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Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom (18)

Olivia Laing: The Silver Book

,Cinema 3
A man and a woman dressed in wedding attire with people standing behind them.

Fifty years on, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s final masterpiece endures, shock value intact.

The film transposes the Marquis de Sade’s notorious 1785 novel about the depravity and perversity of the French ruling class to the northern Italian city Salò in 1944, then the seat of a short-lived Fascist puppet government.

There, four wealthy men – referred to only as the Duke, the Magistrate, the Bishop, and the President – hole themselves up in a palatial villa with a group of young men and women they’ve kidnapped, and on whom they act out a range of sexual perversions that escalate in cruelty, from rape to torture, and finally, to murder.

“The whole film,” Pasolini wrote, ‘with its monstrous, almost unspeakable atrocities, is offered as a huge Sadian metaphor for the Nazi/Fascists' ‘detachment’ in their ‘crimes against humanity.’”

Tagged with: Cinema Olivia Laing Silver Book

In Italian with English subtitles

Please note: this film contains many graphic and disturbing scenes. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

Film information
  • Release year   1975
  • Country   Italy/France
  • Director   Pier Paolo Pasolini
  • Runtime   1hr 57 min

Ticket prices

Standard
£13 *
* Excludes £1.50 booking fee

Booking fees

£1.50 booking fee per online/phone transaction.

No fee when tickets are booked in person.

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Cinema 3

Location
Barbican Cinema 1 is located within the main Barbican building on Level -2. Head to Level G and walk towards the Lakeside Terrace where you’ll find stairs and lifts to take you down to the venue floor.   

Address
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London
EC2Y 8DS

Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.