After writing a pair of novels set in the urban periphery of Rome, Pasolini, nearly 40, decided to turn to cinema to continue exploring this world and its characters. Accattone is the nickname of Vittorio—played by non-professional Franco Citti, a soon-to-be Pasolini regular—a young loafer roaming the hardscrabble Roman slum of Pigneto who fancies himself a pimp. The desperation of Vittorio’s sunbaked world is intensified by Tonino Delli Colli’s crisp cinematography and the strains of Bach’s St Matthew Passion (foreshadowing a future film). One of cinema’s great debuts, Accattone reimagines neorealism by eschewing any sentimentality for the poetry of the everyday. 

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Franco Citti, Franca Pasut, Silvana Corsini, Paola Guidi. 1961. 117 min. Italy. B&W. Italian. DCP. Restored by Cineteca di Bologna and The Film Foundation in collaboration with Compass Film and Istituto Luce Cinecittà, at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. 

All film screenings of Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Pier Paolo Pasolini are available here.