The Passion of Pasolini

November 1, 2007 - December 7, 2007

Hawks and Sparrows, December 1

“The cinema is an explosion of my love for reality.”—Pier Paolo Pasolini

When Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975) made his first film in 1961, he “burst onto the scene,” internationally speaking. But in Italy, Pasolini was only incidentally a filmmaker, albeit a masterful one; two major novels, many volumes of poetry, theatrical works, and continuous and controversial political and critical columns put him and kept him at the center of Italian intellectual life.

Still, cinema is how we in the United States know Pasolini, and how we can interpret this man in whom oppositions of sacred and profane, reality and myth, Marxism and Catholicism, homosexuality and abhorrence of the modern cultural landscape are no longer contradictions. The screen was at once Pasolini’s canvas (though he also was a painter) and his mixing palette. He spoke of “my tendency always to see something sacred and mythic and epic in everything, even the most humdrum, simple and banal objects and events. . . . [E]ven though I don’t believe in the divinity of Christ . . . my vision of the world is religious.”

The above explains why, first and foremost, his films are extraordinarily beautiful, whether set in the impoverished outskirts of contemporary Rome or in the time of Boccaccio or Jesus, whether ribald or ascetic in mood. A student of art, he worked only with superb artists who shared his vision—the cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli, costume designer Danilo Donati, composer Ennio Morricone—but in front of the camera he preferred the natural beauty of peasant faces and urban youths, nonprofessional actors on whom he lavished his characteristic full-frame close-ups. The films in our selection, including for the first time at PFA the entire literary “Trilogy of Life,” show the spectrum of Pasolini’s passions.

Thursday, November 1, 2007
7:30 p.m. Accattone
Pasolini’s famous debut film, a hard-edged and lyrical tragedy set in the slums of Rome.

Friday, November 2, 2007
8:50 p.m. Mamma Roma
Pasolini captured the great Anna Magnani “like a found object” (Village Voice) in her role as a spirited prostitute; her downtrodden exuberance stands in for Rome itself.

Sunday, November 4, 2007
2:00 p.m. The Gospel According to St. Matthew
“Pasolini’s most satisfying movie. . . . The director’s Catholicism and Marxism serve him well here [but] the film’s beauty . . . derives from its simplicity.”—Time Out

Saturday, November 17, 2007
8:15 p.m. The Decameron
Ninetto Davoli in person. “One of the most beautiful, turbulent and uproarious panoramas of early Renaissance life ever put on film.”—N.Y. Times. Adults only.

Friday, November 23, 2007
8:15 p.m. The Canterbury Tales
“Chaucer is played for maximum ribaldry . . . [this adaptation is] uniformly gorgeous.”—Village Voice. Adults only.

Saturday, November 24, 2007
7:15 p.m. The Arabian Nights
A magic-carpet fantasy rooted in realism, filmed in North Africa, Iran, and Nepal. “Pasolini’s most beautiful film.”—Tony Rayns. Adults only.

Saturday, December 1, 2007
6:30 p.m. Hawks and Sparrows
The great Italian comic Totò plays opposite Pasolini discovery Ninetto Davoli in this Brechtian slapstick set in the time of St. Francis.

Friday, December 7, 2007
9:00 p.m. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Pasolini’s most controversial film is a graphic adaptation of the Marquis de Sade’s famous work, adapted to an Italian Fascist milieu. Adults only.

Series curated by Susan Oxtoby.

PFA wishes to thank the following individuals and institutions for their assistance with this series: Roberto Terribile, Meri Malguti, and Cecilia Cinelli, Fondazione Aida; Istituto Italiano di Cultura, San Francisco; Chris Chouinard, MGM; Isa Cucinotta, Film Society of Lincoln Center; James Quandt, Cinematheque Ontario; Haden Guest, Harvard Film Archive; Jim Sinclair, Pacific Cinematheque; and John Kirk.