Accattone (1961)

A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiraling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.

Director:

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Writers:

Pier Paolo Pasolini (story), Pier Paolo Pasolini (screenplay)

Stars:

Franco Citti, Franca Pasut, Silvana Corsini

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Franco Citti	...	Vittorio "Accattone" Cataldi
Franca Pasut	...	Stella
Silvana Corsini	...	Maddalena
Paola Guidi	...	Ascenza
Adriana Asti	...	Amore
Luciano Conti	...	Il Moicano
Luciano Gonini	...	Piede D'Oro
Renato Capogna	...	Renato 'il Capogna'
Alfredo Leggi	...	Pupo il Biondo
Galeazzo Riccardi	...	Cipolla
Leonardo Muraglia	...	Mommoletto
Giuseppe Ristagno	...	Peppe
Roberto Giovannoni	...	Il Tedesco
Mario Cipriani	...	Balilla
Roberto Scaringella	...	Cartagine

Storyline

In a seedy section of Rome, Vittorio Cataldi - "Accattone" ("beggar" in Italian) to those that know him - lives off the avails of prostitution, Maddalena being his one and only girl. He is married to Ascenza with who he has one young son named Iaio, but he does not live with them - they who live with her father and brother - provide for them, or play any important part of their lives. He generally hangs out with his similarly slack life friends playing cards and drinking. His source of income is threatened when Maddalena is injured being hit by a motorcyclist, then beaten by rivals of his, which leads to her being arrested and jailed for a year. Largely because of Iaio, Accattone contemplates going straight and getting a real job. Then he meets Stella, a young innocent woman who has had a hard life, but who is not as naive to the ways of the world as she first appears. Accattone falls in love with her, but as the thought of working a steady job now becomes abhorrent, contemplates ...

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Plot Keywords:

deception | italy | 1950s | ethical dilemma | moral dilemma | 

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Taglines:

The Poor Man's "Dolce Vita"

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Pier Paolo Pasolini's directing debut.

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Quotes

The German: Accattone you look worn-out.
Vittorio "Accattone" Cataldi: Not at all. I'm a free citizen. My woman never came home last night. Someone nobbled her leg. I want to die.

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Alternate Versions

The VHS and DVD versions produced by Water Bearer Films are listed as running 116 minutes, suggesting that this print is four minutes shorter than the original release.

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Connections

Edited into Come si fa a non amare Pier Paolo Pasolini - Appunti per un film sull'immondezza (2005)

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Soundtracks

St Matthew Passion
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach

User Reviews

A representative outset for a spectacular and controversial career

Pasolini's first film "Accatone" is exactly as one would expect a typical Pasolini film to be: wreathed in raw violence, and shot with a brilliant sense of poetic slash brutal realism, reminiscent of the neo-realism era, and perhaps, if not for sure, a semi-autobiographical portrait of life in the streets of Rome's peripheries. "Accatone" is, at its best, a chunk of life, which Pasolini managed to extract not as it initially was, but dramatically filtered through his own personal lyrical gaze. Gangs, prostitutes, lies and deceit lie in this film's core. A sense of irresponsible opportunism is seen in this film, almost no regrets for the past and no fears for the future. In fact, the movie's tragic hero, Vittorio Accatone, is a dark alter-ego of yet another favored Italian movie character, embodied only a year before by Marcello Mastroianni in "La Dolce Vita". Perhaps, in this case, Accatone was not a party animal journalist who sought ephemeral pleasure in social middle-class gatherings and women, but the spirit is, by itself, maintained astonishingly faithfully: Accatone is no longer a protagonist in Pasolini's movie, doomed to descend lower and lower in social class, losing both his dignity, his social acceptability and his profound "style", but a symbol, a metaphor for Pasolini's own political beliefs. Under this figure of a brute, behind the otherwise repelling image of a short dirty man with a sly smile and a peculiar walk, lies the failure of post war Italian government, a government which, according to this movie's subtext, strove so hopelessly to attain social and economical success for Rome's population, and somehow neglected or marginalized Rome's peripheries, causing people like Accatone and his girlfriends to result in prostitution and theft. A kind of pretension and make-belief well being which was also visible, at the time, in America. Yes, Accatone is the result of this American Dream's pastische.

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

4 April 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Scrounger

Filming Locations:

Ponte Testaccio, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,248

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arco Film, Cino del Duca

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1