Pasolini’s most virulently satirical film is made up of two strands that never mesh; in both society is shown as predatory and bestial.
In one, a feral cannibal (Pierre Clémenti) roams a bleak volcanic landscape, killing and raping, until he falls foul of the forces of religion.
In the other, a rich, bored young German (Jean- Pierre Léaud) prefers the company of pigs to that of his fiancée (Anne Wiazemsky), while his father forms an uneasy business alliance with a fellow ex-Nazi.
One strand is near-wordless, the other interminably talky, and in both the satire is applied with a bludgeon.
