120 Days of Sodom 1975 dir. Pier Paulo Pasolini 118 mins. Four local bigwigs - the Duke, the Bishop, the Chief Magistrate and a President organise a mass arrest of the area's attractive male and female youths. After sealing their own relationship by marrying each other's daughters, the four bigwigs retreat to an isolated villa with guards, servants, a pianist, the sixteen most attractive prisoners and three storytellers who will add spice to the proceedings by recounting their own perverse and varied sexual histories. The film is then divided into three sections, one for each storyteller.
Sexual organs are burnt, someone is branded, there is also a scalping and an eye and tongue removal.
The four bigwigs take turns to watch and partake in these events aided by the guards. Thus the film concludes. For Reams, reams and more reams have been scribbled about this film. Salo is certainly one of the most disturbing films you'll ever see - at least on it's first viewing. It's neither titillating or prurient, it goes way beyond that.