Accatone (1961)

Accattone (1961) is a film of pimps, prostitutes and thieves directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The plot unfolds when a man called Vittorio, nicknamed “Accattone”, looses his prostitute and in order to maintain a steady income tries to lure a naive woman, by the name of Stella, to prostitute herself for him. The film concludes with the sudden death of Accatone in a car accident escaping from the police. The word “accattone” is a slang term mainly used for beggars. The film is considered to be a sort of neorealism film, even though Pasolini tried to stay away form neorealism. Accattone celebrates peasant culture, in contrast to Italy’s postwar changes. From the begin inning of this film, we can see a certain style which later became trademark Pasolini characteristics. The use of language is very particular in this film and worth mentioning. ‘Equally important is the emphasis on a journey and on movement: in each of Pasolini’s films, the characters are are seen on the road, moving constantly from one place to another, precluding the conventional sense of locating the character within a familiar milieu’ (pg. 175, Landy). Within the film this is demonstrated with the thematic emphasis on impoverished individuals. Another characteristic that become Pasolini’s is a cast of non-professional actors hailing from where the movie is set. These include Franco Citti as “Accattone”, Franca Pasut as Stella, and Silvana Corsini as Maddalena – which in my opinion made the movie what it is. Before becoming a director, Pasolini was a writer and the change from fields caused mixed feelings among writers as well as with directors. “Calvino (for example) denounced Pasolini’s transition to cinema as a capsulation to the lure of money and worldly success, away from the depth of the humanitas that is best expressed through the process of writing” (pg. 49, Viano). This influence, just makes the viewer understand better why Pasolini plays with language the way he does, and why it is of particular importance to describe his films.