Accattone

Accattone ([akkatˈto:ne], lit. "vagabond", "scrounger"[1][2]) is a 1961 Italian drama film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. It was Pasolini's first film as a director and premiered at the Venice Film Festival.[3] In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."[4]

Accattone
Promotional poster
Directed byPier Paolo Pasolini
Written byPier Paolo Pasolini
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyTonino Delli Colli
Edited byNino Baragli
Music byJohann Sebastian Bach
Production
company
Arco Film
Distributed byTitanus
Release date
  • 31 August 1961 (1961-08-31) (Italy)
Running time
117 minutes
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian

Plot

Vittorio, nicknamed "Accattone", leads a mostly serene life as a pimp in the outskirts of Rome until his prostitute, Maddalena, is hurt by a rivaling gang and sent to prison for false testimony. Finding himself without either a steady income or much inclination for working himself, he first tries to reconcile with the estranged mother of his child, but is driven away by her relatives. He meets simple working girl Stella and tries to lure her into prostituting herself for him. She is willing to try, but when her first client begins pawing her she cries and is thrown out of his car. Accattone tries to support them both as an iron worker, but gives up after one day. Following a dream of his own death, he goes stealing with a couple of friends and gets killed in a traffic accident when he tries to evade the police on a stolen motorcycle.

Cast
  • Franco Citti as Vittorio "Accattone" Cataldi
  • Franca Pasut as Stella
  • Silvana Corsini as Maddalena
  • Paola Guidi as Ascenza
  • Adriana Asti as Amore
  • Luciano Conti as Il Moicano
  • Luciano Gonini as Piede D'Oro
  • Renato Capogna as Renato
  • Alfredo Leggi as Papo Hirmedo
  • Galeazzo Riccardi as Cipolla
  • Leonardo Muraglia as Mammoletto
  • Giuseppe Ristagno as Peppe
  • Roberto Giovannoni as The German
  • Mario Cipriani as Balilla
  • Roberto Scaringella as Cartagine
  • Silvio Citti as Sabino
  • Monica Vitti (uncredited) as Ascenza (voice)

Production

The film was initially supposed to be produced by Federiz, a short-lived production company founded by Federico Fellini and Angelo Rizzoli.[5] Test shoots were arranged to assess Pasolini's work as a debuting director, but the test was flunked by Rizzoli's main collaborator Clemente Fracassi and the project was dismissed.[5] Tonino Cervi was also interested, but failed to convince Carlo Ponti to produce the film.[5] Thanks to the efforts of Mauro Bolognini, who had previously collaborated with Pasolini and had been impressed by the film script, the project was eventually taken over by Alfredo Bini, who had just produced Bolognini's box office hit Il bell'Antonio, and who eventually involved Cino Del Duca in the film's funding.[5]

The first choice for the title's role was Franco Interlenghi.[5]

Reception and legacy

Critic Gino Moliterno, writing for Senses of Cinema magazine, described Accatone and its successor Mamma Roma as cinematic renditions of the world of the "borgate" (Roman shanty towns) of Pasolini's novels Ragazzi di vita (The Ragazzi or The Street Kids, 1955) and Una vita violenta (A Violent Life, 1959).[6] Nick Barbaro of The Austin Chronicle titled it the possibly grimmest film he had ever seen.[7]

Awards

Franco Citti was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor in 1963 for his performance.[8]

References
  1. Sisto, A. (13 March 2014). Film Sound in Italy: Listening to the Screen. Springer. ISBN 9781137387714 – via Google Books.
  2. Bertellini, Giorgio (14 December 2017). The Cinema of Italy. Wallflower Press. ISBN 9781903364987 – via Google Books.
  3. Schwarz, Barth David (2017). Pasolini Requiem (2 ed.). New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 9780226335025.
  4. "Ecco i cento film italiani da salvare Corriere della Sera". www.corriere.it. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  5. Faldini, Franca; Fofi, Goffredo (2009). L'avventurosa storia del cinema italiano. Bologna: Cineteca Bologna. pp. 47–61. ISBN 978-8899196349.
  6. Moliterno, Gino (February 2004). "Accattone". Senses of Cinema Inc. Archived from the original on 6 September 2007. Retrieved 26 September 2007.
  7. Barbaro, Nick (19 January 2001). "Che Bella: Italian Neorealism and the Movies -- and the AFS Series -- It Inspired". The Austin Chronicle. Archived from the original on 7 December 2006. Retrieved 13 December 2006.
  8. "Film in 1963". BAFTA. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
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