Vittorio, known as "Accattone," lives a relatively calm life as a pimp on the outskirts of Rome. However, his world is disrupted when a rival gang injures his prostitute, Maddalena, who ends up in prison due to false testimony. With his income gone and little interest in regular work, Accattone initially attempts to reconcile with the estranged mother of his child but faces rejection from her relatives. Turning to a simple working girl named Stella, he endeavors to persuade her into prostitution. Despite her initial willingness, a traumatic encounter with her first client leaves her in tears, leading to her expulsion from the car. Accattone briefly tries working as an iron worker to support them, but he abandons the effort after just one day. Haunted by a dream of his own death, he turns to a life of theft with a few friends, ultimately meeting a tragic end in a traffic accident while attempting to evade the police on a stolen motorcycle.
The film was initially supposed to be produced by Federiz, a short-lived production company founded by Federico Fellini and Angelo Rizzoli.[5] Test shoots were arranged to assess Pasolini's work as a debuting director, but the test was flunked by Rizzoli's main collaborator Clemente Fracassi and the project was dismissed.[5]Tonino Cervi was also interested, but failed to convince Carlo Ponti to produce the film.[5] Thanks to the efforts of Mauro Bolognini, who had previously collaborated with Pasolini and had been impressed by the film script, the project was eventually taken over by Alfredo Bini, who had just produced Bolognini's box office hit Il bell'Antonio, and who eventually involved Cino Del Duca in the film's funding.[5]
Critic Gino Moliterno, writing for Senses of Cinema magazine, described Accatone and its successor Mamma Roma as cinematic renditions of the world of the "borgate" (Roman shanty towns) of Pasolini's novels Ragazzi di vita (The Ragazzi or The Street Kids, 1955) and Una vita violenta (A Violent Life, 1959).[6] Nick Barbaro of The Austin Chronicle titled it the possibly grimmest film he had ever seen.[7]
