Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

On November 9, 1975, a week after Pasolini’s death, Corriere della Sera published his article titled “Renunciation of the Trilogy of Life”, written in June of the same year. Abiura in Italian (from the Latin ab iurare) means the refusal to take an oath and, by extension, the rejection of previously professed faith, ideas, or values. It is a legally and spiritually significant act under canon law. This is the key word to understanding Pasolini’s radicalism in his final years and the essence of this film. A work of blasphemy, a total and totalitarian tragedy.

A Duke, a President, a Bishop, and a Judge abduct a group of teenage boys and girls to subject them to physical and psychological torture in an isolated villa. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, made after the so-called Trilogy of Life (The Decameron, 1971; The Canterbury Tales, 1972; Arabian Nights, 1974), is an attempt to transpose the text of the Marquis de Sade into the historical framework of the fascist Republic of Salò while simultaneously serving as an expression of Pasolini’s personal vision – one as perverse in its logic as it is sacred in its moralistic fury.

Through it, Pasolini sought to definitively break not only with his most recent films (as he stated in the published article) but also with contemporary society and history, thereby declaring all utopian discourse exhausted. Everything returns, everything changes, everything dies, everything destroys everything else. But what does this film say to us today, in 2025? What value, tragedy, or warning does it represent?

We must learn to observe the present with clarity and critical insight while also looking upon the past with both tenderness and mercilessness, and seeing ourselves and the reality we live in with all its contradictions – human and political. In this final creative act, Pasolini was radical and, in his own way, both tender and ruthless, to the point of pain.

Stanisław Bardadin

Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975) was one of the most controversial and visionary filmmakers in European cinema. A poet, writer, and director, he fused stark realism with deep social critique. His The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) remains one of the most unique portrayals of Christ, while Teorema (1968) and Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) shocked audiences with their boldness. A fierce critic of conformity and bourgeois hypocrisy, Pasolini’s radical cinema continues to provoke discussion and inspire filmmakers worldwide.