Pasolini's first film is set in the milieu of his novels-the world of prostitutes, pimps, and drifters living on the outskirts of Rome and existing outside of both bourgeois and proletarian morality. Accattone, "The Scrounger" (played by nonprofessional actor Franco Citti, the brother of Pasolini's friend and collaborator Sergio Citti), lives as a thief, beggar, and pimp. When he falls in love, he tries to reform but cannot. French film historian Georges Sadoul wrote, "Accattone is neorealism rejuvenated-with a vengeance. There is none of the sentimentalism that marks some of the postwar Italian films; for Pasolini, there is no solution to Accattone's problem, no escape from the vicious circle of despair, vice, and poverty. (The film's) rough-edged style, its cool, unhysterical portrayal of corruption, cruelty, and violence, and its quiet lyricism marked one of the most significant directorial debuts of the sixties."