Salò, or 120 Days of Sodom (1975) | Fascism & Italian Filmmakers (w/ guest Jared O'Connor)

Red Rose Film Club

For the final episode in our series on Fasicsm and Italian Filmmakers, we watched Pier Paolo Pasolini's controversial 1975 film SALO, OR 120 DAYS OF SODOM, and discuss the depravity of 1940s fascist Italy. (TW: this film, and our discussion of it, features graphic depictions of sexual assault and human degradation). Discussion also includes:

• How does Paosolini define fascism;
• Fascism and Nietzche;
• Salò as both atrocious and sublime;
• Art that is antithetical to capitalism.

Follow us online!

• Follow us on Twitter at @RedRoseFilmPod
• Follow our Facebook Group
• Follow Hal on Twitter at @shestructured
• Follow Craig on Twitter at @KegFreighter
• Follow Jared on Twitter at @jjoconno
• Follow Hal's Letterboxd
• Follow Craig's Letterboxd

Sources & Links

• Gideon Bachmann. 1975. “Pasolini and the Marquis de Sade” originally published in Sight & Sound; included as part of the Criterion DVD
• Roland Barthes. 1971. “The Life of Sade.” https://supervert.com/elibrary/marquis-de-sade/roland-barthes-life-of-sade
• H. James Burgwyn. 2018. Mussolini and the Salo Republic, 1943-1945: The Failure of Puppet Regime. Springer.
• Naomi Green. “Breaking the Rules” included as part of the Criterion DVD
• https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche-moral-political/
• Mario Sznajder. 2002. “Nietzsche, Mussolini, and Italian Fascism” in Nietzsche, Godfather of Fascism? On the Uses and Abuses of a Philosophy. Princeton University Press.
• https://archives.evergreen.edu/webpages/curricular/2005-2006/sacredmonsters/readings/sade.pdf
• Fabio Vighi. 2007. “Liberation Hurts: Violence, Masochism and AntiCapitalism According to Pasolini” Italian Studies, 62:1, 61-77