Accattone

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Audience Member Pasolini's first film as a director; he was previously a poet, writer, and screenwriter; for example, of Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (1957). Similar to that earlier film, Accattone focuses on people living on the lower rungs of society's ladder, but it isn't quite neo-realism. Instead, Pasolini's film has a lyrical and intense quality (and a startling dream sequence) that brings it closer to the films of the arthouse masters (Bergman comes to mind). Accatone himself (a charismatic Franco Citti) is a scumbag, convincing girls to become prostitutes because he doesn't want to work himself (his nickname equates to beggar/exploiter/freeloader). But Pasolini doesn't want to judge him - he shows us Accatone's tender side as well as his weaknesses. We see him try honest physical labour for pay (and give up on it straightaway). In his context, a bunch of shiftless guys on the street, some thieves, mostly the idle poor, he is the class clown, the butt of all jokes -- and he seems to relish it. Despite (or because of) the seediness of the milieu and the transgressive acts on display, the film is mesmerizing and probably shocking for its time (although Pasolini would shock even more in his later films). The cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli is beautiful (though the environs are not); the actors often look straight into the camera offering beautiful portraits for the viewer. In the end, this heightens our sympathy for those who are barely scraping by (and nevertheless often enjoying themselves) in line with Pasolini's Marxist philosophy. A great debut. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member A brutalidade e o desespero frígido deste filme de 1962 impacto cru e duro da realidade qur muitos ocultam Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member The St Matthew Passion. The face of Franco Citti. The black and white roman suburb. The first film of Pasolini. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Pier Paolo Pasolini's first foray into film holds all the hallmarks of the auteur's eventual genius - glimpsed long before he discovered his true calling. Accattone is a tale of desolate wasters in a desolate wasteland, thought to be adapted from the multi-platform poet's early novels. The film plays out like a traditional neo-realist flick, but with a pitch-black twist. Pasolini's neo-realism is gritty, and far grimmer than the great auteur's soul would prove to be in its prime. Accattone is an anti-movement film, yet it aches of a meandering yearning for focus - much like Pasolini's modern-day fans will while watching it. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Audience Member "Like most of the Italian Neorealist films of the late nineteen-forties to early sixties, Accattone (Rome: Arco Film, 1961), as a later derivative form of the genre, focuses mainly on the struggle of the marginalized lower classes, as they struggle at the farthest periphery of a more functionally elevated and elite social-cultural community." Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Pier Paolo Pasolini's neo-realist debut is groundbreaking in accusing the brutality in society in which wrongdoers can hardly reverse their prescribed destiny and turn over a new leaf. Wonderful performance by the repugnant yet pitiful Franco Citti. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Accattone

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