A man wandering in a volcanic desert forms a band of murderous cannibals. A post-war German industrialist learns that his son is unable to make decisions or form relationships.
EN
“Released in 1969, Porcile is Pasolini’s poetic contribution to the Sessantotto: it is a product of the spirit of protest of the late Sixties, not because it pays homage to the youth movement of its time – it does not – but rather because it questions some of its premises. Remembered mainly for his siding with the policemen against the students in the ‘ugly verses’ of ‘The PCI to the young’, Pasolini's relationship with the Italian student movement was controversial.”
Simona Bondavalli1
“I am certain that someone will ask me: ‘Is this (Porcile) an autobiographical film?’ All right, I’ll say ‘yes’ to whomever asks me this question. The film is autobiographical to the extent that my autobiography has enabled me to understand this horror and to expound it with distance and also humor… The film is autobiographical for the following reasons: first, I identify in part with the character of Pierre Clementi (apocalyptic anarchy, and – let us say – total contestation in the existential plane); second, I identify with Jean-Pierre Léaud (eaten by pigs, cannibalized rather than a cannibal) – ambiguity, fleeting identity, and everything which the boy says in that long monologue to his girlfriend who then leaves.”
Pier Paolo Pasolini2
“[...] Pasolini is interested in the conventionality of fictional sign systems and hence represses the conventional markers among dream, fiction and reality. For Pigsty, objective and subjective vision are central motifs for both the narrative discourse and the story, yet neither one proves more dominant or ‘correct’ than the other.”
Richard Neupert3
- 1Simona Bondavalli, “Lost in the Pig House: Vision and Consumption in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Porcile,” Italica 87, no. 3 (2010): 408–27.
- 2From Pasolini’s notes on Porcile, read by Alberto Moravia, in Pasolini’s absence, at the first public screening of the film at the Venice Film Festival in 1969. Reproduced in Mark Rappaport, “The Autobiography of Pier Paolo Pasolini,” Film Quarterly 56, no. 1 (2002): 2–8.
- 3Richard Neupert, “A Cannibal’s Text: Alternation and Embedding in Pasolini’s Pigsty,” Film Criticism 12, no. 3 (1988): 46–57.
