3.5.2022.SATURDAY.12NOON
Pier Paolo Pasolini
5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975)
Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual.
Pasolini also distinguished himself as an actor, journalist, novelist, playwright,
and political figure.
He remains a controversial personality in Italy due to his blunt style and the focus of some of his works on taboo sexual matters, but he is an established major figure in European literature and cinematic arts.
Pasolini was born in Bologna, traditionally one of the most politically leftist of Italian cities. He was the son of Carlo Alberto Pasolini, a lieutenant in the Italian army, and Susanna Colussi, an elementary school teacher. His parents married in 1921, Pasolini was born in 1922 and named after his paternal uncle.
In 1926, Pasolini's father was arrested for gambling debts.
That same year, his father Carlo Alberto, first detained and then identified
Anteo Zamboni as the would-be assassin of Benito Mussolini following his assassination attempt. Carlo Alberto became persuaded of the virtues of fascism.
Pasolini began writing poems at the age of seven, inspired by the work of
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 completing high school.
With other friends, including Ermes Parini, Franco Farolfi, Elio Meli,
he formed a group dedicated to literary discussions.
In 1939 Pasolini graduated and entered the Literature College of the University of Bologna, discovering new themes such as 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 turmoil.
As an early adult, Pasolini identified as an atheist.
In May 1949, Pasolini attended the Peace Congress in Paris.
Observing the struggles of workers and peasants, and watching the clashes of protesters with Italian police, he began to conceive his first novel. During this period, while holding a position as a teacher in a secondary school, Pasolini stood out in the local Communist Party section as a skilful writer defying the notion that communism was contrary to Christian values, even though Pope Pius XII had excommunicated communist sympathisers from the Church.
The local Christian Democrats took notice. In the summer of 1949, Pasolini was blackmailed by a priest to renounce politics or lose his teaching position.
A small scandal broke out during a local festival in Ramuscello in September 1949. Someone informed Cordovado, the local sergeant of the carabinieri, of sexual conduct (masturbation) by Pasolini with three youngsters aged sixteen and younger after dancing and drinking. Cordovado summoned the boys' parents, who hesitated, but did not file charges, despite Cordovado's urging. He nevertheless drew up a report, and the informer elaborated publicly on his accusations, sparking a public uproar.
A judge in San Vito al Tagliamento charged Pasolini with "corruption of minors and obscene acts in public places”.
He and the 16-year-old were both indicted.
According to Pasolini, the Christian Democrats instigated the entire affair to smear his name ("the Christian Democrats pulled the strings"). He was fired from his job in Valvasone and he was expelled from the Communist Party,
which he considered a betrayal.
Pasolini’s parents reacted angrily and the situation in the family became untenable.
He was acquitted of both charges in 1950 and 1952.
Unemployed for many years; ignored by everybody; driven by the fear to be not as life needed to be". After one year sheltered in a maternal uncle's flat next to Piazza Mattei, Pasolini and his 59-year-old mother moved to a run-down suburb called Rebibbia,
next to a prison, outside of roma.
Instead of asking for help from other writers, Pasolini preferred to go his own way.
He found a job working in the Cinecittà film studios and sold his books in the
'bancarelle' ("sidewalk shops") of Rome.
In 1957, Pasolini collaborated on Federico Fellini's film Le notti di Cabiria, writing dialogue for the Roman dialect parts. Fellini also asked him to work on dialogue for some episodes of La dolce vita.
His first film as director and screenwriter was Accattone in 1961, again set in Rome's marginal quarters. It was a story of pimps, prostitutes and thieves that contrasted with Italy's postwar economic reforms.
Nick Barbaro, a critic writing in the Austin Chronicle, stated it
"may be the grimmest movie" he has ever seen.
The movie aroused controversy and scandal. In 1963, the episode "La ricotta", included in the anthology film RoGoPaG, was censored and Pasolini was tried for "offense to the Italian state and religion”.
While openly gay from the very start of his career (in part due the gay sex scandal), Pasolini rarely dealt with homosexuality in his movies.
The subject is featured prominently in Teorema (1968), where Terence Stamp's mysterious God-like visitor seduces the son and father of an upper-middle-class family; passingly in Arabian Nights (1974), in an idyll between a king and a commoner that ends in death; and, most darkly of all, in Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom (1975), his infamous rendition of the Marquis de Sade's compendium of sexual horrors as fascist metaphor.
In 1963 Pasolini met "the great love of his life", fifteen-year-old Ninetto Davoli, whom he later cast in his 1966 film Uccellacci e uccellini (translated in English as The Hawks and the Sparrows). Pasolini became the youth's mentor and friend. "Even though their sexual relations lasted only a few years, Ninetto continued to live with Pasolini and was his constant companion, as well as appearing in six more of his films.”
Pasolini's work often engendered disapproval perhaps primarily because of his frequent focus on sexual behavior, and the contrast between what he presented and what was publicly sanctioned. While Pasolini's poetry often dealt with his gay love interests, this was not the only, or even main, theme.
-On 2 November 1975 on the beach at Ostia Pasolini was run over several times with his own car. Multiple bones were broken and his testicles were crushed by what appeared to be a metal bar. An autopsy revealed that his body had been partially burned with gasoline after death. The crime was long viewed as a Mafia-style revenge killing,
extremely unlikely for one person to have carried out.
Giuseppe (Pino) Pelosi (1958–2017), then 17 years old, was caught driving Pasolini's car and confessed to the murder. He was convicted in 1976, initially with "unknown others", but this phrase was later removed from the verdict.
Twenty-nine years later, on 7 May 2005, Pelosi retracted his confession, which he said had been made under the threat of violence to his family.
He claimed that three people "with a Southern accent" had committed the murder, insulting Pasolini as a "dirty communist".
Other evidence uncovered in 2005 suggested that Pasolini had been murdered by an extortionist. Testimony by Pasolini's friend Sergio Citti indicated that some of the rolls of film from Salò had been stolen, and that Pasolini planned to meet with the thieves on 2 November 1975 after a visit to Stockholm. Citti's investigation uncovered additional evidence, including a bloody wooden stick and an eyewitness who said he saw a group of men pull Pasolini from the car.
The Rome police reopened the case after Pelosi's retraction, but the judges responsible for the investigation found that the new elements were insufficient to justify a continued inquiry. family, friends and co-workers all feel pasolini was murdered by the ruling party- that despised the fact pasolini was one of the
most famous film director representing italy.
salo: 120 days of sodom- opened at the paris film festival nov 23rd 1975- three weeks after his death. initially rejected by censorship, then approved. salo opened dec 23rd 1975 in italy where it was immediately banned.
Pasolini foretold of his death thru his films- with the trilogy of life-
The Decameron-1972
The Canterbury Tales- 1974
A Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights)- 1974
Salò was intended as the first film of his Trilogy of Death, followed by an aborted biopic film about Gilles de Rais.
The Films of Pier Paolo Pasolini
Accattone- 1962
Screenplay by Pier Paolo Pasolini based on his novel Una vita violenta. Additional dialogue by Sergio Citti.
Mamma Roma- 1964
Screenplay by Pier Paolo Pasolini with additional dialogue by Sergio Citti
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
United Nations Award-British Academy of Film & Television Arts 1966
The Hawks and the Sparrows-1967
Oedipus Rex- 1968
Teorema- Pasolini’s novel Teorema was also published in 1968.- 1969
Porcile- (Pigsty)-1969
Medea
1971- stared maria calas.
The Decameron
Based on The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.
Won the Silver Bear at the 21st Berlin International Film Festival.
1972
The Canterbury Tales
Based on The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
Won the Golden Bear at the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival.
1974
A Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights)
Screenplay written in collaboration with Dacia Maraini.
Won the Grand Prix Spécial Prize.
1975
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom- the best movie ever made!
based on the writings of the marques de sade.
Pasolini's films won awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Italian National Syndicate for Film Journalists, Jussi Awards, Kinema Junpo Awards, International Catholic Film Office and New York Film Critics Circle. The Gospel According to St. Matthew was nominated for the United Nations Award of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in 1968~
much to the displeasure of the Italian government & churchie- IE; The Vatican.
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