10 Great Movies Similar to Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom (2023)

When it comes to controversial films, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, has its standing ticket to first place. Even after four decades, the film has lost none of its radical impact with its unparalleled illustration of perverse human desires.

During the Republic of Salò, between 1943 and 1945, four wealthy fascist libertines build their personal empire of sadism, violence and murder, kidnapping 18 teenagers for their own perverse desires.

Much has been written about the film, its impact, and films like it. There is, of course, "Irreversible" by Gaspar Noé with a difficult-to-understand rape scene that lasts more than 10 minutes. One might think of 2008's "Martyrs," another blood-soaked representative of the French New Extremity movement.

There's Lars von Trier with his "Antichrist" with its crushed testicles, amputated clitoris and descent into madness, or the whole of 2010's "A Serbian Film." But while all of these films definitely illustrate similar abysmal plots, they are products of the 21st century. twentieth century, a fact that is evidently reflected in a different aesthetic.

As such, the list below focuses on some less popular options and with an eye toward similar aesthetics and themes rather than purely depicting cruelty and violence. Along with some notable movies, this list includes some examples of similar movies that failed to match the quality of Pasolini's latest film. spoilers ahead.

1. La Grande Bouffe (Marco Ferreri)

The plot of La Grande Bouffe is as simple as the title suggests. Four wealthy men arrive at an opulent mansion to commit suicide together by eating whatever they can. In fact, your cravings pertain to any form of oral consumption. The last days of men's lives end in a repulsive orgy of lust and gluttony beyond all continence and frugality.

The film is not concerned with explaining the backstories of the characters, but with the straightforward presentation of Western smut and waste. It illustrates the dark side of hedonism, a place where the insatiable grimace is led to sadomasochistic desires beyond self-determination and freedom.

Released in 1973, the film was made under the influence of the sexual revolution and the ever-present possibilities of pleasure. There's a reason the four men are tired of life: constant abundance has robbed them of their zest for life. Neither delicacies nor female company can add auspicious nuances to your existence. It's quite metaphorical that legal stimulants like food are men's choice for their collective orgiastic death, illustrating the downside of the new freedom of the late '60s and early '70s.

The social criticism in "La Grande Bouffe" is evident and is accompanied by an aesthetic of disgust. The constant waves of belching and flatulence culminate in a blockage of the toilet and subsequent fecal sources. An interesting image for the negative sides of hedonism that cannot be washed away but always come to the surface.

2. In the realm of the senses (Nagisa Oshima)

Along with Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke called this film one of only two examples of sexuality adequately portrayed on film. He is not referring to the art of the sexual interactions between the two leads, but to the way Nagisa Oshima illustrates them. Like Pasolini's film, his visual approach is more analytical, without enriching the representation with emotional values ​​or subjective perspectives.

Based on the true events of Abe Sada, the film opens with the maid beginning her new job at the Kichizō court. In addition to her daily duties as her servant, she must provide sexual favors for her new master. Subsequently, both he and her slave begin a sadomasochistic relationship in which she increasingly claims ownership of her object of desire. The dangerous relationship loses touch with reality and ends with Abe circumcising the genitals of his master.

Apart from the careful staging of both films, which oscillates between cruel sadness and opulent beauty, there are a number of similarities. In Oshima's film, the leads treat the human body as something to be claimed (Kichizō describes his penis as "practically yours", Sada replies "You're right, it's mine"). Pasolini furthers the reduction of the human body to an object by having the four fascists treat a whole group of people as their property, things of their sexual pleasure.

Also interesting about The Realm of the Senses is Oshima's disinterest in the backstories of the characters (there is only a brief scene where the protagonists talk about their parents).

As in "Salò", the film deals with current actions without justifying them in the past of the characters. It is about now, about acting in the present. Attraction for one party and destruction for the other, power, when exercised in an abusive extreme, can erase the past and even the future. Both directors exemplify this concept by illustrating the extreme poles of obsession, the dynamics of desire, the abuse of power over other people, and death.

3. The night porter (Liliana Cavani)

Like Salò, Cavani's 1974 The Night Porter combines the deformities of fascism with abnormal sexual desires. In the course of accepting National Socialism, the connection between concentration camps and systematic sexual exploitation and humiliation emerged.

In the form of a perfidious reward system, the female body was used to control the work capacity of the inmates. In addition to these systematic crimes, high-ranking Nazi officers ruthlessly exploited the imbalance of power towards their subordinates. This is part of the premise of The Night Porter.

More than a decade after World War II, a concentration camp survivor and her tormentor, now a night porter at a Viennese hotel, meet again and relapse into their sadomasochistic relationship. On a visual level, both films share a similar aesthetic, which is not surprising given their close release dates.

But instead of "Salò", the film fails to get the right tone for its delicate substance. Above all, the non-diegetic use of music and the partly subjective camerawork ensure that the film falls into cheap gratification rather than a serious illustration of sadistic behaviour.

In addition, the authenticity suffers from the scenery, which reveals budgetary difficulties. While most of the other movies on this list have some indie quality to them, The Night Porter is a great example of bringing out Salò's strengths.

4. Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton)

A female body, head bowed in an idyllic stream. A naked woman in a bathroom covered in blood with a crushed coke bottle penetrating the right side of her face. Haunting images of blood-soaked murders. The sacred sound of spherical synths and the last screams of the victim. What could be the message behind this conflicting mix of image and music? Was death a kind of salvation for the victims from their psychopathic tormentor? Death as the only hope of salvation.

Henry's victims shared this with the teenagers from "Salò". From the first recordings one is as aware of hopelessness, of the sheer certainty of death, of the pain that the victims will suffer as the teenagers of "Salò". But there is another aspect that the close-up reveals. The camera zooms out, creating a literal and emotional distance for the audience.

While some notable differences separate director John McNaughton's work from Pasolini's, there is a similarity between the two films that is perfectly symbolized by the film's opening shot.

As Pasolini did in Salò, McNaughton portrays his characters and their stories in sober frames. As the name suggests, it is a portrait, not an entertaining thriller, like "Salò". The horror lies in the realism of the recordings, the closeness of the scene. The film dispenses with the classic elements of suspense and instead shows a much more analytical picture.

It's a character study that denies clichés and offers some interesting thoughts on the portrayal of violence. With the use of videotape and the way in which Henry's escort is sexually aroused when he sees acts of violence on screen (in reality he humiliates and kills a woman), the film functions as a critique of how violence is portrayed. in the cinema (the man in the film is remembered). Works by Michael Haneke, especially "Funny Games" and "Benny's Video").

The empty places that Henry walks through are a reflection of his emotional loneliness (on a psychological level, the film has been praised for its faithful portrayal of a psychopath unable to relate to the world around him and to feelings of any kind). The gray winter and desaturated mood of Chicago are harbingers of the inevitable. Dont have a happy end.

As Roger Ebert put it, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer "is meant to illustrate, not entertain." In this he is absolutely right and, without meaning to, summarizes the similarity between this film and the last one by Pasolini.

5. The Virgin Fountain (Ingmar Bergman)

At first glance, Ingmar Bergman's 1960s film doesn't seem to have much in common with Pasolini's more controversial film. But there are some clear parallels to be found on this particular topic.

With Irreversible released over 15 years ago and Wes Craven's The Last House On The Left, which is actually a remake of The Virgin Spring released over 40 years ago, audiences today are used to the depiction of rape and murder. from The Virgin Spring. But in 1960 it was not common to show such terrible actions in the cinema.

The Virgin Spring was one of the first films to feature such a realistic and therefore disturbing illustration of three dodgers raping a girl. Like "Salò", the film struggled with age ratings in several countries.

In both films, the acts of violence—rape in Bergman's film, torture in every way imaginable in Pasolini's—are primarily for the pleasure of the perpetrators (albeit in The Virgin Spring). But there is a clear difference between these two films.

In "Salò" the violence does not result in the punishment of the perpetrators. In "The Virgin Spring", the three brothers are killed in an act of revenge by the father of the dead girl. While Bergman's film ends with the possibility of a pardon for him (a fact Bergman distanced himself from in the years after the film's release), there is no hope of any sort of acquittal in Saló, let alone justice.

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