Pasolini's Salò and the Epstein Files: 50 Years of Anticipation

Fifty years after its release, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma is reexamined in light of the Epstein files. The film, distributed weeks after Pasolini's death, is framed as a theoretical testament that anticipated contemporary power structures. Unlike a historical depiction of fascism, Salò presents power as a formal device that organizes life and bodies through normalization rather than repression. The violence in the film is rational, pedagogical, and integrated into social order, echoing Hannah Arendt's concept of the banality of evil. The Epstein revelations confirm Pasolini's intuition of elite impunity and systemic cruelty. The article argues that Pasolini's scandal lies not in excess but in foresight, making visible what would become structural only later. Written by Domenico Ioppolo for Artribune, the piece connects Salò to current images of power and the Epstein circle, noting that art often precedes conceptual understanding.