Pasolini's powerful directorial debut
Accattone review
By
Savage from London, England
- 8
- 1
3rd February 2007
Based on the director's own semi-autobiographical novel, this is a surprisingly compelling tale of pimps and thieves and prostitutes in a sun-bleached, desolate Rome suburb, far from the tourist trail.
Franco Citto is the titular vagabond, a failing pimp and a failing human being, stuck in a slum where the only law is hit harder, bet more, be tougher. He's no better than anyone else: Pasolini isn't looking for easy sentiment or anyone's sympathy here, but rather to tell it like it is.
The result is not simply neo-realism with a hard edge, though. There's Bach on the soundtrack (and a little jazz for the final corruption of the innocent girl), and the haunting presence of death throughout: Pasolini loved to find the mythical in everything, and this tale is properly, primally elemental.
