A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiraling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiraling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiraling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.
- Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 3 wins & 4 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis was Bernardo Bertolucci's first work in movies. He was an assistant director.
- Quotes
Vittorio "Accattone" Cataldi: Call me Accattone. There are lots of Vittorios but I'm the only Accattone.
- Alternate versionsThe VHS and DVD versions produced by Water Bearer Films are listed as running 116 minutes, suggesting that this print is four minutes shorter than the original release.
- ConnectionsEdited into Red Italy (1979)
- SoundtracksSt Matthew Passion
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
Featured review
Accattone is a Roman pimp who lives off his girlfriend Maddalena's earnings. Pasolini's cheeky aim is to put forward this young man as a modern saint. To this end he lathers Bach's St Matthew's Passion (inspired by the Apostle's experience of the crucifixion of Christ) over scenes of Accattone's life. Indeed in one of Accattone's first scenes he's shown devouring a slice of tomato, displayed horizontally as if a cardinal's galero, whilst an sculpture of perhaps a guardian angel can be seen over his shoulder in the distance (an anti-clerical pro-Christ stance seems to be a consistent theme for Pasolini). Later, a prophecy regarding Accattone's descent is eerily similar to Christ's pronunciation of Peter's forthcoming triple renunciation.
The film reminded me of a DH Lawrence poem (elliptically titled Democracy):
"I love the sun in any man / when I see it between his brows / clear, and fearless, even if tiny // But when I see these grey successful men / so hideous and corpse-like, utterly sunless, / like gross successful slaves mechanically waddling / then I am more than radical, I want to work a guillotine
...
I feel that when people have gone utterly sunless / they shouldn't exist."
Whatever Accattone is, he's not sunless; when he tries out the world of work (legitimate work involving labour), he becomes Vittorio, his Christian name, and the light goes out. The film reminds me very much of Fassbinder's Gods of the Plague in that sense, young men with brio but no skills or education who, given the choice, between drudgery or crime, choose crime. Both films polemicise against urban post-industrial capitalist societies, which have become increasingly removed from the milieu in which humanity evolved and is "designed" to cope with. When Accattone compares the chore of lifting rolls of iron with the horrors of Buchenwald the film goes a little over the top.
Of course someone viewing Accattone and his friends through less of a haze of desire than the director might think that they were just a bunch of jerks. Undeniably though, Pasolini is a great poet, and there's evidence of things to come here, the film whilst looking largely Bertoluccian (he was the assistant director), has the occasional master shot, for example the rolling hills and valley in the dream sequence, par with Leonardo in quality of composition and symbolism; the countryside here representing an idealised rural precursor to Accattone's slum existence.
I also applaud Pasolini for taking his arguments beyond class, Accattone's group of spongers contains educated men as well as dunces, and they are equally disdainful of the ruling class as they are of proletarians.
The film reminded me of a DH Lawrence poem (elliptically titled Democracy):
"I love the sun in any man / when I see it between his brows / clear, and fearless, even if tiny // But when I see these grey successful men / so hideous and corpse-like, utterly sunless, / like gross successful slaves mechanically waddling / then I am more than radical, I want to work a guillotine
...
I feel that when people have gone utterly sunless / they shouldn't exist."
Whatever Accattone is, he's not sunless; when he tries out the world of work (legitimate work involving labour), he becomes Vittorio, his Christian name, and the light goes out. The film reminds me very much of Fassbinder's Gods of the Plague in that sense, young men with brio but no skills or education who, given the choice, between drudgery or crime, choose crime. Both films polemicise against urban post-industrial capitalist societies, which have become increasingly removed from the milieu in which humanity evolved and is "designed" to cope with. When Accattone compares the chore of lifting rolls of iron with the horrors of Buchenwald the film goes a little over the top.
Of course someone viewing Accattone and his friends through less of a haze of desire than the director might think that they were just a bunch of jerks. Undeniably though, Pasolini is a great poet, and there's evidence of things to come here, the film whilst looking largely Bertoluccian (he was the assistant director), has the occasional master shot, for example the rolling hills and valley in the dream sequence, par with Leonardo in quality of composition and symbolism; the countryside here representing an idealised rural precursor to Accattone's slum existence.
I also applaud Pasolini for taking his arguments beyond class, Accattone's group of spongers contains educated men as well as dunces, and they are equally disdainful of the ruling class as they are of proletarians.
- oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx
- Jun 11, 2011
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- The Scrounger
- Filming locations
- Ponte Testaccio, Rome, Lazio, Italy(motorbike accident)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $2,865
- Runtime1 hour 57 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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