Letters from Vienna #123
Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
Holy, Reverential Passion
There is much to be said about Pasolini’s “Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma” (“Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom”), which some find beautiful, others nauseating and others still: quite ridiculous.
Key words in Pasolini’s vocabulary are “holy”, “reverential” and “passion”; this is how he perceived the world. Even such a dark work affirms the joys, beauty and mystery of life.
Painting was a key influence. When talking of his first movie: “Accattone”, he said: “When I was making it the only author I thought of directly was Masaccio.”[1] “Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma” is beautifully filmed (director of photography was Tonino Delli Colli with whom Pasolini made twelve works) and is not only profoundly shocking but stunning to watch too.
When discussing “Oedipus” he said: “I wanted to re-create the myth under the aspect of a dream: I wanted the central part of the film to be a kind of dream, and this explains the choice of costumes and settings, the general rhythm of the work. I wanted it to be a kind of aestheticizing dream.”[2] Salò might be a documentary but it’s also a nightmare.
The diabolical four protagonists of both book and film take themselves extremely seriously indeed. In fact: the kleptocratic oligarchs of today, those in the open as well as those hidden in the shadows (in cowardly fashion) are no less absurd. Yet the effect of their actions, then as now, is utter horror; billions will literally die as a consequence and the destruction they’re currently inflicting on the planet is quite incalculable.
One of the things both book and film have in common is the dominance of rules. Of course, in the film, the characters emphasize that they are acting outside of the law and this is one of the trademarks of fascism: its contempt for the rule of law. This is what we have observed over the last two years, with lockdowns, forced “vaccinations”, disregard for rights and the genocide of the elderly. Another is that the characters are profoundly unhappy. They wish to inflict misery and pain upon others because they don’t want to be alone in their own inner turmoil and torment; this key psychological insight goes a long way to explaining the current Genocide by Jab.
MKUltra
Perhaps the most pertinent comment to be made is to say that what happens is the film reminds one very much of many an Epstein/Satanic/Pedophile/Deep State/MK Ultra/Tavistock episode today. Children are kidnapped, sexually abused and then used as slaves or simply murdered. Sadly, the experiences of Cathy O’Brien[3] are hardly isolated.
Both book and film remind one of the “shock doctrine”, which we have all experienced over the last few years. One of MKUltra’s surviving documents, for example, is a “a 128-page secret manual on the “interrogation of resistant sources” that is heavily based on the research commissioned by MKUltra—and Ewen Cameron’s and Donald Hebb’s experiments have left their marks all over it. Methods range from sensory deprivation to stress positions, from hooding to pain. (The manual acknowledges early on that many of these tactics are illegal and instructs interrogators to seek “prior Headquarters approval. . . under any of the following circumstances: 1. If bodily harm is to be inflicted. 2. If medical, chemical, or electrical methods or materials are to be used to induce acquiescence.”)”
“The manual is dated 1963, the final year of the MKUltra program and two years after Cameron’s CIA-funded experiments came to a close. The handbook claims that if the techniques are used properly, they will take a resistant source and “destroy his capacity for resistance.” This, it turns out, was the true purpose of MKUltra: not to research brainwashing (that was a mere side project), but to design a scientifically based system for extracting information from “resistant sources.” In other words, torture.”
“The manual states on its first page that it is about to describe interrogation methods based on “extensive research, including scientific inquiries con ducted by specialists in closely related subjects.” It represents a new age of precise, refined torture—not the gory, inexact torment that had been the standard since the Spanish Inquisition. In a kind of preface, the manual states: “The intelligence service which is able to bring pertinent, modern knowledge to bear upon its problems enjoys huge advantages over a service which conducts its clandestine business in eighteenth century fashion . . . it is no longer possible to discuss interrogation significantly without reference to the psychological research conducted in the past decade."50 What follows is a how-to guide on dismantling personalities.”
“The manual includes a lengthy section on sensory deprivation that refers to “a number of experiments at McGill University.” It describes how to build isolation chambers and notes that “the deprivation of stimuli induces regression by depriving the subject’s mind of contact with an outer world and thus forcing it in upon itself. At the same time, the calculated provision of stimuli during interrogation tends to make the regressed subject view the interrogator as a father-figure.”[4]
The Church and Fascism
It’s also important to note the roll of church “worthies” and to ask the question of what happened to those traumatized children who survived the ordeal of Salò. Were they groomed for a “higher” purpose and did they go on to play important roles in “public life”? Perhaps.
As Edmund Paris tells us: “the collusion (between the Vatican and Fascists and Nazis) is well within the tradition of the Holy See. It dates back for many centuries. In all circumstances, ever since the days of Charlemagne, the Papacy has not ceased to lean upon the Germans, in order to impose its authority and to extend it through-out Europe. The Reformation had undoubtedly disturbed the agreement that for centuries had held good between the Holy See and Mittel-Europa and had withdrawn a part of the German peoples from obedience to the Vatican. Austria-Hungary alone remained entirely submissive. But, step by step and with infinite patience, the Roman Curia gradually and without pause regained the influence lost, at the same time placing at the service of Pan- Germanic appetites the entire spiritual ascendancy enjoyed by the Holy See among the Catholics in both the Reich and the rest of Europe. Thus, Germany The Great, like the Habsburg Empire, was to serve as a “secular arm” in order to annihilate the influence of Orthodox Russia in the Balkans and to restore the Holy See's authority in secular France. The game was lost in 1918, but was resumed in 1939, with the Vatican playing the very same card which it is still playing today.”[5]
The crimes of the Vatican before, during and after the Second World War played out very much in the open: “Can one deny the enthusiastic adherence of the episcopates to the dictatorial regimes, the obstinate silence of the Pope at the time of the Fascist and Nazi aggressions; the attempts to reach “peace” in order to ensure the dictators possession of their plunder, the refusal to condemn the massacre of innocent populations, and the horrors of the death camps?”
“…how is it possible to mistake the direct assistance which Pope Pius XII rendered in the perpetration of these atrocities, by “lending” certain of his prelates, to become pro-Nazi agents such as Mgr. Hlinka, and Gauleiters such as Mgr. Tiso; by sending his personal Nuncio to Croatia to supervise, with Mgr. Stepinac, the “work” of Ante Pavelitch and his Ustashis? For, wherever one looks, one sees the same “edifying” spectacle.”[6]
Both the book and film are great works of art and one mustn’t forget that the role of the artist is to show both the shadows and lights, tragedies and comedies as well as glories and miseries of life; in short one must see everything in the greatest possible detail. And one mustn’t forget too that both film and book mirror human nature. It might be easy for us to say that: if we were given unlimited power and wealth, we would never permit ourselves to indulge our darkest and most repugnant fantasies but that is illusory. The truth is that power has always corrupted and corrupted absolutely, which is why checks on self-destructive urges have always been needed; this is the essential message of both book and film and goes a long way to explaining why de Sade was declared mad and Pasolini murdered.
[1] p.43 Pasolini, Interviews with Oswald Stack
[2] p.122 Ibid
[3] https://watch.liftable.tv/watch/channel/featured-series/series/XEriyPZE1y0J-tina-griffin-the-counter-culture-mom/episode/hRaNpmgLrqRa-ccmom-ep225-edited-cathy-obrien-recounts-being-trapped-inside-cias-mk-ultra-mind-control-program-part-1?t=0
[4] pp.39-40 The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein
[5] pp.7-8 Le Vatican contre la France, The Vatican Against Europe, Edmund Paris
[6] p.19 Ibid