in this case from the memoirs of Christopher Isherwood). As for Salon Kitty, it's a one dimensional tits & arse flick with imagery purloined from Visconti's The Damned. Offers no insights whatsoever as a comment on fascism / nazism.

With Salò, Pasolini was commenting on the contemporary moral corruption and the capitalist hegemony of the establishment in Italy, it was a stick he poked with at any given opportunity around the release of the film, and it ultimately cost him his life as elements of the far-right took exception to well publicised outbursts.

It isn't a comment on Fascism of the late 30's as you describe. The film may be set in the last days of WWII but that setting was merely a contemporaneous vehicle on which to hang the De Sade text.

[Nightman04]

Originally Posted by RazorwireRyan

I'm such an avid fan of Salo, that I had to make my own fan edit of it, even though I fundamentally don't agree with anything fan edits stand for. I hasten to say I "improved" the film, as these things are all subjective, but I would at least say it's now my preferred version, and the definitive cut for my own personal enjoyment

You can check it out here, don't @ me.

[Show spoiler]
Longest blank video ever uploaded to Youtube (1 hour 46 minutes 39 seconds, no audio or video) - YouTube

We have a trolling pro right here.

Side note: just about to watch this for the first time...