Passion for Pasolini

by Brian Bromberger

When people hear the name Pasolini, if they recognize it at all, it’s primarily due to two references: one, his brutal murder by a male prostitute (and perhaps a criminal syndicate group) or his later sex-laden films, especially “Salo: 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade,” which has been repeatedly named the most controversial film of all time. What has been overlooked or forgotten is that Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) was one of the defining public intellectuals, both artistically and politically, in mid-century.

With the resurgence of Fascism throughout the world, he seems more relevant. This mixture of ideologies and identities is celebrated in the release by Criterion Collection of the provocative, lyrical, and indelible films he made in the 1960s, in an exhaustive Blu-ray collection of nine movies, “Pasolini 101” ($199.96).

Second neorealism

Pasolini’s filmmaking encompasses two phases. The first phase can be termed a second neorealism, building off the first neorealism that began after the end of World War II, characterized by films such as Vittorio De Sico’s “Bicycle Thief,” Roberto Rosselini’s “Open City,” and Visconti’s “Obsession,” which often used nonprofessional actors and explored the conditions of the poor and lower working class. Pasolini extended his cinematic study of the marginalized to pimps, prostitutes, thieves, and gangs.

In his second phase, he studied myth and fable in such films as “Oedipus” and “Medea,” but especially in what became known as The Trilogy of Life, which included his take on the lusty tales of “The Decameron,” “The Canterbury Tales,” and “The Arabian Nights.”

Each film challenged modern consumer culture, but also celebrated the sensual human body, while attacking contemporary erotic and religious mores and hypocrisy though his use of scatological humor and a “roughhewn” sexuality that was carnal, provocative, leaving behind modern standards of decency.

Criterion Collection rereleases nine classic films

This inquiry into contemporary social and sexual dynamics reached its apotheosis in his final film “Salo,” a depraved, nauseating masterpiece where he transposed the Marquis de Sade’s eighteenth-century opus of torture and sexual degradation to Fascist Italy in 1944.

“Pasolini 101” covers mostly the first phase, though “Oedipus” and “Medea” included, encompass elements of both careers. Years ago, Criterion released The Trilogy of Life and “Salo” as separate DVDs.

The films

Criterion deserves praise for collecting all Pasolini’s early films, beginning with one of cinema’s stunning debuts “Accattone (1961),” the nickname of a pimp as his protagonist in a hardscrabble slum, which also shocked Italian audiences with its use of street vernacular and rough Roman dialect.

The set comes with a 95-page booklet that includes an essay by Pasolini, “Why Cinema?” plus some of his short writings and drawings as well as an introduction to Pasolini, “The Elegiac

Heart: Pier Pasolini, Filmmaker,” by art critic James Quandt. Quandt also provides notes for each of the nine films.

There are new 4K digital restorations of seven films and 2K digital restorations of “Teorama” and “Medea.” These films, even with their grainy textures, have never looked better.

“Mamma Roma” (1962) stars the inimitable, immortal Anna Magnani in one of her greatest roles, as a former prostitute trying to start a fresh life in a new apartment with her teenage son. But the criminal underworld slowly sucks her back into her past habits, leading to a tragic ending.

“Love Meetings” (1964) is considered the first Italian cinema verité. It’s a documentary with Pasolini as interviewer asking a cross-section of Italian society questions on virginity, prostitution, homosexuality, and sex education.

“The Gospel According to Matthew” (1964) is atheist Pasolini’s life of Christ in which most of the actors are nonprofessionals and peasants. Combining neorealism with reverence and simplicity, by critical consensus, it’s considered the greatest film ever made about Jesus.

“The Hawks and the Sparrows,” (1966) Pasolini’s favorite of his films, is a comedy about Toto and his son Ninetto who roam the countryside of Rome witnessing birth and death. They encounter a talking crow who symbolically represents poverty and class conflict.

“Oedipus Rex” (1967) is a faithful adaptation of Sophocle’s Greek trag-