Two dramatic stories. In an undetermined past, a young cannibal (who killed his own father) is condemned to be torn to pieces by some wild beasts. In the second story, Julian, the young son of a post-war German industrialist, is on the way to lie down with his farm's pigs, because he doesn't like human relationships.
Direction
Pasolini's most unhinged formal experiment—two timelines that rhyming violence.
Cinematography
Volcanic landscapes and mud-wallow transcendence shot like religious paintings.
Acting
Clémenti's feral physicality vs. Léaud's spectacular breakdown—both devastating.
Director
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pierre Clémenti
Cannibale
Jean-Pierre Léaud
Julian Klotz
Alberto Lionello
Signore Klotz
Ugo Tognazzi
Herdhitze
Anne Wiazemsky
Ida
Margarita Lozano
Madame Klotz
Marco Ferreri
Hans Günther
Franco Citti
Secondo Cannibale
Ninetto Davoli
Maracchione
Antonino Faà di Bruno
Vecchio (Scena della Sentenza) (uncredited)
Camillo Besenzon
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Pasolini made this during his most radical Marxist-Catholic period, explicitly calling it a film 'about the bourgeoisie devouring itself'—the pigs were non-negotiable.
The pig farm sequence was shot at a real estate that belonged to producer Alberto Grimaldi, who later produced The Last Tango in Paris—apparently he had a type.
IT
