Pier Paolo Pasolini

[A Tribute By
Carletto di San Giovanni:]
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www.directorspotlight.com
Pier Paolo Pasolini achieved fame and notoriety long before he entered the film industry. A published poet at 19, he had already written numerous novels and essays before his first screenplay in 1954. His first film Accattone (1961) was based on his own novel and its violent depiction of the life of a pimp in the slums of Rome caused a sensation. He was arrested in 1962 when his contribution to the portmanteau film Ro.Go.Pa.G. (1963) was considered blasphemous and given a suspended sentence. It might have been expected that his next film, Il vangelo secondo Matteo (1964) (The Gospel According to St. Matthew), which presented the Biblical story in a totally realistic, stripped-down style, would cause a similar fuss but, in fact, it was rapturously acclaimed as one of the few honest portrayals of Christ on screen. It's original Italian title pointedly omitted the Saint in St. Matthew). Pasolini's film career would then alternate distinctly personal and often scandalously erotic adaptations of classic literary texts: Edipo re (1967/I) (Oedipus Rex); Il Decameron (1971); I racconti di Canterbury (1972) (The Canterbury Tales); Il fiore delle mille e una notte (1974) (Arabian Nights), with his own more personal projects, expressing his controversial views on Marxism, atheism, fascism and homosexuality, notably Teorema (1968) (Theorem), Pigsty and the notorious Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (1975), a relentlessly grim fusion of Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy with the Marquis de Sade, which was banned in Italy and many other countries for several years. Pasolini was murdered in still-mysterious circumstances shortly after completing the film.
Trademarks:
Natural lighting.
Unprofessional actors.
Marxist representation.
Frequently casts Franco Citti and Ninetto Davoli.
Short takes.
Trivia:
Pasolini was also a poet, a painter and a novelist. He wrote about Semiotics in a paper called 'Il cinema dipoesia' (1965). In it he says that cinema is "a non-conventional and non-symbolic language", that expresses reality through reality itself.
Pasolini began writing poetry at the age of 7. From the age of ten he wrote poetry in the old language of Friulan, which was spoken by peasants and his mother.
His book of poetry was first published in 1942 titled "Poesie a Casarsa".
He caused national controversy with his first novel about slum life called "Ragazzi di vita" (1955). Another examination of the same themes was "Una vita violenta" (1959), translated as "A Violent Life".
Pasolini's artistic work was put on hold in August 1943 when he was conscripted into the Italian army, at that time allied with the Germans. A few days after Italy's capitulation Pasolini's regiment were captured by two Germans in a tank.
Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1966.
Buried at the cemetery of Casarsa.
Son of a soldier who became famous for saving Benito Mussolini's life. Ironically, Pasolini was a strong anti-fascist.
Personal quotes:
The mark which has dominated all my work is the longing for life, this sense of exclusion, which doesn't lessen, but augments this love of life.
[On atheism]: If you know that I am an unbeliever, then you know me better than I do myself. I may be an unbeliever, but I am an unbeliever who has a nostalgia for a belief. (1966).