Salò: introduction and acknowledgements

Pier Paolo Pasolini's last film, Salò or The 120 Days of Sodom , has never been certificated in the UK and it is banned in a number of other countries. bfi Video, having acquired the UK rights to the film, is applying for it to be certificated by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

In advance of the BBFC's decision, on 29 and 30 September 2000, the bfi and ICA held a conference, at which Salò was screened, in order to debate the issues the film raises. Is it a credible study of Italian fascism? Do its infamous scenes of torture and sexual violence amount to more than spectacle or pornography? These questions and others were discussed at the ICA by a range of academics, writers and artists, among them Neil Bartlett, Jake Chapman, Jenny Diski, former director of the BBFC James Ferman, and Gary Indiana, author of a book on Salò in the bfi Modern Classics series.

To prepare the ground for the conference and to begin to put Salò in context, this site makes available detailed information about the film's censorship history; some comments made by Pasolini himself as well as a contemporary analysis of the film; extracts from Gary Indiana's book and an interview with him.

The material here has been compiled by Rob White, editor of the bfi Modern Classics series and co-organiser of the Salò conference. He would like to record his gratitude to Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Craig Lapper of the BBFC for responses to queries, and particularly to James Ferman who most generously made his archives available for this project.