― , Friday, 18 June 2004 08:45 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm beginning to think was infinitely better as an essayist than he was as a film maker.
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 13 April 2006 15:41 (eighteen years ago) link
NYC retro:
http://www.filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/pasolini/program.html
wow, I didn't expect to run into Momus-JohnD debate here. My favorites are Teorema and The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, need to see Porcile, Notes twd an African Oresteia and (maybe) Salo.
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Salo is kind of distanced and numbed and I really don't feel it's that bad. The selection of the victims at the beginning is more disturbing than most of what transpires after. Doing Sade is more or less like doing Fielding except the eating scenes are a bit queasier.
― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 29 November 2007 18:45 (sixteen years ago) link
I say search "Oedipus" and "Medea" - the opening section of Medea is a spell-out-Marxism-for-you-dummies snoozefest, but once the story gets underway it's great, and in both of these film's Pasolini's treatment of myth & primary sources is both radical and very carefully considered. If you're doing work in Greek tragedy & you see one of these two movies, you're struck (or I was, anyhow) by how much insight Pasolini has into both the mechanisms that run tragedy (Oedipus's visit to the oracle in the film is just terrifying & evocative of so much about Oedipus's character, amazing P.O.V. stuff without ever actually being explicitlly P.O.V.) and into the characters of myth.
Might be strange trying to comment on years old comments now, but which part of the beginning of Medea is 'Marxism-for Dummies'? I saw it a couple of days ago now...anyway, once this gets going its probably one of the most gorgeous films. Love the acres of silence during the rituals to the sudden switch. I do feel I missed loads, I've only skim-read the play a couple of times. Needs more work...
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 3 August 2008 22:33 (fifteen years ago) link
another push to reopen his murder case:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/the-film-maker-the-confession-and-the-murder-that-refuses-to-die-1925418.html
― all-beef patty hearst (donna rouge), Wednesday, 24 March 2010 21:16 (fourteen years ago) link
ACCATONE is incredible
― "Where's Momus? He could clear all of this up" (Tape Store), Wednesday, 24 March 2010 21:27 (fourteen years ago) link
I remember reading that in the original case, someone suggested showing Salo in court as part of the defence, so as to imply that anyone who made such a film was practically begging to be murdered.
― Freedom, Wednesday, 24 March 2010 21:54 (fourteen years ago) link
Still think the fuss over Salo is kinda exaggerated and ridiculous.
― Allbran Burg (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 24 March 2010 22:16 (fourteen years ago) link
found this sequence very moving when i watched nanni moretti's dear diary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIBeQ7ddgXw
― harshbuzz to my chilt-on (zvookster), Wednesday, 24 March 2010 22:25 (fourteen years ago) link
nanni moretti's dear diary
wanna see this film so bad. admittedly have not been keeping up but it was the hardest thing to find a couple of years back.
― egregious apostrophising (schlump), Wednesday, 24 March 2010 22:28 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah i saw it in a theater. and he has like ten films before that that are very hard to see.
― harshbuzz to my chilt-on (zvookster), Wednesday, 24 March 2010 22:43 (fourteen years ago) link
saw the bfi's new digital print of Theorem this evening, my first viewing. very beautiful in places - quite a lot of the landscapes seemed to be 'revisiting' antonioni locations (chiefly from Il Grido and Red Desert), and the film overall had a very heavy godarian vibe (accentuated of course by the presence of Anne Wiazemsky). interesting morricone score, too, sliding between straight jazz themes and more dissonant orchestral arrangements that mirror the film's fractured narrative, where the framing of bodies and landscapes and buildings is more important and considered - poetic effect - than narrative realism or consequence.
― Ward Fowler, Sunday, 26 May 2013 19:30 (ten years ago) link
http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/calendar/film-programs.html#film-programs.html?category=Film%20Programs&pageNumber=1
retrospective going in DC for free at the National gallery of Art
― curmudgeon, Friday, 15 November 2013 18:04 (ten years ago) link
yesterday was the 40th anniversary of his murder
'65 interview:
Only a person with a great deal of professional experience is capable of inventing technically. As far as technical inventions go, I have never made any. I may have invented a given style—in fact, my films are recognizable for a particular style—but style does not always imply technical inventions. Godard is full of technical inventions. In Alphaville there are four or five things that are completely invented—for example those shots printed in negative. Certain technical rule-breakings of Godard are the result of a pains-taking personal study.
As for me, I never dared to try experiments of this kind, because I have no technical background. And so my first step was to simplify the technique. This is contradictory, because as a writer I tend to be extremely complicated—that is, my written page is technically very complex. While I was writing Una Vila Violente— technically very complex—I was shooting Accattone, which was technically very simple. This is the principal limitation of my cinematic career, because I believe that an author must have complete knowledge of all his technical instruments. A partial knowledge is a limitation. Therefore, at this particular moment, I believe that the first period of my cinematic work is about to close. And the second period is about to start, in which I will be a professional director also as far as technique in concerned.
http://www.filmcomment.com/article/pier-paolo-pasolini-interview/
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 3 November 2015 17:09 (eight years ago) link
http://www.panenka.org/destacadas/calcio-in-poesia/?alt_id=16112
interesting article if you can read Spanish and are interested in Pasolini's life-long passion for football (soccer).
Most interesting (to me) anecdote: Pasolini and Bertolucci had a falling out, they had once been close - Bertolucci having been an assistant director for Pasolini. They were filming in the general vicinity of each other - Pasolini filming Saló, Bertolucci Novecento - and Pasolini's helpers thought to cheer Pasolini up a meeting between the crews might be nice. Pasolini suggested a game of soccer. He played for the Saló crew, while Bertolucci was a bystander. Novecento won 5-2, Pasolini got mad, and stormed off after the game without even greeting Bertolucci.
― you too could be called a 'Star' by the Compliance Unit (jim in glasgow), Tuesday, 3 November 2015 17:40 (eight years ago) link
Wish there was a cheap-ish copy of a selection of hsi poetry to hand
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 4 November 2015 12:24 (eight years ago) link
rewatched Abel Ferrara's Pasolini tonight. found it angrier than i remembered it, suitably angry tbh. such a sense of waste at the end.
― Rock Wokeman (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 21 December 2016 22:59 (seven years ago) link
That jim in glasgow story, two posts up, is awesome.
― The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Thursday, 22 December 2016 00:23 (seven years ago) link
“Pino Pelosi, a former rent boy convicted in the 1975 murder of writer and director Pier Paolo Pasolini, died of cancer in a Rome hospital aged 58 Wednesday night,” reports ANSA. “Pelosi confessed to murdering Pasolini the day after his death on November 2, 1975 but several years later retracted his confession, fueling conspiracy theories that the iconic leftist gay novelist, poet and filmmaker had been assassinated by political opponents. Pelosi was found guilty in 1976 of murder along with unknown others; the court ruled he was not alone.”
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/lifestyle/arts/2017/07/20/pasolini-killer-pelosi-dies-4_8c49cdfc-b8ef-4086-8625-79f34f76fe7b.html
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Friday, 21 July 2017 20:40 (six years ago) link
I resaw the Ferrara film tonight, and somehow never knew Ninetto Davoli became PPP's bf at age 15 til AF brought it up in the Q&A.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 4 May 2019 05:08 (four years ago) link
enjoyed Mamma Roma, I had never watched it before. It was dedicated to Rossellini and was made with Rome, Open City in mind, using the same actress, Anna Magnani, who is fantastic. It was interesting to read that Pasolini’s actors were mostly nonprofessionals who only starred in his films, and that he chose them because their acting did not seem “real” (eg, Ettore’s sleepwalking gait). I recognized quite a few of them in this from Accattone (the only other film of his I have seen so far)
― Dan S, Monday, 3 June 2019 22:40 (four years ago) link
never watched a film with Ninetto Davoli in it before. He is really charming in The Hawks and the Sparrows, as is Totò. I like that Pasolini as an atheist was looking for beauty in representations of faith
― Dan S, Sunday, 9 June 2019 23:56 (four years ago) link
Davoli is in the Ferrara film... and a young actor plays him in it
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 10 June 2019 01:18 (four years ago) link
I will look for it
― Dan S, Monday, 10 June 2019 01:29 (four years ago) link
wow Oedipus Rex is very satisfying. Franco Citti is such a hot-head!
― Dan S, Friday, 14 June 2019 02:19 (four years ago) link
I liked the abrupt split in eras in which the story took place, and that the time rupture did not coincide with the film’s division into its first and second parts
― Dan S, Friday, 14 June 2019 02:26 (four years ago) link
amateurist’s comment above that “it was a major inspiration for the taiwanese new wave directors” is interesting
― Dan S, Friday, 14 June 2019 02:29 (four years ago) link
also like that the thread starter has no user name
― Dan S, Friday, 14 June 2019 03:11 (four years ago) link
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom is the first Pasolini film that has let me down
looking forward to seeing Theorem
haven't found a way yet to watch The Gospel According to Saint Matthew
― Dan S, Sunday, 7 July 2019 02:34 (four years ago) link
*Teorema
― Dan S, Sunday, 7 July 2019 02:36 (four years ago) link
Let's wait for Morbs to return from his Teorema screening earlier today.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 July 2019 03:03 (four years ago) link
It has its moments, even a few after Stamp departs, and I like how he makes Milan look like shit.
It's not a very queer movie; falling in love with Stamp is just a metaphor for having your bourgeois self wrecked. Not one of his best.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 7 July 2019 05:20 (four years ago) link
Had to turn off the gospel of st matthew, couldn't get past the seemingly endless series of pronouncements in close up. decameron was ok but I don't think I get pasolini at all right now
― or something, Sunday, 7 July 2019 06:30 (four years ago) link
Rewatched Accatone, his first and among the best and most unsparing. Franco Citti had a very beautiful/ugly thing goin' on. (He's in many of the later films and shows up in Sicily in The Godfather.) The recurring scenes of the ne'er-do-wells' main hangout also anticipates the sidewalk social club/cafe in The Sopranos.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 22 July 2019 18:33 (four years ago) link
Franco Citti's crooked teeth are distracting
― Josefa, Monday, 22 July 2019 23:57 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lqsLTskEBA
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 23 July 2019 14:47 (four years ago) link
liked Decameron for screwing nuns and N Davoli in barrel of shit
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 31 May 2020 12:54 (three years ago) link
I saw from Letterboxd that you also saw The Canterbury Tales. Did you get to Arabian Nights? (I'm guessing you're watching them now for the same reason I did--they were leaving the Criterion Channel at the end of May.)
I think I like The Decameron and Arabian Nights about equally; they're both very warm, sexy, funny films. The Canterbury Tales is a bit more sour, a product, perhaps, of the source material (haven't read since undergrad), but at the very least, it leads to one of the most audacious and hilarious ending scenes in film history.
― A White, White Gay (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 2 June 2020 17:09 (three years ago) link
I saw Arabian Nights first a few years back at MoMA, don't remember it well
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 2 June 2020 17:15 (three years ago) link
on The Decameron
https://www.artforum.com/film/andreas-petrossiants-on-pasolini-s-the-decameron-83588
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Monday, 20 July 2020 18:02 (three years ago) link
Good piece. Been a decade since I saw The Decameron but there is work to be done on the way Pasolini engages with text and also his own readings of the change in the Italian working class at the time.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 21 July 2020 09:26 (three years ago) link
wrote an essay for @VersoBooks about pasolini's easter films (la ricotta, location hunting in palestine, il vangelo secondo matteo): his approach to landscape, technique of radical allegory, the influence of erich auerbach (thanks to @caitdoherty) https://t.co/lG9TU21XQm— roland barfs (@rolandbarfs) April 2, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 2 April 2021 13:01 (three years ago) link
With a thread title like this, I had to think if he had any films I would "destroy". La Rabbia is pretty irrelevant in 2021, and I didn't really get the point of Hawks and Sparrows. Everything else is interesting to great.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 2 April 2021 13:44 (three years ago) link
thread title otm
― Call of Scampi: Slack Nephrops (Noodle Vague), Friday, 2 April 2021 14:07 (three years ago) link
That's an interesting article by Andrew Key; I didn't realize Pasolini had written a screenplay about St. Paul. One of my favourite books about the work of a single director is A Certain Realism by Maurizio Viano, he manages to touch on all of Pasolini's works, exploring common themes without rehashing the same points over and over.Noodle Vague, are we really expected to love every film Pasolini made?
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 2 April 2021 14:18 (three years ago) link
Is there a good/legal way to watch The Gospel according to Saint Matthew?
― In on the killfile (Boring, Maryland), Friday, 2 April 2021 14:40 (three years ago) link
https://eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/the-gospel-according-to-matthew-il-vangelo-secondo-matteo/
― Ward Fowler, Friday, 2 April 2021 14:42 (three years ago) link
However you see it, don't watch the colourized, cut and English-dubbed version from Legend Films!
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 2 April 2021 14:49 (three years ago) link
― In on the killfile (Boring, Maryland), Friday, 2 April 2021 14:51 (three years ago) link
Hawks and Sparrows is probably his only comedy, and isn't very funny (though maybe someone finds Pigsty hilarious); although, as you mention, his characters seem to laugh a lot, maybe out of cruelty more often than joy.
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 29 March 2023 00:28 (one year ago) link
The union's reaction to the boss's decision to give away his factory is meant to be funny, surely? But yeah I can't really with Pasolini either.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 29 March 2023 09:28 (one year ago) link
To me he is like a reader of texts turning to films. The New Testament, De Sade, old greek plays.
I loved Teorema and probably my favourite though I last saw it then years ago. Didn't feel like Stamp served as an erotic object, more like the thing that was missing in everyone he touched. It's a great idea.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 29 March 2023 09:40 (one year ago) link
Pigsty didn't work. Hawks and Sparrows I've yet to see
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 29 March 2023 09:42 (one year ago) link
That's how I ultimately regarded Stamp.
― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 29 March 2023 10:09 (one year ago) link
a catalyst, more obvious with the son and his painting ambitions.
Terence Stamp, whom I admire as an actor and figure, is so far from an erotic object
Jake G has ruined all other men for you.
― fair but so uncool beliefs here (Eric H.), Wednesday, 29 March 2023 12:53 (one year ago) link
I've been aware of that for quite some time
― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 29 March 2023 13:42 (one year ago) link
I saw Teorema as a partial remake of My Man Godfrey
― glumdalclitch, Wednesday, 29 March 2023 13:51 (one year ago) link
If William Powell had fucked Mischa Auer.
― the very juice and sperm of kindness. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 29 March 2023 13:52 (one year ago) link
Viano suggests that, despite Teorema having some of the most literal gay content of any of Pasolini's films, it's actually the least concerned with homosexuality as a theme.
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 29 March 2023 14:51 (one year ago) link
I re-watched Teorema. It's very funny and an excellent story idea, and well executed. Beautiful soundtrack. The music was ace.
Deeply cynical film. I kind want to watch recent 'Marxist'/class films like Triangle of Sadness now.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 8 April 2023 18:37 (one year ago) link
It's playing at the BFI soon, might go.
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Saturday, 8 April 2023 19:26 (one year ago) link