Pigsty

In Pigsty, Pasolini juxtaposes and contrasts a truly tedious marathon discussion between two former Nazis who have become successful businessmen (Alverto Tionello and Ugo Tognazzi) with an almost mute portrayal of a medieval cannibal (Pierre Clementi).

There are parallels between the two strands, the son of one of the businessmen, Julian Klotz (Jean-Pierre Leaud), after a long soliloquy suddenly descends into what appears to be almost a coma, bereft of speech and takes to sex with his pigs. Unlike the Nazi war criminals who seem to get off lightly, the cannibal and his band of men are brought to trial and condemned to death and Clementi’s repeated story of his life and crimes provides the only dialogue in the medieval part of the movie.

I really did not like this film and find it hard to understand how the money was raised to make it at all. It was the last of Pasolini’s movies to be released in the USA, is certainly his worst film and it is probably one of his most disgusting.

Would I recommend it? No. It is highly self-indulgent and uneven. Pasolini could have made the film without the contemporary story and it would have been the better for it. The only reason for not relegating this to a one-star review is the cinematography since it has a clear, calm other worldly quality that lends gravitas to what would otherwise be a pointless exercise in turgid symbolism.