Accattone (1961)

The eponymous creature (Franco Citti) is a bit of a malevolent sponge. Hs has deserted his wife and child so he can sit with his mates carousing and playing cards whilst he pimps out "Maddalena" (Silvana Corsini) and lives off her ill-gotten gains. He's quite content with this arrangement until she has an altercation with a Vesper and then finds herself rather unjustly locked up for a year. With his income dried up, he has to make some changes. He's ill equipped to get himself a job, and isn't really motivated either. Until, that is, he meets the wandering "Stella" (Franca Pasut). There are certain similarities between her and his incarcerated meal ticket, but she's no hooker nor anywhere near as green as he'd initially thought. He gradually starts to fall for her but can he sort himself out and jettison the worst elements of his past before she tells him to take a run and jump? Though it's hardly a jolly affair, I found this first of his movies to be one of Pasolini's merrier affairs that allows some humour to pepper a narrative of exploitation and manipulation. There's little doubt that the "Accattone" is a pretty odious man, but as the film moves along there's a sense that begins to creep in that he's not beyond redemption - and both the intimate photography and the engaging talent of the boyish Citti help bring that out slowly but surely. Pasut and Corsini both play well with parts that are gritty, earthy and devoid of anything that might really offer them any hope, and on the sidelines his young son "Iaio" (Danilo Alleva) often serves as the most of unlikely of anchors for his selfish father. There's always space for a comment on the place of the church in society, and here there's a distinct parody being drawn between sainthood and, well you decide... Hardly ever seen these days but well worth a couple of hours to see a Rome that Nero might well have been proud of.