Franco Merli

Franco Merli (born in 1957, Corleone, Sicily) is an Italian actor, who is best-known for his role in "Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma".

Biography

Very little is known about Franco Merli, who appeared in several Italian films throughout the 1970s. He was born in 1957 in the town of Corleone, Sicily. In 1973, famous Italian poet and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini discovered Merli. The 16-year-old was working as a gas station attendant at that time (as Ninetto Davoli, a friend of Pasolini and actor in most of his films, recounts [Franca Faldini, Goffredo Fofi (Ed.): Pier Paolo Pasolini - Lichter der Vorstädte - Die abenteuerliche Geschichte seiner Filme; Wolke Verlag Hofheim, 1986; p. 155] ). Pasolini was searching for a young man to play the lead in his upcoming feature Arabian Nights (Il fiore delle mille e una notte). The director immediately knew that Franco Merli, with his small but muscular physique, dark Mediterranean looks, and ready smile, was the perfect choice for the role of Nur Ed Din. Or, as he once said: "(...) a boy from Corleone (in Sicily) who has the innocence of his sixteen years in the physique of an eighteen-year-old." [Barth David Schwartz: Pasolini Requiem; Pantheon Books, New York, 1992; p. 603]

Arabian Nights was an international success and Merli got a taste for the film business. Following his debut he appeared (his hair dyed blond) in [http://imdb.com/title/tt0072798/ La collegiale] .

In 1975 Pasolini hired him once again, for the role of one of the male victims in his infamous Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma). In this film, Merli was, like the other non-professional actors, addressed by his real first name, Franco. The director chose Merli once again, not only because he embodied the "Pasolini-type" to a faultFact|date=July 2007 but also because the young actor had already proven in Arabian Nights that he was perfectly comfortable appearing nude in front of a camera. In a way, Salò made Franco's face immortal since one of the most highly publicised images of the film was the close-up of young Merli as his tongue is cut out in the final torture scenesFact|date=July 2007. Another famous still (from the scene where the victims are forced to pose as dogs) prominently showed Franco naked, on all fours, only `wearing´ a dog collar - a fact that didn't help further his career (see below)Fact|date=July 2007.

Franco Merli obviously had at least one uncomfortable moment during the shooting of Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma, as Ezio Manni – who played the guard who falls in love with the black servant girl (Ines Pellegrini) – remembers. [Ezio Manni interview at: http://www.gaynews.it/view.php?ID=72656] Perhaps surprisingly it wasn’t about nudity or the degrading things he and the other actors playing the victims had to undergo in front of the camera but occurred during the scene where Merli is chosen as having the most beautiful ass. The scene calls for Franco to be shot as a “reward” for having won the contest. And reportedly the youngster suddenly flipped out when the gun was put to his head and threw the scene. Manni says that it took quite some time to calm Merli down again and persuade him to go through with the shot as planned.Unfortunately Manni doesn’t tell why Franco Merli suddenly freaked out during this particular scene as, for instance, the final torture scene obviously didn’t faze him nor did running around naked on all fours on a leash and acting like a dog.

In 1976, Franco Merli appeared on-screen as Fernando, the son of Nino Manfredi, who earns his money as a transvestite prostitute in Down and Dirty. This social satire by Italian director Ettore Scola was also (but for a small part in [http://imdb.com/title/tt0079513/ Il malato immaginario] (1979)) Franco Merli's swan song as an actor. It is probable that he secured the role of Fernando thanks to his connection with Pasolini, since the director not only was a friend of Scola but also had been supposed to write a foreword to the film - but was murdered before this came to pass.

Since Merli's mentor had died and his choice of roles (or perhaps the ones he got offered) had been a rather off-beat one, he soon didn't find work in the industry anymore, even though he had shown himself to be a versatile actor with a range from pure innocence to debauchery. And the fact that, as said above, he had become the "face" and "body" of Salò probably didn't help, either. It is not known but highly probable that he returned to his native isle, Sicily, to live a life away from the public.

In 2006 Franco Merli once again appeared on the big screen when Giuseppe Bertolucci's documentary on Pasolini and the making of Salò, Pasolini Next to Us ( [http://imdb.com/title/tt0966582/ Pasolini prossimo nostro] ) premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Merli could be seen in still photographs and behind the screen shots by set photographer Deborah Beer as well as the shooting of his torture scene as captured by British documentarist Gideon Bachman. The film was released on DVD in Italy in May 2007.

In June 2008 a correction was made on the Italian Wikipedia entry for Franco Merli. It stems supposedly from the grandson (or nephew - since both are the same term in Italian) of Merli and says that the actor was born in Rome, not Corleone, Sicily, which would contradict Pasolini's own words but might still be possible since Pasolini may have met him in Corleone and have assumed the boy had been born there, as well. The Italian entry also claims that Franco Merli currently lives in Rome but, once again, there is no confirmation for that.

Filmography

*1974: "Arabian Nights" (Il fiore delle mille e una notte)
*1975: "La collegiale" [imdb title|0072798|La collegiale]
*1975: "Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom" (Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma)
*1976: "Down and Dirty" [imdb title|0074252|Brutti, sporchi e cattivi]
*1979: "Il malato immaginario" [imdb title|0079513|Il malato immaginario]
*2006: "Pasolini prossimo nostro" [imdb title|0966582|Pasolini prossimo nostro]

Notes

External links

*imdb name|0580989|Franco Merli
* [http://www.geocities.com/mm3_2002/franco_merli.html Franco Merli Fanpage]
* [http://www.pasoliniprossimonostro.it/ Pasolini prossimo nostro - official page]