Porcile

Porcile
by Pier Paolo Pasolini

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Movie Reviews of Porcile

Movie Review: Deeply strange but fascinating film
Summary: 5 Stars

Although Porcile has the reputation of being a "difficult film," it can also be viewed as one of Pasolini's most accessible. Just let its hallucinatory images wash over you, then think about about what it all means at your leisure. It should also be noted that this is not an abstract film, since each section has a definite, and sometimes suspenseful, story to tell.

The film works because of the enormous tensions, both visceral and intellectual, around which it is built. In terms of history, we have the contrast between an overtly barbaric past, with cannibalism and Christian priests who ritually sacrifice young men and women, and a covertly barbaric present, with neo-Nazis running Big Business. Visually, we have the vast, barren spaces of the medieval Wasteland contrasting with the flat opulence of the Klotz Villa, where Pasolini uses lateral or head-on angles almost exclusively.

The anti-bourgeois satire of Porcile's modern section is in startling contrast to the dreamlike Wasteland scenes. The series of monotonous conversations about the 'good old days' of Nazi Germany, often led by Mr. Klotz (Ugo Tognazzi of La Cage Aux Folles), quickly degenerates into noise, since its ideology is so pat. This knee-jerk parodying of the decadent bourgeoisie as swine in countless ways, both visually and verbally, is so over the top that one can only hope that Pasolini, an otherwise astute social critic, intended it as a satire of cheap satire, of lazy political "thinking."

Of course, Porcile is infamous for its portrayal of cannibalism. But in fact this is presented (forgive the pun) in good taste. Pasolini goes to lengths to show, in the Wasteland section, that cannibalism is solely a matter of survival. But even as he downplays the titillation, Pasolini finds new dimensions to this theme. Take the scene of Clémenti's duel with a straggling (or is it deserting?) soldier. After scrambling over the desolate hills, they finally lock swords. When the soldier at last realizes that he has lost, he bows down, accepting his fate like prey awaiting the predator's coup de grace. But the ...filmmaker also infuses the scene, between these two attractive men, with a tender homoeroticism. Which is cut short when Clémenti whacks off the soldier's head and then, well, you know what's for lunch.

Much of Porcile's power, and deep strangeness, comes from its suggestive openness. As Pasolini says, in the half hour documentary included on the DVD, "I've always posed various problems and left them open to consideration." That complex openness allowed me to challenge some of my assumptions - both obvious ones, about class and society, and more subtle ones about the nature of religion, history and film.

Don't be surprised if you find yourself thinking and talking about Porcile, even dreaming about it, for a long time to come.

The DVD is of good quality. I believe that the "weird bits" at the end of each reel (i.e., every 10 minutes) were intended by Pasolini as a sort of Brechtian "Alienation Effect." I assume that the film is correct as released, because the print comes directly from the Pasolini Foundation in Rome. By the way, since they control the rights, they insisted that the U.S. distributor release the DVD without any chapters (i.e., it's in one continuous track), to encourage people to watch the film in its entirety. Still, it's important to have this extraordinary part of Pasolini's filmography on DVD.

Summary of Porcile