"Pier Paolo Pasolini: prophet. He saw what was coming, and Salò, that apocalyptic masterpiece, was his final warning. Almost his last recorded sentence, a few hours before his brutal murder, was "we are all in danger", siamo tutti in pericolo . Wasn't he right about that? He warned that capitalism was the new fascism, he dared to say that fireflies were worth more than the industrialisation that was poisoning the Italy he loved."
"He was a knot of complexities that do not resolve into easy slogans. He inhabited a night-world and left behind him a trail of irreconcilable visions, unlike anything else in cinema. When I wrote The Silver Book (which comes out on November 6 via Penguin), I wanted him to be a mystery even to his closest friends: driven, enigmatic, unknowable, gentle, always working, always alone."
"I read somewhere that nobody cared about his murder, but the record shows the opposite. The whole vast space of Campo de' Fiori was packed for his funeral. The street boys he championed, fucked, befriended, placed at the centre of the story: they all came out for him and when the coffin was carried through the crowd, they raised their fists in valediction."
Pier Paolo Pasolini foresaw economic and cultural dangers, portraying capitalism as a new form of fascism and producing provocative work such as Salò described as an apocalyptic warning. His final words warned that everyone was in danger, and his funeral at Campo de' Fiori drew a massive, emotionally charged crowd. The young men he championed attended and saluted his coffin. His work embodies unresolved complexities, night-world visions, and an enduring influence that continues to shape filmmakers, writers, designers and artists who encountered his films during their education and creative formation.
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