BFI Filmstore BFI Classics

01/07/2000

95 pp

Published/distributed by BFI Publishing

ISBN/EAN: 9780851708072

Paperback

Price: £9.99

<back

Salo: BFI Film Classics

Indiana, Gary

An adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's vicious masterpiece, but relocated to Fascist-ruled Italy. 'Salo' is an unflinching, violent portrayal of sexual cruelty which many find too disturbing to watch.

But insightful artworks are often disturbing. Beneath the extreme, taboo-breaking surface of Salo (a controversial and scandalous film made in 1975), Gary Indiana argues, is a deeply penetrating account of human behaviour. It's a picture not only of fascism but also, prophetically, of the corporate-run consumer culture we live in today, 'where a limitless choice of gratifications disguises an absence of all choice and all resistance, where nothing can disrupt the smooth operation of a system that turns art into products and people into things.'