Accattone
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Accattone is 1961 movie by Italian writer and director Pier Paolo Pasolini about the life of a Roman pimp. It is the first movie directed by Pasolini and uses the Pasolini-typical cast of non-professional actors hailing from where the movie is set, in the borgate, the slum-like Roman suburbs.
Accattone is the story of pimps, prostitutes and thieves, the same topic as his novels. It was Pasolini’s first film. While many people were surprised by his shift from literature to film, he had considered attending The Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome before the war. Fellini and Pasolini had collaborated on Le notti di Cabiria. Pasolini considered cinema to be writing with reality. The word Accatone is a slang term, referring to people who never do well, who are lazy, and who rarely hold down a job.
No professional actors were used in Accattone. In Accettone, peasant culture is celebrated, in contrast with the economic reforms that were occurring in Italy at the time. Pasolini’s choice of topics was scandalous, as was his blurring of the lines between the sacred and the profane.
Although Pasolini tried to distance himself from neorealism, the film is considered to be a kind of second neorealism.
Plot
Vittorio (Franco Citti), nicknamed "Accattone" ("rags"), leads a mostly serene life as a pimp until his prostitute, Maddalena, is hurt by his rivals and sent to prison. Finding himself without a steady income, and not much inclination for working himself, he discovers the naive Stella and tries to lure her into prostituting herself for him. Hesitant at first, she later embraces her new profession (and her clients) more willingly. However, it is too late for Accattone, who, after a bizarre vision of his own death, is killed in a traffic accident when he tries to evade the police on a stolen motorcycle.
The film was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film in 1963. Franco Citti, the star of the film, eventually became a professional actor and some of the other actors were seen again in later Pasolini films.
| Movies by Pier Paolo Pasolini |
|---|
| Accattone | Mamma Roma | La ricotta (RoGoPaG) | The Gospel According to St. Matthew | Love Meetings | The Hawks and the Sparrows | The Witches | Oedipus Rex | Theorem | Love and Anger | Pigpen | Medea | The Decameron | The Canterbury Tales | Il fiore delle mille e una notte | Salò |
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