Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini was one of the great filmmakers of the 20th century, a poet and a cultural critic.

Pasolini was a gay atheist marxist who directed a film embraced by the Catholic Church (screened for bishops attending Vatican II) portraying Jesus as a revolutionary. He also took the side of the police in the 1968 protests on the basis that the protestors were the intellectual children of the bourgeoisie while the police were the children of the proletariat. He defies simple characterisation.

I see Pasolini as one of the great critics of consumer capitalism and how it impacts what it means to be human. He saw the modern world as driving out the 'sacred' and reconstructing the very nature of desire within people - that is, effectively rewiring what it is to be human.

Ultimately, I think Pasolini's films demonstrate the development of his thinking over time:

• First, seeking to demonstrate the impact of the modern world's value system on the sub-proletariat (Accattone, Mama Roma) as well as prior revolutionary resistance (Gospel According to St Matthew);
• Second, seeking to theorise how the structure of modern society drives out the sacred (Medea, Theoreme);
• Third, trying to create a positive resistance to that pressure (The Decameron, Canterbury Tales); and
• Finally, admitting defeat in that effort before going out in a defiant blaze of glory with no positive message (Salo).

The above only includes films of his I've seen (I haven't seen the rest - so that may disrupt my reading!).

Pasolini also trained as an art historian - and several of his films draw very clearly upon particular artists. This is another interesting way into his work.

I've seen 8 Pasolini films this year at small cinemas around Paris. (If you search Pasolini in Offi.fr you'll find what is on at the moment). If you're interested but have never seen any, I would recommend starting with Theoreme and Salo (but Salo is not an easy film to watch).

Don't feel like you must have seen a lot of his work to attend (a film or two would suffice!).