Pasolini himself was an innocent masterpiece!
Accattone and then Mama Roma, what a great start to such a strange career.
I love the long slow tracking shot down the street near the beginning of Mama Roma, it’s not going along the sidewalk but straight down the middle of the street. It’s so dreamlike. I mean, the opening scene is just so great, where Magnani is dueling it out with her ex and his new wife with these little doggerel songs, and there are barnyard animals roaming through the wedding feast. It’s like anti-opera. Also, the touching scene where she’s teaching her son to dance. A boy ashamed of his mother — it is one of the more universal, “innocent” emotions that Pasolini ever took on. Things became so much more complicated from there.
accattone, mamma roma,
then the interesting documentary comizi d’amore,
il vangelo secondo matteo,
the short che cosa sono le nuvole,
edipo re,
teorema,
la trilogia della vita…
and salò, my god salò!
and sadly he was killed before finishing porno-teo-kolossal, which he considered probably his definitive movie…
and that should have been incredible, reading what he was writing…
i dont know if you know his writings, but he wasnt only an important director
but also a good novelist, a great poet
and probably the most important italian intellectual ever,
with his Scritti corsari and Lettere luterane
he used to wrote extremely strong and passionate things on the most selling italian newspaper
i found this english translation of this incredible article, i hope you’ll appreciate:
http://lightzoo.blogspot.com/2006/01/pasolini-il-romanzo-delle-stragi-novel.html
Try to score a copy of his book of essays “Heretical Empericism.” it’s an eye-opener. His fiction writing is quite teriffic, especially “Ragazzi di Vita.”
He was a great fimmmaker and very nice man. I met him twice. Once at the New York Film Festival in 1966, and once in 1968 when he screened “Teorema” at the Museum of Modern Art.
“Salo” is his masterpeice.
When I’m giving a reading of my poetry, I sometimes read one of Pasolini’s poems too. As a tribute to him.
God. But an Old Testament God, Pasolini said.
Does anyone agree that Pasolini’s short films are exceptional?
“Che Cosa Sono le Nuvole” is my favorite movie ever… around 20 minutes of perfect movie…
“La Ricotta” comes close!
“Che Coisa Sono Nuole” is one of my very favorite of all his films.
There is a version available on youtube but the subtitling is quite off…
i also have a copy of ‘la terra vista dalla luna’ but no subtitles, unfortunately… i’ve never seen that short film with subtitles…
“teorem” is the only film of his ive seen. it was interesting. a very unique work. the sort of thing that takes you by surprise when you see it. i certainly appreciate the effort at pure cinema.
I don’t know if “innocent” is a good word to define Mamma Roma. It is the crossing of innocence, I think.
http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Pier-Paolo-Pasolini-Perspectives/dp/0253210100
the backward tracking shot (don’t know if it’s the right definition of the camera movement) in the “pronstitutes boulevard” in Mamma Roma is absolutely wonderful.
the short form, for Pasolini, is even better than the long one, It’s pure poetry. I love every single movie, even the “myths” (Edipo, Medea). I love the faces. We use (and abuse) the adjective “pasoliniano” to define his unique characters, the faces of his actors were so human, so normal and so peculiar at the same time…
His first movies were also very close to his book. i’m talking about Ragazzi di vita and Una vita violenta. he photographed a Rome that was both alive and disappearing.
joseph
“Mama Roma”… Pasolini’s Innocent Masterpiece