You think this won't get worse...it does.
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Writers: Sergio Cilti (Screenplay)
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Before I even get into this, I was dared to watch it for this blog and I thought, y'know what, why not do it, doesn't sound all that bad and maybe there'll be some decent commentary. I read the IMDb plot synopsis and thought "Shit, I'm in for a wild ride."
Boy, was I...sort of right.
What do I mean by "sort of right"? The plot synopsis promised me something in the direction of the abuse getting more and more violent, making the audience get more and more uncomfortable until they don't want to watch it. Until they can't handle it and have to turn it off and burn the disc/laptop whatever they're watching it on to feel clean again but...there was only one section which made me feel physically sick and that I should be blessed by a priest for watching it, aside from that, it was kind of interesting.
So this is an Italian film and let me tell you something, finding a version of this online with English subtitles is an absolute ballache, I went through about 3 different versions of the same thing and it took me half a day to watch it the whole way through. When I finally got the whole way through it I felt a little dirty but I had a whole lot more motivation to start learning Italian again, what a fucking nice language man. So beautiful, every word rolls off the tongue and if I watched this without subtitles I probably wouldn't care about what was on screen, I'd be just loving hearing these words flow. But I had to watch this with subtitles and I swear that was the better option.
Why was watching this with subtitles the better option? Some of the lines are very interesting to read the philosophical talk which looking back on my notes I apparently didn't fucking write down, but what I did write down were stupid ass lines like Quote: "There are a thousand occasions when one does not require a woman's anus." That's apparently the kind of shit I felt should have been noted. Fuck sake, I did let out a little giggle at that line though. Another line that I felt worthy of being noted to be put into my writing today was Quote: "His penis overcome by victory, cried tears of blood over me." This specific line came from the first storyteller. The storytellers are there to tell stories before dinner to get everybody in the room, listening to the stories, aroused. I heard that line and almost shouted THAT'S NOT SEXY! Upon further thought, if the people in this room think paedophilia, rape, urophilia etc is sexy, maybe a bleeding penis is sexy to them too. I just was not down for that line.
Another thing I wasn't down for was the fact that the masters had no concept of "there is a time and a place for certain activities." What do I mean by that? Well after the first session of storytime they go to eat dinner and a soldier trips a naked servant and starts fucking her. That was fucking inappropriate, I mean...c'mon people are fucking eating, regardless if they're your little slaves, let them eat in peace man. Then one of the masters (who looks so much like Dana Carvey I genuinely thought it was him for a good majority of the movie) gets up and starts shoving his bare backside into people's faces in an attempt to get fucked, eventually he gets on all fours next to the girl who was tripped and the soldier fucking her decides to go in on the Dana Carvey master with no preparation at all and this guy is just grinning and loving it. You just know that if that was a real situation, that guy wouldn't be fucking grinning come morning. I mean...his arse would be fucking shredded, he'd be in agony. The other moment was during a wedding between two of the captured people, one of the masters just goes through all the bridesmaids and groomsmen and just molests them. I get that this is the sort of thing where the victims just have to grin and bear it and allow their masters to do whatever they like with them but...I was just so mad at this guy. You do not go about the people involved in the wedding molesting them. Save that shit for the reception. Once he's done with his rude interruption the wedding is just over and done with in a good few seconds and we can move on.
This film is split into 3 circles. The circle of manias, the circle of shit and the circle of blood.
Circle of manias
I think that...the weirdness of the way the masters handle their victims and the fact that they can't keep track of their own rules and their sexual appetites would validate the title of this circle. It also gives an insight into what could be coming, 'Cause let me tell you, no matter how odd and frantic this first section may seem...I promise you, it gets worse.
Circle of shit
Does what it says on the tin. A lot of shit is used and it's fucking disgusting to look at. I feel sick even thinking about it. This section is definitely NOT for the squeamish. I'm not all that squeamish and I almost turned this off. It's fucking gross and if this was the whole film I wouldn't recommend it.
Circle of blood
This one is a flat out lie. It says circle of blood and yet...as far as I saw there was no blood. There was murder and torture, no blood. Oh, wait no, I lied. There is blood and it is by far the best thing I've seen in this fucking movie. One of the soldiers is having an affair with a black maid. He gets caught fucking her and stands, fully naked, dick pointing at the masters who have caught him, fist in the air, waiting for death. He gets shot multiple times and I swear, if I had a dick, that's how I'd wanna go out. That is probably one of the funniest and most surreal things I think I've ever seen in my life and I fucking loved it.
The last thing I'm going to talk about is this weird thing in the beginning of the film. It has nothing to do with the rest of it and is totally pointless and yet...I have to talk about it. The four masters sign an agreement of something which I apparently didn't think was important enough to make note of which is a decision I'm regretting now. I'm terrible at notes sometimes. Back to the point, the masters' sign an agreement and they make arrangements to marry each other's daughters.
The President will marry Tatiana, His Excellency's daughter
The Speaker will marry Susy, The President's daughter
Quote: "Your Excellency and my brother the Bishop will marry my daughters." I'm sorry that the last one is a quote but I didn't know who it was that was speaking so while doing my notes I just had to write it as a quote and leave it at that. The point is, they're set to marry each other's daughters with some incestuous overlap.
This part doesn't come into play as later in the film, it seems as though they're already married to the storytellers and three of them marry male victims and it doesn't look like the daughters even show up again. They get put into arranged marriages and are then forgotten. What the hell was the point in that? Was it to set the tone? Was it a plot thread that was forgotten about but it was already shot and they needed to fill the runtime? If they show up again and someone else noticed that let me know.
That's pretty much all I can say, some things went nowhere, some of it was just flat out disgusting and the rest was just kind of interesting with some probably unintentionally funny moments. I'm not sure about how others feel about this but a quick look at Rotten Tomatoes suggests it's a pretty good film. People seem to like this and I'm just kind of indifferent to it. I'm glad I saw it, don't get me wrong and I did think that it's interesting to watch, regardless of how gross it can be and I'd recommend it to those who are interested in wanting to see something like this. However, I did feel like it was trying to say something important about government corruption and how the leaders can do whatever they like but...it's not talked about in the movie and I feel like there should be some clarification on what this thing is trying to say.
Anyway, that's it I guess. Fairly indifferent to it. If you wanna suggest something for me to watch and talk about that I've not done yet then let me know by commenting on my posts or messaging my Facebook page Some Girl talks about films, my Twitter @SomeGirlTalks, or email jessm1199@gmail.com and I'll put it into my schedule for the next month. Unless I already have in for this month. Either way, I'll write it up, I promise.
This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.
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