First of all, we must consider that the writer of the story (it was later turned into the movie by Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini) lived in a mental asylum for the better part of his life. This knowledge should be considered and discarded before proceeding any further with the topic. I picked this movie for reviewing, on an impulse due to the controversies surrounding it. Lets see where it leads us. The story has 3 chapters aptly named as:
The Circle of Manias
The Circle of Shit
The Circle of Blood
It follows a group of people, divided into power echelons, who play-perform “THINGS” not quite agreeable to the sane person. Without going into the nitty gritties of these acts, lets just say Sade (the writer of the story), took the most established romantic sagas of his time, and turned it essence by essence into their diabolical opposite product. However, he could not do it without a static point of reference, and still portray the contrast. So, he borrowed symbols from the civilized world such as humor, music and the manners, and left them untouched for the overall taste of the story. Now here i must mention that, in the movie there are references to Nietzsche and Baudelaire, both of whom were born after Sade’s lifetime. So i am not very sure how much of the movie is actually from the original story. But i am already seeing some method in this madness 😉 The Fascist condition, the rule book, the aristocratic air, the depravities..hmm.. all points to obvious repression.
Now that we know what he did, let us try and understand why. It’s not very unusual in literature, music or the theaters to invent characters hanging on both ends of the pendulum, and blow them out of proportion for effect. I believe this is essential for the artist to communicate ideas and feelings to the general crowd. But the practice of doing this for a lifetime could only mean a way of excesses where there can be no subtleties, no boundaries, no civilization. And is this the wisdom William Blake refers to when he says “the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”? Of that i am not sure, but we did come a bit closer to understanding Salo and its makers
Trivia: The word sadism is derived from the name Marquis de Sade. He literally invented the concept.
“Quills” is a biopic from Hollywood on the bugger, starring some big names. Maybe i’ll do a proper review on that later 🙂
To Me, with Love 