120 Days Of Sodom Essay

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Criticism of Materialistic Consumption in Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, commonly referred to as solely Salò, is a 1975 Italian-French, allegoric film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. It is based on the book, The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade. The film focuses on four wealthy libertines and the storytelling of four prostitutes. The libertines portray a struggle between class and power politics during a time of Italian fascism due to their sadistic methods of torture on relatively young and mostly unnamed victims. Pasolini goes on to utilize scatological themes along with ideas of human merchandising to criticize consumerist culture and contemporary society through sex-power relationships. In an interview Pasolini did with Gideon Bachmann of Film Quarterly during the filming of Salò, Bachmann concluded that “sadism, for Pasolini, is a sexual metaphor for class struggle and power politics” (39). Pasolini, in the film, creates characters that represent the “constituted might” of society (Bachmann 40). These characters are the libertines, who are higher-up in a fascist society when compared to their mostly nameless victims. …show more content…
Those that are cultured and sadistic have more power than those below them. Structure is present within a realm that has been created for narcissistic, sexual enjoyment. Much like a fascist nation’s dictator, the palace ruled by the libertines, feels a need to take part in human merchandising. Pasolini claimed, “Aggression is necessary for the individual in a consumers’ society” (Bachmann 41). The characters, within their socially constructed society, are “little Hitlers,” for much like the leaders, they too desire power even though they have difficulties obtaining it (Bachmann 41). The victims of the micro-fascist society are mostly left nameless, for they are just gears within the consumerist