Born March 5, 1922, in Bologna, Italy, to a man who saved Benito Mussolini's life, Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered Nov. 2, 1975, shortly after completing Salo (The 120 Days of Sodom), an adaptation of Marquis de Sade's novel transplanted to Nazi Germany.

Pasolini had already established himself as a poet, novelist, playwright and provocateur when he directed his first film, Accatone, in 1961. A violent portrayal of a pimp's life in the slums of Rome, the picture -- one of Pasolini's many movies depicting life on the fringes -- met with a mix of moral outrage and critical acclaim.

Drawing inspiration from art, literature and music, Pasolini moved between sexually provocative films such as Edipo Re (an intensely personal retelling of the Sophocles tale) and Teorema (starring Terence Stamp) and literary adaptations such as The Canterbury Tales (1972).