Review of Accattone (1961) by Luca V — 19 Jul 2008

This is the first movie directed by one of the best intellectuals of the second half of the 20 th Century (quite complicated definition, right). Pasolini, born in the Northern Italy, founds the ideal environment for his ideas, for his interests: Rome. A Rome which is not the place of Artists, Popes or Archeological treasures. A lively Rome, the Outer Rome, the Rome of -una scarpa e una ciavatta- (a shoe and a slipper, to underline the poverty of the people). A Rome of little criminals, people that sleep in 8 in a hut, the Rome of people living on their on wits.

Vittorio nicknamed Accattone (beggar) is the King of this wretched world. He makes his money pimping a poor girl. Then the girl disappears, and Accattone finds another one, more naïve, the blonde Stella. He tries to make her a whore, but she cries. Then he decides to change his life, for the love for Stella, and he finds a ordinary chore job to earn 1000 stinky liras a month. But he is not very wise, and he decided to go to steal something with two guys more naïf than him.

The film does not catch a Sympathy for the Devil, it is just Sympathy for the Outcast. Pasolini tries to comprehend, and he focuses the attention on the humanity of the poor derelict. In a Rome which, I repeat, it is not the typical Postcard Rome. It is the dusty Rome of the property speculation.