This film had such a great start for me which had me thinking great this is going to play out like a backstreet Godfather with a hint of Goodfellas but done with that added neo-realism by adding non-professional actors and entirely filming them against the backstreets slums of Rome.Unfortunately after the decent start things become quite staid as all we do is follow Accattone the main character going about his daily business roaming the streets pimping his prostitute girlfriends and committing various petty crimes ultimately getting nowhere, i get the realism of its vicious circle and loved going through the streets of this film but in the end its story just didn’t grab me and started to feel even longer than its runtime.Its probably the easiest and most straightforward film by Pasolini to crack and a competent debut but not one that i would really recommend.6/10
Pasolini is perhaps better known for his medieval films but here he presents a slice of real life from the edge of society. Thematically closer to an early Scorsese film with it depiction of desperate men on the edge. The transfer to blu-ray is nice too.
FILM & REVIEW Pasolini’s debut film where Citti plays the titular figure - a small time pimp on the outskirts of Rome. He lives with and lives off the earnings of his girl Maddalena but she gets beaten by a rival gang who presumably pay off the cops and she finds herself in prison for making a false accusation. With his only source of income gone he is facing starvation. We learn he has an estranged wife and kid but her family warn him off and he gets into a fight with her brother. He then meets Stella a naive innocent who he intends to put on the streets but falls for her and her first and only time working fails so he is forced to earn a living. This does not agree with him so he drifts into petty crime which can only ever end one way. It’s to Pasolini and Citti’s credit that Accattone who is a wastrel and happy to exploit others does command the attention. He is a real anti-hero with few if any redeeming qualities but a product of the grinding poverty of post war Italy. Crisply shot by Delli Colli using the music of Bach as a counterpoint to the misery it’s a key film in the Italian realist cinema - 4/5