Accattone (1961) Pasolini

After reading the chapter on Gramsci and the Italian Cinema, I noticed some strong Gramscian themes in Accattone, most notably the use of language and landscape. Linguistically the film was spoken in Roman dialect which was obvious in the characters' use of "man yar eh." The use of language not only set the tone for the movie giving it place and time,  but also spoke to the idea of education. These people, as was obvious by the way they spoke, were not particularly educated. Language was highly tied to education, as the more educated you were the more your language (way of speaking, being able to read and write), would show your education. The film also tightly tied the characters to their landscape and the way that they are a part of the landscape, navagating their way through it and always on the move. What was also important about the landscape was the lack of place that it gave to the film, a part of its "mythic" quality. There was nothing identifying about the landscape; instead it was the characters who defined it, who acted upon it in the sense that the landscape never changed but instead played the backdrop for the characters to act upon. 

Something I did not see in this movie that was presented in the reading was the idea that Accattone represented homosexuality while not acutally being homosexual in the film. I was curious to see how this would play out in the film, especially in the scene when he puts on a lady's hat. By the end of the film I found that the points people had mad in support of Accattone being a representation of homosexuality were vague at best. While the film is of course up to interpretation, the fact that Accattone seemed uninterested in sex with Stella or the fact that he put on the lady's hat don't really provide much evidence in support of this theory. These scenes could alternately be read as scenes where Accattone is asserting his masculinity but I also think showing his childishness. The scene of him putting on the womans hat reminded me a lot of something a child would do, whcih does not necessarily have homosexual unertones but instead shows Accattone's immaturity and lack of respect for women. The fact that he doesn't seem to be interested in engaging in a sexual rapport with Stella is a little more complicated however, but I believe this could also be read as his respect, but also his want to turn her into a prostitute. If he sleeps with her it would be harder for him to send her to the streets. 

Lastly and most notably, the scene of Accattone's death to me has highly ambiguous. I don't think it can be said whether he was saved or not. Although his outward efforts to change we obvious, I think the scene of his death represented a big question mark. We will never really know whether he repented or not and the scene leaves the viewer to decide whether Accattone was indeed Vittorio.