Review of Accattone (1961) by Bill T — 09 May 2009

Although I am not the biggest fan of Italian movies, I found Pasolini's Accattone to be quite raw gritty and well done. The story focuses on one man's plight in a thing called life in Italy. Trying to eke out a living by any means possible (which in his terms means practically doing nothing at all) Accattone essentially pimps out all the beautiful women he comes involves in, and when that doesn't work, is forced into manual labor.

Pasolini does a commendable job here, filling his screen with Naples in the raw (well, from what I understand, Naples isn't exactly the most glamorous city to begin with), and does wonders with his mostly amateur cast.

Although the film does run a wee bit too long for my tastes, this all in all, is a very good movie, one of which would be of interest to fans of Italin Neo-realist films.