Pasolini 101

“This is one of my favorite films. This is Pasolini’s Teorema. This is probably the high point of this entire visit. So I’ve just been kindly offered to swap out my single version of Teorema with the box set. Now I get to have The Gospel According to Matthew, which is probably one of the most incredible fusion movies of all time, in terms of style, in terms of actually dealing with the notion of Christ’s energy and his compassion and openness. It’s an incredible movie.”

“Nine films of Pasolini, Pasolini 101. This has a couple of my favorite movies of his on here: Accattone and The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, especially The Gospel According to Saint Matthew. I grew up Catholic and going to church every Sunday and catechism once a week. But I never paid attention. I, like, daydreamed the whole time. Then when I was in my early 20s, they were playing The Gospel According to Saint Matthew at my… at a film program at my film school.”

“Okay, this is fantastic. Now, going back to Friedkin’s “the greatest location is the human face,” this is something that Pasolini understood. Accattone is a masterpiece. I mean, I think it’s as good as any Italian film I’ve seen from the ’60s, and that’s saying quite a bit because there’s so much great cinema from the ’50s, ’60s, and, yeah, this is…...”

“The work of Pasolini I’ve already mentioned, although I’m happy to see that Salò is not included in this box set, so I got this plus Salò. Like the work of the great Marquis de Sade, still has the ability to shock and move in a way that few dare to even to this day.”

“Pasolini became super important when thinking about people that have adapted crazy things, crazy stories like taking the challenge of adapting Greek theater or The Decameron, things like that.”

“And this is the Pasolini collection. I just think this is a beautiful look at this the care and work that goes into this is what this place is all about.”

“This is one of the most important directors for me, Pier Paolo Pasolini. My first short movie was an adaptation of his book called Who I Am. It's not only the films, it's the whole man, the thought of a man, this mix of pure intelligence and poetry. I miss his thinking. This is like the '60s film, if I have to pick one up, it's difficult but I would say it's The Gospel According to Matthew. He says about the film, 'Look at the Faces I picked up, I never go wrong on a face.'”

“Pasolini, I would love to have it. Would you think it greedy of me if I took this? No. Go ahead, go ahead, have it. Thank you. I’m now taking... It’s your Christmas-birthday... Christmas present for myself.”

“This is a heavy Pasolini box set, which is very exciting. I wanted to talk about Medea, but also happy to talk about Oedipus too. The worlds that Pasolini creates with Piero Tosi, the costume designer, and Dante Ferretti, the production designer... It’s amazing to see what Dante Ferretti does when he doesn’t have any money... But one of the things about Medea is the music. Pasolini is taking music from all over the place... It’s really evocative to see what he does with it.”

“The master, Pier Paolo Pasolini. This is a beautiful collection of nine movies. The last one of this collection is Medea. I just made a movie about Maria Callas called Maria, and Maria Callas actually plays Medea in this movie. Pasolini was a wonderful writer, a filmmaker, and a poet. Teorema, which is also here, is one of my favorite movies. And it’s such a poetic, poetic film that ends with the most poetic ending ever, ever in filmmaking.”

“First off, box set, Pasolini, all the 60s films. Incredible.”

“All right, Pasolini, a queer icon, an intellectual icon, a Marxist icon in Italy. So moving, The Gospel According to Matthew. He was Catholic, but in the deepest way that is much closer to socialism, when you think about it. And that film– I remember Lazarus coming out of the tomb to the sound of an old American ancient blues song, and it somehow worked. Teorema, one of my favorite films... Of course, Mamma Roma, the great Anna Magnani. Brilliant Performance. Yeah, so this is great.”