About Me
..Pier Paolo Pasolini (March 5, 1922 – November 2, 1975) was an Italian poet, intellectual, film director, and writer.Pasolini distinguished himself as a philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure. He demonstrated a unique and extraordinary cultural versatility, in the process becoming a highly controversial figure.[edit] Early years
Pasolini was born in Bologna, traditionally one of the most leftist of Italian cities. He was the son of a lieutenant of the Italian army, Carlo Alberto, who had become famous for saving Mussolini's life, and an elementary school teacher, Susanna Colussi. His family moved to Conegliano in 1923 and, two years later, to Belluno, where another son, Guidalberto, was born. In 1926, however, Pasolini's father was arrested for gambling debts, and his mother moved to her family's house in Casarsa della Delizia, in the Friuli region.Pasolini began writing poems at the age of seven, inspired by the natural beauty of Casarsa. One of his early influences was the work of Arthur Rimbaud. In 1933 his father was transferred to Cremona, and later to Scandiano and Reggio Emilia. Pasolini found it difficult to adapt to all these moves, though in the meantime he enlarged his poetry and literature readings (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Shakespeare, Coleridge, Novalis) and left behind the religious fervor of his early years. In the Reggio Emilia high school he met his first true friend, Luciano Serra. The two met again in Bologna, where Pasolini spent seven years while completing the high school: here he cultivated new passions, including soccer. With other friends, including Ermes Parini, Franco Farolfi, Elio Meli, he formed a group dedicated to literary discussions.In 1939 he graduated and subsequently entered the Literature College of the University of Bologna, discovering new themes like philology and aesthetics of figurative arts. He also frequented the local cinema club. Pasolini always showed his friends a virile and strong exterior, totally hiding his interior travail: he even took part in the Fascist government's culture and sports competitions. In 1941, together with Francesco Leonetti, Roberto Roversi and others, he attempted to publish a poetry magazine, but the attempt failed due to paper shortages. Pasolini's poems of this period started to include fragments in Friulian language, which he had learnt at his mother's side.Success and charges
In 1954, Pasolini, who now worked for the literature section of the Italian state radio, left his teaching job and moved to the Monteverde quarter, publishing La meglio gioventù, his first important collection of dialect poems. His first novel, Ragazzi di vita, was published in 1955. The work had great success, but was poorly received by the PCI establishment and, most importantly, by the Italian government, which even initiated a lawsuit against Pasolini and his editor, Garzanti.Though totally exculpated of any charge, Pasolini became a favourite victim of insinuations, especially by tabloid press.In 1957, together with Sergio Citti, Pasolini collaborated on Federico Fellini's film Le Notti di Cabiria, writing dialogue for the Roman dialect parts. In 1960, he made his debut as an actor in Il gobbo.His first film as director and screenwriter is Accattone ("Panhandler") of 1961, again set in Rome's marginal quarters. The movie again aroused controversy and scandal. In 1963, the episode "La ricotta", included in the collective movie RoGoPaG, was censored, and Pasolini was tried for offence to the Italian state.During this period, Pasolini was frequently abroad: in 1961, with Elsa Morante and Alberto Moravia in India (where he went again seven years later); in 1962 in Sudan and Kenya; in 1963, in Ghana, Nigeria, Guinea, Jordan, and Palestine (where he shot the documentary, Sopralluoghi in Palestina). In 1970, he traveled again to Africa to shoot the documentary, Appunti per un'Orestiade africana.The late 1960s and early 1970s were the era of the so-called "student movement." Pasolini, though acknowledging the ideological motivations of the students, thought them "anthropologically middle-class" and, therefore destined to fail in their attempts at revolutionary change. He went so far as to state, regarding the Battle of Valle Giulia, which took place in Rome in March, 1968, that he sympathized with the police, as they were "children of the poor", while the young militants were exponents of what he called "left-wing fascism." His film of that year, Teorema, was shown at the annual Venice Film Festival in a hot political climate, as Pasolini had proclaimed that the festival would be managed by the directors themselves (see also Works section).In 1970, Pasolini bought an old castle near Viterbo, several kilometers north of Rome, where he began to write his last novel, Petrolio, which was never finished. In 1972, he started to collaborate with the extreme-left association Lotta Continua, producing a documentary, 12 dicembre concerning the Piazza Fontana bombing. The following year, he began a collaboration for Italy's most renowned newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera.At the beginning of 1975, Garzanti published a collection of critical essays, Scritti corsari ("Corsair Writings").[edit] Death
Pasolini was brutally murdered by being run over several times with his own car, dying on November 2, 1975 on the beach at Ostia, near Rome, in a location typical of his novels.Giuseppe Pelosi, a seventeen-year-old hustler, was arrested and confessed to murdering Pasolini. However, on May 7th, 2005, he retracted his confession, which he said was made under the threat of violence to his family, and claimed that three strangers with southern Italian accents had committed the murder, insulting Pasolini as a "filthy communist."Following Pelosi's retraction, the investigation into Pasolini's death was reopened, although the murder is still not completely explained. Contradictions in the declarations of Pelosi, a strange intervention by Italian secret services during the investigations, and some lack of coherence in related documents during the different parts of the judicial procedures brought some of Pasolini's friends (particularly actress Laura Betti, a close friend) to suspect that it had been a contract killing. The inefficiency of the investigations were exposed by his friend, Oriana Fallaci, writing in "Europeo" magazine. Many clues suggest that it was unlikely that Pelosi killed Pasolini alone.In the months just before his death, Pasolini had met with a number of politicians, whom he made aware of his knowledge of certain important secrets.Other evidence, uncovered in 2005, points to Pasolini having been murdered by an extortionist. Testimony by Pasolini's friend, Sergio Citti, indicates that some of the rolls of film from Salò had been stolen, and that Pasolini had been going to meet with the thieves after a visit to Stockholm, November 2, 1975.Others report that, shortly before he was found dead in Ostia, outside Rome, he told them he knew he would be murdered by the mafia.Despite the Roman police's reopening of the murder case following Pelosi's statement of May 2005, the judges charged with investigating it determined the new elements insufficient for them to continue the inquiry.Pasolini was buried in Casarsa, in his beloved Friuli. In the grave, he wears the jersey of the Italian Showmen national team, a charity soccer team he founded, with others.On the 30th anniversary of his death, a biographical cartoon, entitled Pasolini requiem (2005), was animated and directed by Mario Verger, with passages drawn from Mamma Roma, Uccellacci e uccellini, and La Terra vista dalla Luna. It ends with a description of the Ostia murder.mspmb allowScriptAccess="never" src="http://lads.myspace.com/slides/slideshow_random.swf?u=2
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