Pier Paolo Pasolini

[Scharphedin2]

Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922 - 1975)




Filmography

Accattone / The Scrounger (1961) included in Pier Paolo Pasolini Collection, Vol. 2 / Tartan (R2 UK) as part of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Vol. 1 / Carlotta (R2 FR) included in Coffret Pier Paolo Pasolini: Les Années 60 / Imagica (R2 JP) Water Bearer Films (R1)

Mamma Roma (1962) Criterion (R1) / Films Sans Frontieres (R2 FR) / Les Films de Ma Vie (R2 FR) / Imagica (R2 JP)

Ro.Go.Pa.G (segment La Ricotta, 1963) Criterion (R1) Pasolini's segment included on Mamma Roma / Tartan (R2 UK) as part of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Vol. 1 / Imagica (R2 JP)

La rabbia (co-directed with Giovanni Guareschi, 1963) mk2 (R2 FR)

Le mura di Sana (1964)

Il vangelo secondo Matteo / The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) Water Bearer (R1) also included in Pier Paolo Pasolini Collection, Vol. 2 / Image Entertainment (R1) / Brentwood (R1) / Legend Films (R1) / Tartan (R2 UK) / Eagle Pictures (R2 IT) / Carlotta (R2 FR) / Imagica (R2 JP)

Il padre selvaggio (1965)

Comizi d'amore / Love Meetings (1965) Water Bearer (R1) also included in Pier Paolo Pasolini Collection, Vol. 1 / Tartan (R2 UK) as part of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Vol. 1 / Carlotta (R2 FR) included in Coffret Pier Paolo Pasolini: Les Annees 60 / Imagica (R2 JP)

Sopralluoghi in Palestina per il vangelo secondo Matteo (1965) Ripley's Home Video (R2 IT)

Uccellacci e uccellini / The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966) Water Bearer (R1) also included in Pier Paolo Pasolini Collection, Vol. 2 / Tartan (R2 UK) as part of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Vol. 2 / Carlotta (R2 FR) included in Coffret Pier Paolo Pasolini: Les Annees 60 / Imagica (R2 JP)

Le streghe / The Witches (segment, 1967)

Edipo re / Oedipus Rex (1967) Water Bearer (R1) also included in Pier Paolo Pasolini Collection, Vol. 1 / Tartan (R2 UK) as part of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Vol. 2 / Carlotta (R2 FR) included in Coffret Pier Paolo Pasolini: Les Annees 60 / Imagica (R2 JP)

Capriccio all'italiana / Caprice Italian Style (segment, 1968)

Appunti per un film sull'india (1968)

Teorema / Theorem (1968) Koch Lorber (R1) / BFI (R2 UK) / Films Sans Frontieres (R2 FR) / Mondo Home Ent. (R2 IT) / Imagica (R2 JP)

Amore e rabbia / Love and Anger (segment, 1969) NoShame Films (R1)

Porcile / Pigpen (1969) Water Bearer (R1) also included in Pier Paolo Pasolini Collection, Vol. 1 / Tartan (R2 UK) as part of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Vol. 2 / VellaVision (R2 ES) / Imagica (R2 JP)

Medea (1969) Vanguard (R1) / Raro (R2 IT) / Carlotta (R2 FR) / Imagica (R2 JP)

Appunti per un romanzo dell'immondezza (1970)

Appunti per un'Orestiade africana / Notes for an African Orestes (1970) Les Films de Ma Vie (R2 FR) included on Mamma Roma

Il Decameron / The Decameron (1971) MGM (R1) / Water Bearer (R1) / BFI (R2 UK) / Gaumont (R2 FR) also included in Pier Paolo Pasolini: La Trilogie de la vie / Eagle (R2 IT) / Legend Home Ent. (R2 DE) / VellaVision (R2 ES) / SPO Entertainment (R2 JP)

I racconti di Canterbury / The Canterbury Tales (1972) Water Bearer (R1) / BFI (R2 UK) / Gaumont (R2 FR) also included in Pier Paolo Pasolini: La Trilogie de la vie / Eagle Pictures (R2 IT) / VellaVision (R2 ES) / Legend Home Ent. / SPO Entertainment (R2 JP)

Pasolini e la forma della città (1974)

Il fiore delle mille e una notte / Arabian Nights (1974) Water Bearer (R1) / BFI (R2 UK) / Gaumont (R2 FR) also included in Pier Paolo Pasolini: La Trilogie de la vie / Eagle Pictures (R2 IT) / VellaVision (R2 ES) / SPO Entertainment (R2 JP)

Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma / Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) Criterion (R1) / BFI (R2 UK) / Carlotta (R2 FR) / Eagle Pictures (R2 IT) / VellaVision (R2 ES) / Legend Home Ent. (R2 DE) / SPO Entertainment (R2 JP)


Forum Discussions

Dubbing in Italian Cinema

Koch Lorber: Teorema

Mamma Roma

Pasolini: Medea - Carlotta edition

Peter Becker interview: Salò Returns?

Pier Paolo Pasolini on DVD

Salò


Web Resources

Accattone Gino Moliterno (Senses of Cinema, 2004)

The Canterbury Tales Gino Moliterno (Senses of Cinema, 2002)

Centro Studi Pier Paolo Pasolini in Italian

Il fiore delle mille e una notte Tony Raynes (Monthly Film Bulletin, 1975)

In the Extreme: Pasolini's Salò Bill Mousoullis (Senses of Cinema, 2000)

A Pasolini Dossier: We Are All In Danger: Interview Furio Colombo (Left Curve, 1975)

Pasolini: Forms of Subjectivity Yosefa Loshitzky (Screen, 1997)

Pasolini.net in Italian

Pasolini on de Sade Gideon Bachmann (Film Quarterly, 1975-76)

Pasolini, Mamma Roma, and La Ricotta Gary Indiana (Criterion essay)

Pier Paolo Pasolini Gino Moliterno (Senses of Cinema, 2002)

Pier Paolo Pasolini queertheory.com

Salò John Powers (Criterion essay)

Salò: 15 years of vision Alberto Pezzotta (Senses of Cinema, 1994-2000)

Salò or The 120 Days of Sodom BFI Feature Page

Translation as De-canonization: Matthew's Gospel According to Pasolini George Aichele (Cross Currents, 2002)

[gubbelsj]

Over the last few days, I've been listening to an interesting new cd from Italian jazz pianist Stefano Battaglia called Re: Pasolini. Across two cds worth of original material written for two different small groups (one more explicitly jazz-oriented, featuring trumpet and clarinet, the other staggered closer to contemporary composition with violin, cello and percussion), Battaglia introduces 24 pieces each relating to the life and thought of Pasolini. I find the set particularly satisfying because Battaglia's knowledge of and enthusiasm for Pasolini the intellectual and poet is as strong as his admiration for Pasolini the filmmaker. Battaglia's songs (all instrumental) touch on aspects ranging from the actress Laura Betti and Pasolini's own Friulan dialect poem Fevrar to explicit homages to Teorema, Pasolini's immersion in Antonio Gramsci's teachings and his 1975 murder. Battaglia's own notes in the booklet help place all the pieces into proper context.

I'm not sure if this cd will appeal to everybody. The music is rather chilly and complex, not adhering much to standard improvisational jazz. But it's a wonderful little monument to a great Italian artist. I can't think of many other works of such length dedicated solely to one filmmaker and consisting totally of original works. Fans of contemporary composition, continental jazz and Pasolini may enjoy the release. It's out on ECM. There are some wonderful stills from The Gospel According to St. Matthew inside as well.

[tavernier]

New York celebrates Pasolini.

From NYC's Film Society of Lincoln Center:

PIER PAOLO PASOLINI
NOV. 28 - DEC. 4
The work of one of the key figures in Italian and world cinema comes to the Walter Reade Theater in this special, ten-film retrospective.

No word yet on what the ten titles are, or if there will be any new prints.

*crosses fingers* Hawks and Sparrows *crosses fingers*

alfreeeeeeedo bini!

The new print of Salo! or The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights!

[Tommaso]

I can see where you come from, David, and apart from "Canterbury Tales", this is certainly my least favourite Pasolini, and mostly for the reasons you mentioned. But in a way, the film must be seen in its own historical circumstances, I think the pure fact of doing this with non-professionals and the intentionally 'poor' Jesus figure might have been quite a shock compared to how Hollywood would have done it. Also, I've always seen the film as a continuation of "Mamma Roma", which features the same use of classical music and a similar 'Christification' (I'm sure the word doesn't exist) of the subproletariat, and thus it again makes Paso's usual points. It's not an aberration in his work or something, and though the religious impact might indeed overwhelm the mythology (not very apparent in this film, or at that time in his work anyway), that's for me not a big issue. So I think it is at least an 'honest' film, and I clearly prefer this to anything handled by the likes of Cecil B. de Mille. It's actually one of the few Jesus films I find watchable, and it's only second to Rossellini's version for me.

In any case, be glad that you now also have the marvellous "Sopraluoghi", it's such an undeservedly neglected film, whose 'anthropological' value is even greater now than in 1965, I'd say. Sheer beauty, and as always I could simply listen to Paso's narrating voice endlessly even without understanding a word he says.

In this respect, someone should finally release what I consider the best of his documentaries, the 1968 "Appunti per un orestiade africana", a clear highlight among his films from his 'mythic' period. I know this was once on an OOP French disc together with "Mamma Roma", but an English-friendly disc would be much desired. So if some company in R4-land should release it, please notify us.

[ando]

Gospel is one of my favorite films, though I will concur that Pasolini's use of Bach is rather heavy-handed. Nevertheless, the images combined with the language as delivered by the actors provides a powerful, almost hypnotic effect that I find irresistible. Almost no film I've ever seen has passages of such intensity (which he matches and nearly surpasses in Medea) - certainly nothing (as pointed out) coming from the dreadful spate of tepid Hollywood religious epics from the mid-twentieth century. Really, one can forget the Saint Matthew story altogether and simply enjoy the beautiful succession of images so obviously inspired by the Renaissance masters. I think there is a kind of incantation that Pasolini is attempting to produce with this succession that is often foiled by, for instance, the obligatory inclusion of miracle scenes (Christ walking on water was one that particularly embarrassed Pasolini upon later viewings) that have no visual power - or, at least, investment, the way other more poignant scenes do. At times, Pasolini seems to merely illustrate the narrative. When he's inspired, however, as in the powerfully iconic opening scene, the electric Sermon on the Mount interlude or the beautiful simplicity of The Last Supper, the film transcends mere narrative.

[blindside8zao]

Can anyone tell me how long Giorgio Agamben appears and in what capacity in Gospel According to St. Matthew? Wikipedia says he plays Philip. Does anyone know how they knew each other?

... surely someone...

[lubitsch]

So I think it is at least an 'honest' film, and I clearly prefer this to anything handled by the likes of Cecil B. de Mille. It's actually one of the few Jesus films I find watchable, and it's only second to Rossellini's version for me.

I wouldn't mind if somebody would tell me that all films of his have fallen into a deep abyss because I have mostly the impression of an intellectual tumbling from confused marxism to confused mythologism and ending up in a very confused attitude towards the way of filming sex, CANTERBURY being not much different from Germany's prolific output of 70s sex film industry.

Since I've just finished an article on Jesus films, I've seen the major films in short sequence and Pasolini's film is ... unspectacular. This may sound surprising but his shaky cinema verite camera aside, it's a pretty straight rendering of the text. Every other major director before like Wiene, DeMille, Duvivier or most impressively Ray tried to construct a dramatic arc with some additions, while Pasolini mostly relies on a shouting and preaching Jesus (which Rossellini repeats minus the shouting).

Stylistically I also find the choices quite doubtful since I fail to see what is won if you film it this way and use non-professionals which shows in sometimes painfully bad reaction shots where the "actors" look simply helpless. I see no reason to belittle the Hollywood attitude a la George Stevens with painterly compositions and big budgets because it gives the films the special and unreal look that is very apt for its subject. What have you achieved if you show Jesus as an ordinary man walking among crumbling houses? Realism? That's arguably the last thing needed if you want to tell the story of God's son and that's not the way painters like Dürer or Raffael made their pictures centuries ago.

[accatone]

Since I've just finished an article on Jesus films, I've seen the major films in short sequence and Pasolini's film is ... unspectacular.

This must be a hell of an article - please submit!

[lubitsch]

Lube, did you get a chance to watch Rossellini's Il Messia?
It is outstanding, absolutely brilliant and reaches everyone who might view it from whatever position - certainly mine as an atheist and anti-religionist.

Uh-oh ... I also belong in the atheist camp, but from here on we both disagree violently. MESSIA is available in Germany on DVD with an video essay by Tag Gallagher as extra, but frankly I planned to skip over it in half a sentence. Rossellini and Pasolini mostly rely too much on a succession of parables and discussions. Since Jesus is not exactly an exciting person from a dramaturgical viewpoint - he's obviously always right - you have to search for some additional values which Ray supplies with his Barabbas and Judas parallel story.
Stylistically I find also Pasolini's cinema verite attitude not particularily enlightening (what's the point) while Rosssellini's zooming grates on my nerves. I dislike intensly the sloppy manner in which the "actors" are lead and the dubbing (by the same actor for both films!). I'd happily exchange both films for Stevens' brilliant handling of the Lazarus sequence.

[Tommaso]

What have you achieved if you show Jesus as an ordinary man walking among crumbling houses? Realism? That's arguably the last thing needed if you want to tell the story of God's son and that's not the way painters like Dürer or Raffael made their pictures centuries ago.

The point in both Rossellini's and Pasolini's films might simply be that these are not stories of God's son. This different view of the Jesus figure might be the reason why both directors refused to make the miracles appear other than (almost) everyday events, and why they also refused to build that dramatic arc you mention. Jesus indeed might be not the most 'exciting' character from a dramatic point of view, and the fact that everyone already knows the end of the story doesn't help either. Why try to dramatize it again, then? For some 'good Christians' to revel again in their hero without having to reflect about his teachings?

Both Pasolini's and Rossellini's versions, by refusing to cater to the established dramatic way of telling the story, make the viewer reflect much more upon the meaning(s) of the Jesus story. More importantly, we are able to get a closer look at the people surrounding Jesus, the way these people live(d), the historical context as opposed to the religious. And not just of Jesus' time: both "Il Messia" and "Vangelo", I think, wish to portray not only the life of Jesus, but the very real life of the nonprofessional actors that are in the film (just becaused you ask what the point of Paso's cinema verité attitude is). This certainly goes for Pasolini, who had been desperately scouting locations in Palestine in order to find places and people that looked and perhaps even lived like 2000 years ago. He wasn't successful, of course, but "Vangelo" does represent the beginning of his 'archaic-mythical' phase, and his interest in a very 'rural', 'communal', 'folky' type of Christianity/Catholicism, which was not at all unusual in southern Italy at the time (and perhaps is not unusual even today). You might say that all this doesn't go very well together in Pasolini's film, and I do even agree to a point. But I'm still surprised how you can apparently so easily dismiss in your article two films that are so radically different from any other portrayal of the Jesus figure at the time I can think of.

[lubitsch]

If you'd had to press 11 films in 10 pages, you'd also begin to swing the axe 8-[ (BTW, it's Reclam's Filmgenres about historical films). No seriously, I see your point, but the problem is that we're dealing with Jesus which means that you either believe he was God's son which immediately propels your story into unreal heights or he wasn't which means you have to take a critical look at the whole story. I don't see any reasonable middle way between. By showing the miracles, Pasolini chooses the first option (Rossellini is more cautious here) and there's no way back from here and his options to transport his quest for mythical roots suppressed by the civilization is strongly limited by the scriptures. I think the pageants of DeMille and Stevens are much more to the point because these directors don't try to break up or modernize or melt with your own private mythology what essentially can't be broken up or modernized. There's only the way e.g. to contrast Christ's story with something else like Ray does. It's quite funny for me being an atheist to be so dogmatic about the way Jesus should be filmed, but if you're dealing with something that is essentially mythological, it's best to keep it that way, EXCALIBUR or DIE NIBELUNGEN are good examples.

[Tommaso]

If you'd had to press 11 films in 10 pages, you'd also begin to swing the axe 8-[ (BTW, it's Reclam's Filmgenres about historical films).

Oh dear, I completely understand and don't envy you...

I think the pageants of DeMille and Stevens are much more to the point because these directors don't try to break up or modernize or melt with your own private mythology what essentially can't be broken up or modernized. There's only the way e.g. to contrast Christ's story with something else like Ray does. It's quite funny for me being an atheist to be so dogmatic about the way Jesus should be filmed, but if you're dealing with something that is essentially mythological, it's best to keep it that way, EXCALIBUR or DIE NIBELUNGEN are good examples.

It's funny, but although I'm not necessarily an atheist (though I'm opposed to any sort of organized religion/dogma) I think there is at least the possibility to 'meddle' with these stories, and much more with the Jesus story than with the Nibelungenlied. I'm really not an expert on Christianity, but I recently watched a quite interesting TV docu on the 'repressed' or only recently rediscovered additional gospels, and these seem to indicate that the actual historical events and the figure of Jesus were quite different from what the official churches want us to believe, including the assumption that Jesus was the 'Son of God'. All these (re-)discoveries do not necessarily devalue the teachings of the man, but they might allow us to 'adapt' them for a different purpose or agenda, such as Pasolini's. There are of course many different approaches to mythology, but one that I quite concur with is the notion that mythological stories express something 'generally' human in a symbolic or artistic way and are not necessarily just a literary fabrication and idealization of actual historic events. In other words: I see no big difference between a modernization of "Hamlet" and a modernization of the Jesus story as long as the underlying themes are still present, which then can be interpreted and emphasized at the will of the director. The stories themselves, then, become more or less a material which is moulded in different ways. A successful example for what I mean is Pasolini's "Edipo Re", and a non-successful one would be his "Canterbury Tales" (against which I rebel not just because of the obvious sloppyness of the filming and editing, but probably even more because Pasolini made Chaucer's work appear to be so much shallower than it is).

[j99]

I'm trying to remember whether Medea was ever released as a DVD as part of BFI's Connosseur Collection back in the early 90s? I was still buying videos at the time so didn't take much notice of DVDs back then. I've had a look on Ebay and the like but have yet to come across a Connosseur edition. Does anyone know, and is Medea ever likely to get a DVD release in the future?

[accatone]

Check the first post plus here

[Dr Amicus]

I'm trying to remember whether Medea was ever released as a DVD as part of BFI's Connosseur Collection back in the early 90s? I was still buying videos at the time so didn't take much notice of DVDs back then. I've had a look on Ebay and the like but have yet to come across a Connosseur edition. Does anyone know, and is Medea ever likely to get a DVD release in the future?

Early 90s? DVDs? Is that a typo?

IIRC, none of the BFI's Connoisseur Collection were released as DVDs (at least under that label). The first BFI DVDs arrived in 1999 (I think) - and I'm positive they never released Medea in that format. VHS yes - DVD no.

[Peacock]

Does the Arthaus dvd have english subs though? I strongly recommend the Raro dvd of Medea which is beautiful and includes Mure di Sana.

it's expensive right now but i managed to get mine for £22, just keep checking it

[Tommaso]

As all arthaus discs that I know of, this hasn't got English subs. I would second the recommendation for the Raro disc: very strong CC-like transfer, one of their best I'd say, the non-anamorphic "Mura di Sana'a" looks far better than its anamorphic equivalent on the Tartan edition, plus great extras and all. Certainly a fabulous edition worth every cent.

[zedz]

I'll third the Raro Medea - a ravishing transfer, English-subbed, bilingual booklet. As good an edition as any of the Criterion and BFI Pasolinis.

[MichaelB]

The BFI did indeed put Medea out on VHS, but has never released it on DVD.

[j99]

IIRC, none of the BFI's Connoisseur Collection were released as DVDs (at least under that label). The first BFI DVDs arrived in 1999 (I think) - and I'm positive they never released Medea in that format. VHS yes - DVD no.

You could be right, although I seem to remember Theorem had a DVD release on Connoisseur, but I cannot be certain.

it's expensive right now but i managed to get mine for £22, just keep checking it

Yes, £30 is a bit expensive. I think I'd go for it at £22 myself. I'll have to think about it but it is tempting with no forthcoming release on the horizon. Thanks for the link.

The BFI did indeed put Medea out on VHS, but has never released it on DVD.

I'm glad about this because I would have regretted missing out on the DVD, and I passed on the VHS because I had already taped it off Channel 4 in the UK. A mistake because the recording is littered with adverts and is of poor quality.

My hope is for a BFI release at some point, or perhaps as part of one of those haphazard box sets which Tartan have been putting out lately, along with Mamma Roma, similarly unreleased on DVD in the UK.

[Murdoch]

I didn't see this mentioned anywhere: Medea is getting a blu release in December

[knives]

I didn't see this mentioned anywhere: Medea is getting a blu release in December

Is the company trustworthy?

[Murdoch]

The only thing I know about the company is that they're also handling the One Eyed Jacks blu. I've no idea of the quality of their stuff, but it will be nice to have an in print version of Medea stateside, as long as the quality isn't shit.

[zedz]

If it's the same source as the Raro DVD, it'll be a stunner. But the fact that they're also dealing with a notorious PD title like One Eyed Jacks gives me pause, and I'm also wondering why Raro's new US arm isn't handling the title.

[Hail_Cesar]

Its funny, the old R1 dvd cover of accattone got his title mispelled as Accatone...