Customer Reviews

Accatone [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Buy the other edition. How many times do they need to use white subtitles in black-and-white films?!

Sometimes it is virtually impossible to read the subtitles during te film with this edition.

Don't get me wrong, this is a great movie, but black-and-white films should have yellow subtitles.

Or at least put black bars behind the subtitles so they can be read!

This is all that's available folks so suffer through the defects and watch a timeless gem of a film. Pasolini's movie is one of the most honest portraits of slum life in Italy - and in fact is more brutally honest than 'nights of cabira' by Fellini (Pasolini actually was responsible for some of the dialogue in that film).

The other reviews have covered the film sufficiently, so I'll just focus on this new DVD edition (although I will say that it seemed to be a bit of a re-hash of "Nights of Cabiria" without any of the pathos).

Actually, calling it "new" is a bit of a misnomer, as it appears to be a transfer from an old videotape. This is strongly evident near the end of the film where there are two instances of scrolling video distortion.

I really wanted to like this disc. The transfer itself is actually fairly clear (although slightly muted and/or washed-out) and mostly free of specks and dirt (except at the end of each reel). Unfortunately, as with the previous three Waterbearer Pasolini DVD's, this one suffers from no chapter stops and burned-in (non-optional), frequently-unreadable subtitles. At the price Waterbearer is charging, the consumer is going to expect a great deal more than they're getting.

Rent it if you're curious, but I'd advise against purchasing this disc unless you're a die-hard Pasolini fan.

International Film Forum presents a print of this film that couldn't have been much worse if they had pulled an abused 16mm print from the garbage. Visuals: Blacks are washed out, midtones are coarse, visual noise and scars abound. Sound: there is distortion on all significant sounds- this had been used so much that the sound is uniformly damaged. This is simply one of the most worn-out set of reels I've ever seen, in cinema or on video. Even the picture on the box looks dreeadful and has a moire pattern. Bottom line: Avoid- this version is no competition for the entirely servicable earlier release by other parties (though I forget who did it- not Film Forum).

This is one of the most astonishing movies one can see. The choice of music had made it famous, too, and it does strike the viewer the music of Bach is a background for the depictin of these lower layers of society. It is a very tragic movie; there is no hope for Accatone. I would not recommend it to viewers who've grown up on modern Hollywood productions; it's black and white and there is nothing flashy in it. For those who can see deeper, this and Mamma Roma is a must see; if you already like Italian cinema, you will be happy you've seen this film.

Accattone is -at first glance- a simple portrait of a hopeless pimp, in the slums or Rome. His friends are part of band of pretty thieves who live according the random providence.

Accattone lives without working and Madeleine works in the streets to earn the daily bread and costs of living. But his life experiences a sudden twist of fate when he meets the innocence made woman, an alluring but shy woman Stella, who captures his full attention until he gets to convince her she makes exactly the same activity.

But the poetic treatment given by Pasolini marks the difference between what a simple existential chronicle of the Neo Realism Italian and a powerful and vibrating scream of agony and redemption. Watch for the final sequence in what Pasolini pays his personal homage to "The thief of bicycles."

The first Op. of this tragic director. A true masterpiece.

This is a fantastic film, but unfortunately this DVD package is not worthy of the work. The subtitles are the main point of criticism here - at times they are illegible (white captions on white backgrounds) and when they are legible the translation is often an embarassment (grammatical errors and typos throughout). If your Italian is strong, though, you shouldn't have too many complaints.

Although this film should have been restored before the transfer to DVD and the subtitles are hard to read as they blend into the white areas, this is still a masterpiece of a film you can not afford not to see if you like Pasolini. "Accattone" is the directorial debut of the Italian neo-realist, Pier Paolo Pasolini, but by a strange coincidence it ended up being the very last of all his movies that I saw. I had seen everything he ever did, including short films by the time I got to "Accatone" and still found it masterful.

Franco Citti stars as the title character, he is a handsome pimp in Rome's post-war lower depths, with an endearing face that speaks volumes of his street-wise upbringing in the slums. To those unaccustomed with Southern Italian culture the way he spends his days with the other local pimps, playing cards and being lazy may seem vile, but it is actually a well grounded tradition, as is also his support of the entire family of his imprisoned friend, Ciccio, who depend on him for survival. He is obviously a fellow mobster, and their code of honor is at stake when Accatone discovers that he is in prison as a result of his whore, Maddalena, played by Silvana Corsini, who denounced Ciccio to the authorities. Even though she is recovering from a broken leg, Accatone forces her to go on the streets, where she is used, beaten and abandoned by Accatone's pals after he tells them the story, then she is found by the police and arrested. Accattone nearly starves to death from the total lack of income, he even sells all his jewelry to get by. He tries to reunite with his wife, with whom he has fathered at least one child, but she sees through his seduction act and her virile, beautiful brother beats up Accatone in an intense erotically-charged scene that seems to simulate sexual assault as much as violence between the men.

After meeting the innocent and beautiful Stella, (Franca Pasut) he is smitten and tries to get a job, so he can support her and his family but he is not accustomed to hardship and has the lack of patience that is typical of spoilt types that have never been trained to work does not make the job last for very long.

Never have I seen a more humane, direct and simple depiction of the tragic life of these undesirables of society. Pasolini is a master painter narrating with a few gestures all their hardship and suffering. Even getting a plate of food in this world is a memorable accomplishment. We see the whole setting as a sideline of modern society's inability to function properly. The 'corrections' by the police seem to be the most unjust of all, and Pasolini presents this panorama of human failing as an allegory of human struggle and spiritual redemption.

"Accattone" is the directorial debut of the Italian neo-realist, Pier Paolo Pasolini. Franco Citti stars as the title character, a small-time pimp in the slums of Rome. He spends his days with the other local pimps, playing cards and being lazy. However, when his girlfriend/prostitute (Maddalena) is arrested, Accattone nearly starves to death. He tries to reunite with his wife, with whom he has fathered at least one child, but she sees through his act and has her brother beat up Accatonne. He also tries to get a job, but he's clearly not willing to do menial tasks for little pay for very long. Finally, he meets and woos the beautiful, naive Stella (Franca Pasut), and soon he professes his true love to her. The tension builds as the audience guesses whether Accattone is simply trying to turn Stella into the next Maddalena.

Few films have more accurately captured the desperation of pimps and prostitutes, and Pasolini's use of mostly non-actors works spectacularly. Accattone does some horrible things (the scene with his young son is unforgettable), but Citti's unsentimental performance strikes all the right chords and keeps the audience almost rooting for him in a strange and somewhat sick way. Pasolini's work here is all first-rate. The dvd includes one interesting extra - a 30-minute documentary from 1970 chronicling Pasolini's work, which includes interviews with some of the actors with whom he's worked as well as the Italian thinkers of the day. Pasolini was an interesting character, to say the least; not many directors have brought such a unique political perspective to film.

Unfortunately, as has been noted by other reviewers, the dvd transfer is rather dismal. The black-and-white movie is washed out here, with many of the daytime scenes overly saturated with light. Furthermore, the subtitles are all in white and barely readable during a number of scenes. Because of the horrendous subtitles, I had a great deal of difficulty following the movie at times. This great film deserves a better transfer; "Accattone" deserves five-stars, but the four-star rating reflects the dvd quality. Hopefully a new version will be released in the future.

Buy the other edition. How many times do they need to use white subtitles in black-and-white films?!

Sometimes it is virtually impossible to read the subtitles during the film with this edition.

Don't get me wrong, this is a great movie, but black-and-white films should have yellow subtitles.

Or at least put black bars behind the subtitles so they can be read!