Franco Merli

Franco Merli (* 1957 in Corleone , Sicily ) is an Italian actor .

Life

There is very little in-depth information available about Franco Merli, who appeared in several Italian films during the 1970s. In 1973 Merli was discovered by the famous Italian poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini . The 16-year-old was working as a gas station attendant (as Ninetto Davoli , a friend of Pasolini's and actor in many of his films, remembers). Pasolini was looking for a young man who would play the leading role in his next film Erotic Tales from 1001 Nights (Il fiore delle mille e una notte). When the director saw Franco Merli - short, slender and muscular, typically Mediterranean in appearance and an innocent and charming smile on his face - he knew that the boy was the perfect embodiment of Nur-ed-Din. In Pasolini's words he was: "(...) a boy from Corleone (in Sicily) who combines the innocence of his 16 years with the body of an 18-year-old."

Erotic stories from 1001 nights was an international success and Merli found a taste for the film business. After his debut, he starred (with dyed blonde hair) in La collegiale , a rather silly soft sex comedy that did little for his reputation other than proving he could play an unlikable character.

In 1975, Pasolini engaged him again for the role of one of the male victims in the later infamous The 120 Days of Sodom (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma). In this film, Merli, like the other non-professional actors, appeared under his real first name, Franco. Pasolini chose Merli not only because he matched the typical “Pasolini look” perfectly, but also because the young actor had already proven in Erotic Stories from 1001 Nights that he didn't mind stepping naked and uninhibited in front of a film camera. In a sense, Salò made Franco's face immortal, because one of the most publicized images in the film was the close-up of young Merli when his tongue was cut out during the torture scenes at the end of the film. Another famous picture (from the scene in which the victims have to pose as dogs) showed Franco, prominently placed in the foreground, naked, on all fours and only 'clad' in a dog collar - a fact that was not exactly conducive to his further film career was (see below).

During the filming of Salò there was at least one uncomfortable moment for Franco Merli, as Ezio Manni - who played the soldier who falls in love with the black servant (Ines Pellegrini) - remembers. Surprisingly, it was perhaps not about nudity or the humiliating things that he and the other actors who played the victims had to do in front of the camera, but rather happened in the scene in which Merli as the victim with the prettiest butt is selected. In said scene Franco was supposed to be shot as a "reward" for winning the competition. According to the interview, the boy suddenly freaked out when the gun was brought to his temple and threw the scene. Manni reports that it took some time to calm down Merli and persuade him to play the scene as planned. Manni does not tell why Franco Merli suddenly freaked out in this particular scene, since he had no problem, for example, with his torture scene, nor with walking around naked on all fours on a leash and acting like a dog. At most, one could speculate that Merli might have actually witnessed such an occurrence or that a pistol was pointed at him during his youth.

In 1976 Franco Merli appeared as Fernando, son of Nino Manfredi , who earned his living as a transvestite prostitute in the film The Dirty, the Ugly and the Common (Brutti, sporchi e cattivi). This brilliant social satire by the Italian director Ettore Scola also portrayed Franco Merli's Schwanengesang as an actor (with the exception of a small appearance in Il malato immaginario (1979)) was a friend of Scola, but should have written a foreword to the film, but was murdered beforehand.

Since Merli's mentor had died and his choice of roles (or the roles that were offered to him) was extremely unusual and radical, the offers stayed away, although he had proven that he was a versatile actor, from the innocent boy to the extortionate Pervert could represent anything. But the fact that he had become the “face” and “body” of Salò (see above) had put a stamp on him that he obviously could not escape. It is not known what became of Franco Merli, but it seems likely that he returned to Sicily to lead a life apart from the public.

In 2006 Franco Merli celebrated a “comeback” on the screen when Giuseppe Bertolucci's excellent documentary on Pasolini and Salò, Pasolini prossimo nostro, premiered at the Venice Film Festival . Merli could be seen in photos of Deborah Beer on set and behind the scenes, as well as in a short film sequence by British documentary filmmaker Gideon Bachman showing him at his torture scene. The film was released on DVD in Italy in May 2007.

Filmography

• 1974: Erotic stories from 1001 nights (Il fiore delle mille e una notte)
• 1975: La collegiale
• 1975: The 120 days of Sodom (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma)
• 1976: The dirty, the ugly and the mean (Brutti, sporchi e cattivi)
• 1979: Il malato immaginario
• 2006: Pasolini prossimo nostro

Web links

• Franco Merli in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Franco Merli Fanpage ( Memento from March 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

Footnotes

1. ↑ Franca Faldini, Goffredo Fofi (ed.): Lights of the suburbs. Pier Paolo Pasolini. (The adventurous story of his films). Wolke, Hofheim 1986, ISBN 3-923997-15-9 , p. 155.
2. ^ Barth David Schwartz: Pasolini Requiem. Pantheon Books, New York NY 1992, ISBN 0-394-57744-2 , p. 603.
3. ↑ Interview with Ezio Manni in: Archive link ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ Pasolini prossimo nostro ( English ) Ripley Film. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved on April 9, 2019.