Accattone

Released Nov 22, 1961

2h 0m

Drama

List

100%

Tomatometer

16 Reviews

88%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

In the slums of Rome, Vittorio "Accattone" Cataldi (Franco Citti) supports himself as a pimp for his longtime girlfriend, Maddalena (Silvana Corsini). When his meal ticket goes to jail after being assaulted by a pack of thugs, Accattone scrambles to survive, reduced to begging for food from his ex-wife, Ascenza (Paola Guidi). When he meets the virginal Stella (Franca Pasut), he sees a way back into his former profession. This is the first film by noted Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini.

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Variety Staff

Variety

This is a fascinating debut by writer-director Pier Paolo Pasolini, who has scripted some interesting pix.

Oct 23, 2007

Full Review

Time Out

The character of Accattone himself, self-destructive and conscious of his situation within a class from which he cannot escape, embodies many of the contradictions in Pasolini's lifetime of coming to terms with Marxism and Catholicism.

Jun 24, 2006

Full Review

Renata Adler

New York Times

The result is uneven, but not without distinction.

May 9, 2005

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Scott Nye

Battleship Pretension

Pasolini frequently uses those who push themselves to the margins of society to expose our collective and individual weaknesses, and our determination to maintain the image of order.

Jun 29, 2023

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Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

At once squalid and exalted

Feb 6, 2012

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Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

Rated: 4/5

Mar 8, 2008

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Fra B

Pasolini's first feature is as raw and realistic as the best neorealistic movies and arguably more interesting than most, but its length is unjustified.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

05/06/21

Full Review

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 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 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

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Audience Member

The St Matthew Passion. The face of Franco Citti. The black and white roman suburb. The first film of Pasolini.

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 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 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

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Pier Paolo Pasolini

Director

Franco Citti

Vittorio "Accattone" Cataldi

Franca Pasut

Stella

Silvana Corsini

Maddalena

Paola Guidi

Ascenza

Adele Cambria

Nannina

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Synopsis

In the slums of Rome, Vittorio "Accattone" Cataldi (Franco Citti) supports himself as a pimp for his longtime girlfriend, Maddalena (Silvana Corsini). When his meal ticket goes to jail after being assaulted by a pack of thugs, Accattone scrambles to survive, reduced to begging for food from his ex-wife, Ascenza (Paola Guidi). When he meets the virginal Stella (Franca Pasut), he sees a way back into his former profession. This is the first film by noted Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Italian
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 22, 1961, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Apr 4, 1968
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 22, 2019
Runtime: 2h 0m