Accattone (1968)

Pasollini's Accattone (1961) is a film that clearly shows the writer/director was not only uninformed, but even naive about the social situation to which his film related. This film is so detached from the slum life of the big city, and the realities of the life of pimps and prostitutes that it could better be called an example of Un-Realism, than Neo-Realism.This filmmaker couldn't even stage a good street fight, just showing two guys rolling around in the street locked in bear hugs.The protagonist's first prostitute is portrayed getting a broken leg, and is soon shown thereafter walking around with a cast on the leg, yet with no limp, or crutches. Sorry, but having a broken leg doesn't work that way.This first prostitute is shown getting badly beaten, yet then is shown in the police station without a bruise on her. Now that Neo-Un-Realism, if I ever saw it.That the protagonist is shown almost starving after his only hooker is jailed is just STUPID. Pimps are street savvy guys who have more than one girl in their stable, and are street smart enough to make money in a variety of ways besides pimping.I could go on and on, but what's the point? The costumes, the characters, and dialogue is nothing close to appropriate for the social situation that this film is supposedly portraying. This filmmaker obviously never entered the slums of a big city, and never met real pimps and prostitutes. He was making a supposedly realistic account of a social scene of which he was obviously ignorant.This is the first Pasollini film that I've viewed, and it's his first film that he made. But solely on the basis of viewing his first film, I really don't think that this guy showed enough here to merit a second chance.

Here is a devastating portrayal of a masterful manipulator.Accatone is offended by the idea of work and thinks only "animals" should do labor. So he lives off the prostitution of Maddalena until she gets herself arrested, perhaps in an unconscious bid to escape him.We watch with amazement and contempt as the increasingly hungry Accatone tries to reconcile with Ascenza, who walks with baby in arms. "Believing you was the biggest mistake of my life!" she snarls. Accatone's plying mewling inflames Ascenza's father, who lunges for a knife to finally still him. (To its credit, this highly psychological film, whose cluster of macho bit players is so reminiscent of that in "The Godfather," includes not even one murder.) Accatone, played mesmerizingly by Franco Citti, has left a trail of neglected children across the barren, sun-bleached terrain of a Roman slum. He begrudges one who is playing in the dirt for not acknowledging him -- even as he lifts a chain from the toddler's neck. A man's gotta eat...Out of desperation, Accatone approaches the non-prostitute Stella (Franca Pasut), seemingly the only one in town who doesn't know his reputation. We watch him transform from wishing to feed off, and then be the one who feeds, this compelling woman. It's a very hard life and Accatone doesn't have it in him to continue for long, so it's his suicidal depression that liberates him in the end.I found the film's abrupt ending a little too facile and wished for a more profound conclusion. Yet maybe part of the message here is that life is harsh and then it stops -- no dress rehearsal, no warning. "Accatone" was my introduction to the work of Pasolini and I'm definitely eager to see more.

This is still a masterpiece of a film you can not afford not to see if you like Pasolini. "Accattone" is the directorial debut of the Italian neo-realist, Pier Paolo Pasolini, but by a strange coincidence it ended up being the very last of all his movies that I saw. I had seen everything he ever did, including short films by the time I got to "Accatone" and still found it masterful. Franco Citti stars as the title character, he is a handsome pimp in Rome's post-war lower depths, with an endearing face that speaks volumes of his street-wise upbringing in the slums. To those unaccustomed with Southern Italian culture the way he spends his days with the other local pimps, playing cards and being lazy may seem vile, but it is actually a well grounded tradition, as is also his support of the entire family of his imprisoned friend, Ciccio, who depend on him for survival. He is obviously a fellow mobster, and their code of honor is at stake when Accatone discovers that he is in prison as a result of his whore, Maddalena, played by Silvana Corsini, who denounced Ciccio to the authorities. Even though she is recovering from a broken leg, Accatone forces her to go on the streets, where she is used, beaten and abandoned by Accatone's pals after he tells them the story, then she is found by the police and arrested. Accattone nearly starves to death from the total lack of income, he even sells all his jewelry to get by. He tries to reunite with his wife, with whom he has fathered at least one child, but she sees through his seduction act and her virile, beautiful brother beats up Accatone in an intense erotically-charged scene that seems to simulate sexual assault as much as violence between the men. After meeting the innocent and beautiful Stella, (Franca Pasut) he is smitten and tries to get a job, so he can support her and his family but he is not accustomed to hardship and has the lack of patience that is typical of spoilt types that have never been trained to work does not make the job last for very long. Never have I seen a more humane, direct and simple depiction of the tragic life of these undesirables of society. Pasolini is a master painter narrating with a few gestures all their hardship and suffering. Even getting a plate of food in this world is a memorable accomplishment. We see the whole setting as a sideline of modern society's inability to function properly. The 'corrections' by the police seem to be the most unjust of all, and Pasolini presents this panorama of human failing as an allegory of human struggle and spiritual redemption.

Although I am not the biggest fan of Italian movies, I found Pasolini's Accattone to be quite raw gritty and well done. The story focuses on one man's plight in a thing called life in Italy. Trying to eke out a living by any means possible (which in his terms means practically doing nothing at all) Accattone essentially pimps out all the beautiful women he comes involves in, and when that doesn't work, is forced into manual labor. Pasolini does a commendable job here, filling his screen with Naples in the raw (well, from what I understand, Naples isn't exactly the most glamorous city to begin with), and does wonders with his mostly amateur cast. Although the film does run a wee bit too long for my tastes, this all in all, is a very good movie, one of which would be of interest to fans of Italin Neo-realist films.