What's the last movie you watched?

[David]

Well go see the bloody film! It's great and it'll make you cry (if you can handle English subs and shaky cam).

[think positive]

[Dark Beanie]

Blue Jasmine - Cate Blanchet was great.

[think positive]

White House down

Channing Tatum (my heart be still, whoa white singlet time ) and Jamie fox,bloody grous, ok far fetched just a lot, but it's so good, cheered, laughed, screamed and laughed some more, and did I mention whaaaaaaaoooooo

Loved it!

It's an action flick by the way!

[David]

I watched Salo on Wednesday night. Real bundle of laughs, that one.

[swoop42]

[David]

I can't believe you've seen it!

I can't believe anyone has...

[Bucks5]

I preferred Olympus has fallen over White House Down.

[think positive]

The cover of the DVD puts me off, is it a drama?

We got millions of copies of that, hardly any sold!

[John Wren]

[David]

Twice, no less.

It's still pretty soul-destroying.

[John Wren]

[stui magpie]

[David]

I've been a fan of the director, Pier Paolo Pasolini, since I was a teenager. Some of his films, like The Gospel According to St. Matthew (considered by many Christians to be the best "Jesus" film ever made), Mamma Roma and The Decameron are among the most beautiful and memorable movies I've ever seen. Salo, the last film he made before his death in 1975 (he was likely knocked off by the Italian secret service), is on a completely different plane—it's partially based on a Marquis de Sade text, partially based on real events in Fascist Italy. Upon its unbanning in 2010 (much to the chagrin of Liberal senators who had tried to keep it out of Australia for the better part of 20 years), it was rated R for "scenes of torture, degradation and sexual violence". That more or less sums up the film's narrative.

When I was 18, back when it was still banned in Australia, I borrowed an old videotape of Salo from a small Canberra video rental. I absolutely hated it and thought it was one of the most vile things I'd ever seen. However, I'd read more about the film in the intervening years and become curious about revisiting it, so managed to summon enough courage to see it when it showed at ACMI on Wednesday (along with Lola, who was watching it for the first time). I liked it more this time around as an artistic statement, but it's still pretty sickening. I wouldn't recommend it.

The film's long history with the Australian Classification Board can be found here:

http://www.refused-classification.com/censorship/films/salo-or-the-120-days-of-sodom-1975-1.html

On a somewhat unrelated note, here's a song about Pasolini's death:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlJzTWk6bSw

[think positive]

David that the movie I meant the other day remember? You said what movie was that again! And no, I haven't watched it, just yuk