from the WTF department.
Greetings!I know its been awhile since I've updated my blog and Im sure the 4 people who were reading it before have probably stopped so this update is really not going to make a whole lot of difference until I actually TELL someone I updated my blog and that my friends is just incredibly lame. (But I'll do it nonetheless, I dont want to think my effort is going towards nothing)
A few days ago a package arrived to our house addressed to someone who used to live there over a year ago but has since neglected to sent in a change of address form or update any records online to indicate he's moved (by the way, his mail from court concerning a parking violation that is over a year old STILL keeps coming to the house). We (my roommates and myself) took it upon ourselves to open the package since this guy obviously isn't coming by to pick up his mail anytime soon. Inside we found a video, but not just any video, this one was special.
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma is best described as one of the most disturbing movies ever released to mainstream cinema. I'll let this description explain it for you.
Salò (as the film is commonly abbreviated) is set in the Republic of Salò, the Fascist rump state which was set up in the German-occupied portion of Italy in 1944. The film is divided into four segments that loosely parallel Dante's Inferno: Anteinferno, Circle of Manias, Circle of Shit and Circle of Blood.
Four men of power, referred to as the Duke (Duc de Blangis), the Bishop, the Magistrate (Curval), and the President agree to marry each other's daughters as the first step in a debauched ritual. With the aid of several young male collaborators, they kidnap eighteen young men and women (nine male, nine female), and take them to a palace near Marzabotto. With them are four middle-aged prostitutes, also collaborators, whose function will be to recount various arousing stories for the men of power, and who will in turn exploit their victims sexually and sadistically.
The film depicts the three days spent at the palace, during which time the four men of power devise increasingly abhorrent tortures and humiliations for their own pleasure. In one of the film's most infamous scenes, a young woman is forced to eat the feces of the Duke; later, the other victims are presented with a giant meal of human feces (the "feces" were created with chocolate sauce and orange marmalade). At the end of the three days, the victims who chose not to collaborate with their tormentors are murdered in various gruesome ways: scalping, branding, and having tongues and eyes cut out.
Doesn't that sound like a the feel good movie of the season? of course we watched it and honestly it was pretty terrible but not from a disturbing standpoint, more that the movie dragged on and wasn't that interesting. Plus the picture and sound quality were fair at best. I am not only left wondering about how disturbed the person who bought this really is as I haven't met him.
For anyone interested, dont bother trying to look for it in a video store or netflix.
The Criterion Collection release of the film in 1998 on DVD has created a great deal of interest because of its rarity. It is so rare that it has been labelled by some to being possibly the rarest DVD in the world. Shortly after the Criterion edition was released, the rights for the DVD were not renewed by its distributor and Criterion were forced to discontinue the title, as they have done in the past with some of the films in their catalogue. Whilst many of Criterion's discontinued titles have became much sought after, Salò has generally seen prices for an original copy range from as little as US $250 to US $1000. Due to the rarity of the title many bootleg copies are routinely passed off as originals.
Sadly our copy was a bootleg otherwise we would've sold it to help with the upcoming heating costs.
Thats it for now. Regular updates will be coming once again!
posted by lojus @ 3:51 PM
Comments: 3
