The Rome premiere of Accatone was accosted by the neo-fascist group Nuova-Europa, causing mayhem by violently attacking the audience and vandalising the cinema.
"Accattone" is Roman dialect and derives from "accattare" (to take, gain or acquire, often by illegal or otherwise unorthodox means). It indicates a beggar, and was mainly used in a non-literal sense, that is, it does not indicate a professional beggar but someone who lives of expedients: small thefts, begging, small-time frauds. It is a heavily derogatory term, and the leading character's having it as a nickname means he was held in low esteem even by other criminals (as this was usually the case for pimps, as they exploited prostitutes and gained money but did not personally risk their lives and health, unlike thieves, robbers and other members of the underworld). This word has become almost obsolete in Roman dialect nowadays.
According to Paolo Bonacelli, one of the main stars of Pasolini's final movie Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), Pasolini was in mind Giorgio Cataldi to play the part of Accattone, but he was replaced by Franco Citti because he was in jail at the moment of the filming. Is very typical in Pasolini's movies that characters share name with the actor who play them, and curiously, Accattone's surname is Cataldi. Giorgio Cataldi would do the first of his only two films in Pasolini's Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), along with Bonacelli.
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