All language subtitles for hieri

“Anyone interested in civics must see
Night' and Fog and Salo'. ”

Camera.

Action!

MAY 1975 -FINAL DAYS \
OF SHOOTING AT CINECITTA

Efizio, take a step forward.

Claudio, move in.

Stop! Okay-

SALO': YESTERDAY AND TODAY

How will we do it from close up?

A lot better.

Okay, Valletti.

You know what you're to do, right?

You go over there.
You get undressed.

You throw the robe on the -

You light the candle

and walk forward holding it.

L'll light the candle.
Everyone else is naked.

Don't you have
some nasty little role for me?

Wait till you see what you do
in the next scene.

Thank goodness.

You can't imagine.

Thank goodness.

No, you take the robe off here.

Take the robe off
and toss it on the chair.

You light the candle,

and then, without hurrying,
you take it over there.

And when you get near,
pretend to burn Tonino's genitals.

Yes, get up close
to him like that.

You get close
to his genitals,

and that's when l'll call “cut!”

Attention, please!

Just like before, okay?

L'll do one more pan shot.

On “action,” he starts wailing,
and the rest of you hold him still.

When I say “Valletti,”
you light the candle.

Attention, please!

Giorgio,
a little more to the left.

Move a little closer
to Umberto. There.

Tonino, look into the camera.

Look right here.

Understand?

On “action,”
you scream and cry,

and look as much as you can
into the camera.

But not the rest of you.
You hold him still.

Attention, please. Camera.

Action!

Start shouting!
Look into the camera!

Scream! Scream!

No, Valletti!
Start moving when I say “Valletti.”

Hold him down more.

At a certain point you can -

Who could do it the meanest?

Hold his head steady
so he can't move it up and down

so I can see his eyes,
okay?

Attention, please. Camera.

Be serious, Tonino.

Look into the camera.

Now yell.

Don't laugh.

Open your eyes.

Wider.

Open your eyes wider.

“Money has corrupted everything.
I'm going into hiding.”

(Pasolini as quoted
by Ninetto Davoli in Libération)

The film had been offered to Sergio Citti,

and I worked with him
on the screenplay.

My main contribution

was giving it
a Dante-esque structure,

which was probably already
de Sade's intention.

That is, I divided
the screenplay into circles.

I gave the screenplay a kind of
Dante-esque verticality and order.

But while we were working
on the screenplay,

Sergio Citti gradually
grew disenchanted with it

because he got an idea
for another film.

Whereas I fell in love
with it bit by bit,

and especially
when the flash of inspiration came

to transport de Sade
to the Salo of 1944.

The idea for a film is never
the product 0f a series 0f thoughts,

or at least it's interrupted
by a flash of inspiration,

like what happened
in this case with de Sade.

I had this flash of inspiration
the moment I decided

to transpose The 120 Days oi Sodom
to the spring of 1944.

That's when I saw
the choreography of Fascism.

The formal idea,

the flash of inspiration I have
of what a film should be,

can't be expressed in words.

You get it or you don't.
I can't explain it.

l mean, when I decide
to make a film

it's because I have
a flash of inspiration

that is the formal idea for the film,
the synthesis of the film.

Sadomasochism
is an eternal characteristic of man.

It existed during de Sade's time,
and it exists now.

But that's not what matters most.
That matters too,

but the real meaning
of the sex in my film

is as a metaphor for the relationship
between power and its subjects.

So all of de Sade's
sadomasochism

has a very clear
and specific function."

to show what power does
to the human body,

how it reduces the human body
to a commodity.

lt's basically the annulment
of the personality of “the other.”

So it isn't just about power,
but what I call the anarchy of power.

Nothing is more
anarchic than power.

Power can essentially
do what it wants,

and what it wants
is completely arbitrary

or dictated by its economic needs
that elude common logic.

But besides the anarchy of power,

this film is also about
the nonexistence of history.

That is, history as such,

as seen by Eurocentric culture,

by Western rationalism and empiricism
as well as Marxism -

the film seeks to show
that it doesn't really exist.

I wouldn't say
it's for the times we live in now.

I take it as a metaphor
of the relationship between power

and those subjected to it.

S0 ifs a valid reality
for all times.

Clearly, the motivation
came from the fact

that I detest the power
in today's world,

which manipulates
the body horribly

and rivals Himmler
and Hitler in every way.

Eat, eat, eat!

It manipulates the body
by transforming it into conscience,

the very worst way,

establishing new values
that are alienating and false.

Consumerist values
that fulfill what Marx calls

a genocide of vital
and real earlier cultures.

For example, it destroyed Rome.
Romans no longer exist.

A young Roman no longer exists.
He's a corpse of himself

who's still alive biologically

in an imponderable state
between the ancient values

of the underlying
popular Roman culture

and the new, consumerist,
petit bourgeois values forced upon him.

Eat it.

Eat.

These are arguments I'm making to you.
lt's all in the film.

I don't know if it will be clear,
if the ordinary viewer will notice.

Even a film critic might not notice.

But the dynamic,
what motivated me to make the film,

is what I was just saying.

Eva, I can't go on.

Offer it to the Madonna.

Man has always been
a conformist.

Man's principle trait is to conform

to whatever power
or type of life he's born into.

Sorry, we were ordered to do this.

Ifs a social
characteristic 0f man.

Man is, perhaps by his very biology,
narcissistic and rebellious,

enamored of his own identity
and so on.

But society forces him to conform.

He bows his head once and for all
before society's obligations.

This is an individual fact

that sometimes has repercussions
even in a certain social environment,

but I don 'z' think there 'll ever be
a society where man is free.

We shouldn't hope for anything.

Hope is a horrible thing
invented by political parties

to keep their members in line.

You men know that for us
your instructions are law.

What is technique in cinema?
“lt's a myth.”

(Pasolini in Jean-André Fieschi's
Pasolini l'enragé)

lt's what I generally always do,

but taken to extremes.

My obsessive use
of shots/reverse shots,

one close-up
contrasted with another,

the absence
of over-the-shoulder shots,

the complete absence of characters
who leave and enter the shot,

and most' of all
the absence 0f sequence shots -

all this is typical of my films.

I think in this film it's all taken
to its maximum clarity,

its most absolute degree.

When I shoot a film,
I'm really just collecting material.

Therefore, I choose a set
or a natural location,

and I collect material depending
on the light and whatever's there.

I do the same
with professional actors.

I put a boy who's never acted before
in front of the camera

and keep him there
while I collect material.

It means a lot of work
in the editing room

to eliminate useless material

and select instead
that moment of truth

that flashed in his look
or in his smile.

But that doesn't happen
in this film,

because this isn't raw material
reworked in the editing room.

This film is being edited
as I shoot it.

So I need more professionalism
from the actors.

Actually, here there are
four or five professional actors

in the purest sense of the word.

Others I took off the street,
so it's their first time acting,

but I treat them
as if they were actors

and demand they act
like real, professional actors.

They must deliver
their lines as written

and have the right expression
throughout.

I make them learn their lines
and deliver them exactly.

Of course, I leave ample room
for improvisation and freedom.

But in general it's all
more planned than usual.

Now, Umberto.

Valletti, when I say “action,”

you go over to the table
where the candle is.

You light it,

and making sure
that it doesn't go out,

you walk slowly toward Tonino.

The rest of you hold Tonino down
by his arms and legs.

Understand?

Valletti, when you're
in front of Tonino,

kneel down as if to burn his -
Understand?

Some are always unhappy
and their entire lives regret,

each morning, their actions
of the previous night.

I opened the shooting
with the first story.

I came down a long staircase.

The roof above was missing
because we were in an old' palazzo.

I was freezing
in my low-cut gown.

I thought, “If I fall,
I'II never get over it.”

I was practically born in a school
where Mother was a servant.

As a film shoot,

it was quite special, very unusual.
ACTRESS

There were always
about 40 actors on the set.

There were four cameras,
at least for my scenes.

I don't know how the more
intimate scenes were shot.

He shot enormous amounts of film

and put the film together
in the editing room.

Even the sound was added later.

So it really took shape
in the editing room.

The mood on the set
was quite unique

because of all the teenagers.

They were all
between 14 and 18,

so it was like being

in high school.

In the most horrible scenes,

the challenge was
to keep them from laughing.

Some kid from Home would make
a crack in his Roman dialect,

and everyone would
burst out laughing.

So, on the set, paradoxically,

the mood was jovial
and immature.

When I saw the film,

I wondered how we'd made something
so awful without realizing it.

It' was a shock.
The film terrified me.

FILMMAKER AND PASOLINI COLLABORATOR

Later, working on the subtitles,
I came to know the film well.

After seeing it over and over
while making the French dub,

I became aware of the comic quality
that was there despite everything.

Not comic in its message,
which isn't funny,

but in the actors' behavior.

They never play it

as a tragedy.

Their acting has an indifferent,
everyday quality.

Efizio, do me.

When I read the script,
from a political point of view

I agreed with the film.

Demonstration before second round in
French presidential elections, April 2002

Perhaps now, after April 21,

we're a bit more aware

of such problems.

NO TO THE NAZI-ONAL FRONT

In 1975, I saw Fascists
parading in Boulogne,

in uniform
and making Fascist salutes.

People watching
from the sidewalk applauded.

That was really scary.

There was also
a neo-Fascist movement in Belgium

which was very visible
at the time.

What came as a shock on April 21

was something that
everyone felt back then.

Everyone said,
“lf their presence is that strong...

will they return to power?”

There's always that fear.

For him, the film had
to be made at that moment.

It was a denunciation,
and it had to be made at that moment.

Pier Paolo enjoyed making these films,
ACTOR AND CLOSE COLLABORATOR

because he had to put

a certain raw truthfulness
into these films.

I must say that he worked
with great determination,

very rigorously.

And when he'd finished it,

this ruthlessness and rigor
that he'd put into shooting it

resulted in a wonderful film,

both in how he shot it
and how he put it together.

I watched him with the eye,
shall we say,

of an impressed onlooker.

I was impressed again
when I saw the finished film,

even though
I'd watched him make it.

Seeing the final cut
on the screen

made a very strong
and intense impression.

The total work is beautiful.
Salo' is a masterpiece.

That flower is reserved for us.

Everyone was afraid of the film.

We got threatening letters.
We had police protection on the set.

Some film was stolen...

and finally, Pasolini was murdered.

He died at the beginning
of November.

We were supposed
to start the French dub...

with Michel Piccoli

and other big stars.

We set up the French dub...

and Jean-Claude Biette
directed it

because Monday morning,
Pasolini wasn't there.

He died Saturday night...

after finishing
the preparations on Friday.

The subtitled version was done...

and we did the dubbed version
the following week.

The principle of all greatness
on earth VOICE OF MICHEL PICCOLI

has long been totally bathed in blood.

And still, my friends,
if my memory doesn't betray me,

yes, it's so.
“Without bloodshed,

there's no pardon.

Without bloodshed.”
Baudelaire.

With Pasolini
it was always very quick.

He didn't dwell on things.

Since it was inspired
by de Sade,

it seemed right to him
for the film to be in French,

even if he had
to make an Italian version

because it was an Italian film.

Its first audience was Italian,

but once it left Italy,

it was the French version
that mattered to him.

His murder frightened

everyone in power...

both in cinema and politics.

FINISHED OFF
BY THE WHEELS OF HIS CAR

The film was banned in Italy.

In France, it was shown

at the Paris Film Festival.

Lots of Italian directors came.

I don't know how many.
Ten or 20.

They came to give
a press conference on the film

and talk about the murder,
the film, its ban in Italy,

and why the film was made.

And they weren't
allowed to speak.

It was really...

awful to witness that,

because suddenly there was
this resonance between the film

and what was going on then.

It was terrifying.

Eat, my dear bride.

You must keep your strength.

You must prepare
for our night of love.

It's just been rereleased...

and I read an article in Aden

that really struck me because -

I believe a woman wrote it.

It said that the dictatorship
of consumerism is the new Fascism.

And it's true.
The film can be seen that way.

In retrospect,
we can see the film differently

based on the society we live in today.

“Pasolini sets out to dissect
and slay consumerist society

because it is 'a new Fascism.'

He abhors this society,
so his film must be abhorrent.”

Making this trilogy,

in the end

Pier Paolo understood that the world
he'd described in these three films -

I think he understood
that the world was changing,

that it was becoming, let's say -

I mean, it wasn't a fairy-tale.

It was changing radically.

Not for the good,
but for the worse,

in the sense that the world
of the consumer was taking over,

a world that expressed
itself in other ways,

a world
of little sophistication.

A certain ideology
was disappearing.

A whole series of things
were unraveling.

In fact,
when he finished this trilogy,

after telling these wonderful stories,
understanding all these things,

he wanted to make a change
with this film Sale').

It's the last film he made,

and I think it's like he's rejecting -

Not' rejecting
in a negative sense,

but like he's lost the desire.

He's lost the three stories
that he told us years before.

It's a radically different way

of looking at life.

And it wasn't good.

It wasn't beautiful or happy.

And Pier Paolo gave vent
to his feelings by making Salo,

He made a beautiful, striking,

and very shocking film.

Bu!' I! was a different son'
0f turning point,

one tied to the changes
in the world

that were taking place
at that time, 1975.

And he did it
with a certain ruthlessness,

like saying, “I'II show you what life is like,
how I see the situation.”

He gave us
this portrayal of Salo...

as crude as could be,

as if telling all the hypocrites,
“Now I 'II show you.”

It's not that the new cinema
is what people deserve to see.

It's what the world
can look like

when people's lives are changing.

Do this with your fingers.

And say, “I can't eat rice
with my fingers like this.”

I can't eat rice.

Then eat shit.

I know that
the more you see it...

and the more
the initial shock passes,

the more the film
becomes extremely stimulating...

in terms of your awareness...

of horror.

One has to be willing
to see in a film

essential aspects of life.

Everyone can do it.

They just need to be open
and willing.

Most of all, Pasolini tried
to understand his times

with his eyes wide-open,
unafraid to take a stand.

So in a way,

he was more than an artist,

more than a great writer.

He was someone trying
to live in his time with dignity.

So who is your film's audience?

lt's for everyone.
For people like me.