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prior socio-cultural associations. Bertolucci's depiction of another minor character, the young
drug dealer Mustafa and his habitat in the poor outskirts of Rome, will again draw
comparisons with Pasolini's sub-proletarian youngsters, but it is little more than a cinematic
citation, lacking the socio-political substance of both Pasolini's Accattone (1961) and
Bertolucci's own Grim Reaper. Bertolucci gives Mustafa Accattone's line, 'I hate to work
because there is no work' - in the sense of stable, respectable employment - but it is a self-
conscious inclusion that lacks the original line's resonance, since the implied social
accusation does not possess the impact it had two decades earlier, and because the line is
uttered in a film devoid of socio-political commitment. A similar effect is created by the
foolish would-be lothario from Rome who attempts to chat up Caterina by telling her a joke
about the Cuban president Fidel Castro. This role is played by Renato Salvatori, who was
popular in the 1950s and 60s, and whose most famous film was Poveri ma belli (1957) in
which he played a brash but genuine proletarian character. To viewers familiar with
Salvatori's career, his character in La lima is perceived as a miserable caricature of his most
famous role, and the joke about Castro - if not read in the light of Bertolucci's sardonic view
of America's fear of Communism may deepen the sense of emptiness that often engulfs the
viewing experience offered by La lima.
The need for self-reassurance
As indicated by critics, (Kolker, 1985: 154-155) La lima features many allusions to films
both by Bertolucci and by others. For viewers familiar with Bertolucci's prior work, such
cross references may elicit curiosity and mild intellectual gratification, but as they become
pervasive, a sense of overstatement develops. This is instantiated by the scene depicting an
implausible conversation about various types of ham and wine into which Joe is drawn by a
bartender (see image on following page). The character clearly evokes Gaibazzi from Tlie
Spider's Stratagem, who, in a similar scene, makes Athos Magnani junior taste and comment
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