Pasolini. I’ll be the first to admit that there is work to be done here on my end regarding Pasolini. I’ve seen six Pasolini films, once a piece, between the years 2004-2006. That certainly doesn’t make me an expert (hoping to dig in further soon). As far as his resume, the 1 film in the top 500 of all-time isn’t the problem—it’s the 1 film in the top 100 of the decade that hurts his case (though Salo is very close). The strength of Pasolini’s case is level of authorship in his films. Accattone has hinds of neorealism, as does Mamma Roma– but even then there’s an acidity and anarchism in his work—a scathing rejection of goodness in Pasolini’s worldview that pervades. I’ll get to it more below in the stylistic traits but he’s a genius when it comes to the medium-long shots, landscapes and designing the frame.
Best film: Accattone. Grim–brutal—a startling debut that his half-Rossellini and half-Bunuel.
total archiveable films: 6
top 100 films: 0
top 500 films: 1 (Accattone)
top 100 films of the decade: 1 (Accattone)
most overrated: The Gospel According to St. Matthew lands on the TSPDT consensus list at #145. This is certainly masterpiece territory and when I saw it—I was two grades below that and this film certainly didn’t land in my top 500 of all-time. Again, the same disclaimer as above—it has been far too long since I’ve seen the film and I’ve only seen it, like the rest of these, once so far.
most underrated: I actually don’t have one for Pasolini. TSPDT has Accattone at #462 and I’m at #471. I have Salo rated lower than the consensus as well.
gem I want to spotlight: Salo. It’s the film from Pasolini I’m most eager to revisit. All of the discussion seems to be around the contemptuous content and controversy but the designs of the mise-en-scene- as evidenced here—are jaw-dropping.
stylistic innovations/traits: As I said above Pasolini’s style is half-Rossellini’s biting neorealism (especially his 1960’s films) and half-Bunuel flame-throwing, middle-finger cinema of disgust. The visuals are haunting though- consistent, undeniably breathtaking. Medium-long distance shots with symmetrical compositions. I’m anxious to revisit—a closer look may well reveal that this should-be-mounted-on-a-wall-in-a-museum-level photography in his body of work should warrant a greater fate than slot #133 on the list of the best directors of all-time.
top 10
- Accattone
- Salo
- The Gospel According to St. Matthew
- Mamma Roma
- The Hawks and the Sparrows
- The Canterbury Tales
By year and grades
| 1961- Accattone | MS |
| 1962- Mamma Roma | R |
| 1964- The Gospel According to St. Matthew | HR |
| 1966- The Hawks and the Sparrows | R |
| 1972- The Canterbury Tales | |
| 1975- Salo | HR |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
Teorema(1968)
-Starts with Factory Workers talking about the bourgeoisie. Took me a while to get into the meaning of this and its inclusion other than passing a message but this is related to the father at the end
-Then the credits starts on a desert and then we jump into a sepia tinted montage which mostly includes the family members going about their activities. Most of these images comes back in colour at various points in the film
-The Visitor has sexual encounters with everyone
-Jaw dropping production design in the maid seduction scene. Everything is light blue.
-The Mother and maid seduction scenes are the best. Others are clumsily handled. This is a letdown in comparison to how rigorous the structure is in the 2nd half or even in the confession scenes.
-Breaks point of view going from the kid to the mother to the kid again. Not good.
-Again in the middle of the father seduction scene we go into the mother’s point of view
-Don’t like the hollow awkward interactions between the 3 characters(The Visitor, The Father, The Daughter). Wiazemsky taking Stamp into the house in front of his father seems desperate. Stay with the chance/point of view encounters like the maid and the mother. Ugh.
-Really beautiful establishing shots of the villa/house
-The countryside and rural landscapes the father and the visitor talks in are amazing
-Goes up a notch starting with the lovely dinner table scene where the visitor says he is going to leave. Very rigorous structure here on
-Everyone confesses apart from the maid. Maybe this is what seperates her from the others
-Distinctive two halves. In the second the visitor leaves and the family self destructs and the maid leaves them
-The maid is the only recurring character POV in the 2nd half. Others we follow one by one and not again. Very well done.
-Could do without the kid urinating scene or maybe the entire scene after he leaves the house
-There is a stunner when we first go into the mother POV in the 2nd half
-The second maid is maybe the only good soul in the film. Loves the daughter.
-The maid is the one who brings the visitor the letter hinting his leave while the postkid is an angel? He does a flying expression. Interesting
-The maid visits a village and then she gains an ability to cure children and then leviates
-She eats grass/plants and not made up food
-Morricone’s score is amazing. Really elevates the film
-The father strips in the railway station. He is a closeted homosexual.
-Amazing shot of Silvano Mangano in front of a church with the statue. But don’t love the close up statue shot. Too obvious
-The maid is buried alive. Really good shot of the sun shining on them. Companion to the Visitor accompanied by the son seducting the mother
-The father screams into the void. It carries over to FINE. Brilliant ending.
-I guess I’m OK with the recurring desert shots. But I didn’t see any pattern or significance when they were used. Felt random
-Laura Betti won best actress at Venice for her performance in the film. I get why. She doesn’t talk much(at all really). But is a very memorable character.
-Silvano Mangano carries everything in her facial expressions. Very captivating actress. Commands the screen when she is giving the confession
-Terence Stamp is perfectly cast as the mysterious stranger. Has those glassy blue eyes
-I’m not sold on Wiazemsky. She is striking but seems to be reading her lines with a straight face
-Girotti is good too. But his earlier scenes could have been executed better. And even his confession is just a talk not a confession like the others. But he gets the memorable final scene
-The whole thing is a bit silly when you think about it. The maid isn’t much different than the bourgeoisie family even though she becomes a saint while the others self destructs. Pasolini is pushing the agenda bourgeoisie are the worst because they are bourgeoisie and the lower classes like the maid are redeemable because they are not bourgeoisie. Not very deep.
-Great film. Very similar to Saltburn with its setting and characters. Although the execution is different of course. And this was made 55 years before. I wouldn’t have minded a Terence Stamp cameo in Saltburn
-MS
He should move up for about 100 spots
Are these 6 the only Pasolini films in the archives? Have you upgraded any of these?
@Anderson – 12 Pasolini films in the archives- a big update coming for his page when the director’s pages and rankings are updated
Wow. Does it mean every Pasolini film is in the archives?
@Anderson- weeding out docs, shorts and anthology films- I think you might be right
My ranking of Pasolini`s films that I`ve seen:
1. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom MP
2. Theorem MP
3. Accattone fringe MP
4. The Gospel According to St. Matthew MS
5. Mamma Roma HR/MS
Accattone MS
Mamma Roma MS
The Gospel According to St. Matthew HR
The Hawks and the Sparrows HR
Oedipus Rex R
Teorema HR
The Canterbury Tales —
Arabian Nights R
Salo MS
Bellissima (1951)
Sandra (1965)
The Stranger (1967)
Pigsty (1969)
The Decameron (1971)
5 films from Visconti and Pasolini that are currently not in the archives. Have you added any of them recently?
@AP- Was able to catch both Pigsty The Decameron in May of 2022 this year here
(1) 1961: Accattone (MS/MP)
(2) 1962: Mamma Roma (HR/MS)
(3) 1964: The Gospel according to St. Matthew (HR)
(4) 1966: The Hawks and The Spparows (R)
(5) 1967: Oedipus Rex (R/HR)
(6) 1968: Teorema (MS/MP)
(7) 1969: Medea (R)
(8) 1972: The Canterbury Tales (R)
(9) 1974: Arabian Nights (R)
(10) 1975: Salo (MP)
Finished my study on him earlier this week:
Total films watched: 12
Total archiveable films: 10
Top 100 films: 0
Top 500 films: 2 (Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Accattone)
Top 100 films of the decade: 4 (Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Accattone, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, Mamma Roma)
Top 10:
1. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom
2. Accattone
3. The Gospel According to St. Matthew
4. Mamma Roma
5. Oedipus Rex
6. Porcile
7. The Hawks and the Sparrows
8. Medea
9. Arabian Nights
10. The Canterbury Tales
Best film: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom. It’s a close race between Salo and Accattone, but Salo eventually wins. It’s macabre, grotesque and perverted; yet a masterpiece of visuals (Pasolini’s best film visually) and it’s biggest accomplishment is that it works; if I would read the script of it I would be like: “What is this? Some paedophiles torture porn fantasy?”. Even though the film has several rape scenes and other disgusting stuff, it’s an art film, not a torture porn film which is a grande accomplishment.
Most overrated: The Gospel According to St. Matthew is currently sitting on position #144 on TSPDT consensus. I’m not there yet. While it’s the best film to date I have ever seen about Jesus it was very, very challenging on my first viewing of it. Even though it’s very well acted by amateur actors, has fantastic visuals and succeeds in mixing neo-realism, religious themes and history I still couldn’t manage to get everything out of it after my first viewing. I’m highly confident that rewatches will make it’s grade rise though. The difference is about 500 slots between TSPDT consensus and me. Another one is The Hawks and the Sparrows. It’s currently sitting on #759 on TSPDT consensus, as Pasolini’s 5th best film. I have it as his 7th best and even though it doesn’t sound like it’s a big difference I’ll have to clarify that if I would expand my top 500 into top 1000 it would not be there. Arabian Nights is also overrated, as it’s his 6th best film on TSPDT consensus and it cracks the consesus top 1000. I have it as his 9th best and if I would expand my top 500 into top 1500 it would not be there.
Most underrated: Mamma Roma is currently sitting on #1086 and as his 7th best film on the TSPDT consensus. I have it as his 4th best and about 200-350 slots higher.
Gem I want to spotlight: Oedipus Rex. It’s macabre, surreal, mythical and violent yet visually fantastic and very entertaining which is a grande accomplishment with not much dialogue. It’s also easily accessible in my opinion.
Stylistic innovations/traits: You could easily recognize his films by his visual style. I’m quoting Drake here: “Pasolini’s style is half-Rossellini’s biting neorealism (especially his 1960’s films) and half-Bunuel flame-throwing, middle-finger cinema of disgust. The visuals are haunting though- consistent, undeniably breathtaking. Medium-long distance shots with symmetrical compositions”. That’s how I would describe him in short.
By year and grades
1961: Accattone MS/MP (leaning towards MP)
1962: Mamma Roma HR/MS (leaning towards HR)
1964: The Gospel According to St. Matthew HR/MS (leaning towards HR)
1966: The Hawks and the Sparrows R
1967: Oedipus Rex R/HR (leaning towards HR)
1968: Teorema NR=Not rated
1969: Porcile R
1970: Medea R
1970: The Decameron <R (not in the archieves)
1971: The Canterbury Tales R (closer to the edge of archives)
1974: Arabian Nights R
1975: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom MS/MP (leaning towards MP and is at the edge of it)
I went to study him with very low expectations but with high hopes. I expected that his films we're some nonsensical artsy films with middle fingers to politics and grotesque themes etc. Well, I was wrong. After seeing Accattone, Mamma Roma and The Gospel According to St. Matthew I was fully convinced that his films were anything but nonsensical artsy films. After watching The Hawks and the Sparrows and Oedipus Rex I saw Teorema. After watching it I was like; what the hell was this? What is the point? What the hell? Either way I found it very good or very bad, I can't decide. That's why it's NR (not rated). Will be definitely rewatching it at some point. After watching Teorema I lost my motivation on studying him, but I still had a great urge to watch Salo. I had a month break off his films, and I just decided one day to watch the rest of his films as I had gained some motivation on the past days to watch the rest of his films. I watched Porcile and found it was a pretty well made satire, and because it was good and well made I had my motivation back. Anyway I went to the trilogy of life with low expectations, mainly because of Decamerone. The book (Decamerone) by Boccaccio is one of the best books I have ever red, so with low expectations for the film I wouldn't need to be disappointed if it sucked. Welp, it did suck but I wasn't disappointed because of the low expectations. The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights were much better but I don't have an urge to revisit any of the films in the trilogy of life during future. I had very very low expectations for Salo but they were more than fullfilled. Generally, I loved his pre Teorema films, but post Teorema was pretty 50-50.
Sorry for possible bad english as it's not my mother tongue and messy text.
Nice stuff, I saw Teorema recently actually and think it is a Masterpiece but not a very big one (it’s certainly a difficult film), I love the cuts to Mount Etna which constantly build up to the cataclysmic scream from Girotti (I think he and Laura Betti do the best acting work in the film), they reminded me of the cuts to the black-and-white movies in Alain Resnais’ masterpiece Mon Oncle d’Amerique which more Cinema Archivers here need to see, it’s amazing. Of course Teorema also massively influenced one of my all-time favorite underrated films, Fellini Satyricon (Fellini initially wanted Terence Stamp to play the lead in Satyricon but he was not available or something), which is interesting since it clearly seemed to go back around to Pasolini as anyone who has seen Satyricon and Pasolini’s 70s work knows Pasolini’s 70s would not exist without Satyricon, those later films take a lot from what Fellini does there. But yeah, Teorema is certainly not an easy film in terms of what it does stylistically but I wouldn’t hesitate to call it a MP, the way all of the elements come together in a final product is so amazing even if its not on Salo’s level.
Arabian Nights is leaving the Criterion channel at the end of this month, I notice it isn’t in the archives though. Is this because you haven’t gotten around to it yet or is it not worth recommending?
@Declan- I have seen it actually and it is in the archives– the page for it is arriving in the next few days
The Gospel According to St. Matthew is currently free on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/555694/the-gospel-according-to-st-matthew-in-color-and-restored?start=true
@Zane- thanks for this help– I did look into this during my Pasolini study and decided to wait. The black and white is a little choppy whether it is tubi or prime… and I’m against the colorized version of black and white movies just as sort of a rule
Pasolini should be way higher. Accattone, Teorema and Salo are three top class films. Mamma Roma is very good too.
Too bad, Pasolini died for this movie.
As a curious fact, Gaspar Noe and Von Trier’s favorite movie is Salo.
It’s no wonder that they are provocateurs, they seem to be competing to dethrone Salo, as the best controversial art film.
@Aldo- yeah I saw that as well in my study- there are a few others (Haneke, Fassbinder), too.
So i’ll join Salo’s conversation too haha.
So Cinephile is right, this movie prevents me from eating properly.
I also agree on the rest, the terrible acts prevent properly assessing it.
Still this second viewing was better than the first.
Shouldn’t it also be in the section of most overrated Salo? They have it in 191, that’s MP territory
Certainly a very good movie, there are frames within a frame, although there are also moments when nothing interesting happens, but i’m not sure what value to add to repeat the same (beautiful shot) of the frame within the frame.
I think i qualify it as an MS, i don’t know, difficult to properly evaluate this movie.
Weren’t you doing a study of Pasolini? I thought you would get to Salo before me.
@Aldo- thanks for the comment. I actually watched it a week or so ago and finished my notes on it yesterday. The post should come tomorrow or Sunday.
Good. Eager to know what you think. How long do you need to process the film? You mention you saw it a week ago.
Here is a new list that Metacritic published. Surprisingly among the 50 best movies of the year are not Mank, Tenet and ITOET.
https://www.metacritic.com/pictures/best-movies-released-in-2020
@Aldo- I usually get all my notes down in a rough draft within 24-48 hours at the latest. Some times it takes me a little longer to look it over a little. I’m posting on about a 7-10 day lag right now as I might not be able to get to the site much at all next week. I’d rather post once a day then 4 one day and then nothing for 4 days.
thanks for sharing the metacritic list- I don’t use that one– I use this here https://www.metacritic.com/feature/film-critics-pick-10-best-movies-of-2020?ref=hp
Thanks for the list. Have you seen Nomadland? will there be a review soon? I hope it’s very good, sometimes these critics disappoint with their lists.
I can’t help but complain about seeing Tenet in position 29. Disconcerting.
It seems that critics agree to leave their films in low positions.
Nolan may be overrated by the public, but the critics hate him.
@Aldo- I haven’t seen Nomadland yet. Anxious to see it.
well I’m not one to go to war defending Tenet- at least after one viewing (it is back on my short list to see again). There’s a disconnect between the quality of Nolan’s body of work and the critics– I agree. “Hate” is the wrong word. I’m pretty sure when TSPDT updates their top 1000 Nolan will have 3 films (very good for a contemporary filmmaker) and he has 8 on the 21st century list. His last film- directly before Tenet- faired very well on this same metactitic list in 2017.
It’s been like 3 months since I revisited Salo for the third time, hahaha every time I see it I can’t eat properly for a day. It’s a hard film, people ( including me of course) need to have an open mind when seeing it because the horrific acts depicted can easily make you underrate it’s true value. The message – I think- is about fascism and what people do when they have power but I don’t know if so much disturbing stuff needed to spread the message, so I don’t agree with people saying the film needed those acts, Pasolini clearly wanted to provoke and that’s fine. There are some films that I never saw because I was scared by their content. So I think Salo is very good but I cant really call it a MS or MP so fully agree with the HR.
Also happy new year with more great films and let’s hope the new decade continues to give us more incredible cinematic achievements!!!
@Cinephile– nice- third time? Good work! Yeah- I probably picked the wrong word choice above when I say that it’s the Pasolini film “I’m most eager to revisit.” — I’m strictly talking about the visuals– of course the material and subject mater is tough to stomach and disturbing. Over the years though I’ve gotten pretty good at separating the artistic value of a film vs. the content.