Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiralling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.
Pasolini's debut feature is a landmark of Italian cinema, shot with raw neorealist intensity in the Roman borgata slums. The non-professional cast delivers strikingly authentic performances, and Tonino Delli Colli's cinematography — austere, almost painterly — gives the film a sacred quality reinforced by Bach on the soundtrack. Novelty is high: Pasolini's unique fusion of Marxist ideology, Catholic imagery, and subproletarian street poetry creates something wholly singular. The plot, a pimp's slow moral drift, is deliberately episodic and can feel meandering, and the ending, while memorable, is abrupt rather than fully cathartic.