MORTE DI UN AMICO ("Death of a Friend") of Franco Rossi, from a screenplay by Pier Paolo Pasolini and others, reveals the strong hand Pasolini in its depiction of life at the geographical, social, economic, and moral edge of Rome. The two heroes (played by Gianni Garko and Spiros Focas) are pimps, like the protagonist of Pasolini's own ACCATTONE. The relationship between Aldo and Bruno and the bourgeois society which rejects them is a complex one. The pimps are both callous and caring; their prostitutes are by turn vindictive and generous. MORTE DI UN AMICO is an unsettling, powerful, and ultimately very moving film from that fertile period of Italian cinema that brought us L'AVVENTURA, ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, ACCATTONE, and LA DOLCE VITA.
