Today I went to the Glasgow film theatre. As I was awed by the lush screen perfectly optimized for 4:3 and 16:9 presentations, a feeling of excitement rushed within me as the curtains at the back closed, and the lights dimmed. A cinematic experience awaited me. And what an experience it was.
For those of you who don't know, Abel Ferrara recently made a film about the late great Pier Paolo Pasolini. It is understandable if you have missed out on this information because the film seems to be going for a more indie feel than anything, and had it not been for BFI advertising it on Facebook, I probably wouldn't even have seen the film in all its glory today. In fact, I think that mentality of filmmaking fits perfectly with that of Paolo's. He even admits in the film that even if no one goes to see his films, the tools with which he can express his meaning are all that matter to him, and how he can navigate the meaning with the power of cinema. He was much like Ingmar Bergman and Stanley Kubrick whose meaning carried through in each of their movies. However, Paolo is very interesting in the sense that he could contradict himself pretty easily. The film even seems to draw a parallel to this fact since the project of his next film was going to be based on freedom, yet all he decried in Rome was the fact there was too much mayhem - probably caused by too much freedom, I would imagine.
Now the film basically centers around the final day of Pasolini. Almost like how The Gospel According to St. Matthew handled elements; many close ups of Pasolini's faces are exploited, and the film is not afraid to show the sexuality and brutality prevalent in his films like Decameron and Salo. The weird thing is that the film seems to jump from Italian to English on many occasions. I personally would have preferred it if Dafoe maintained an English speaking role since I think it just makes more sense. Though I can completely understand that they were probably trying to spruce up the film, and didn't want to alienate audiences who were maybe not used to Foreign films (though I highly doubt any audience watching this is unaccustomed to films like that, but I think the principle still applies). Similarly, while I did find the concept of delving into his future project interesting, keeping the desert setting alive and the overall divinity that Pasolini thrived on, the transition from reality to the dream project was not always that easy for me to follow. I occasionally thought a completely new story opened up; but then again, maybe that was deliberate, since Pasolini's film , Theorem, dealt with that kind of storytelling as well where each of the characters would follow a trance on the "guest" character played by Terrence Stamp. A very interesting, but weirdly disjointed way of telling a story. He was represented as absolutely subversive in his nature, and never afraid to say no.
Dafoe was an excellent casting choice for Pasolini. He managed to almost show the pain the man must have felt in being rejected, and dealing with it on a regular basis. But he still managed to bring to life a creative and truly challenging figure, and this was easily the strongest part of the film. Near the ending, I was on edge just watching the twists and turns, and being pulled into his universe, only to have it completely shatter in a second. The way it handled his murder (based on Homophobia) made the whole thing about his controversial nature even more interesting than I ever thought imaginable.
If you are a fan of world cinema, then you owe it to yourself to watch Ferrara's portrayal of a multifaceted human being through the lens of a single day. Though you must be warned that the film does not pull any punches with its violent and sexualised content, but without these core elements, we forget what was going through the man's mind.
Now the film basically centers around the final day of Pasolini. Almost like how The Gospel According to St. Matthew handled elements; many close ups of Pasolini's faces are exploited, and the film is not afraid to show the sexuality and brutality prevalent in his films like Decameron and Salo. The weird thing is that the film seems to jump from Italian to English on many occasions. I personally would have preferred it if Dafoe maintained an English speaking role since I think it just makes more sense. Though I can completely understand that they were probably trying to spruce up the film, and didn't want to alienate audiences who were maybe not used to Foreign films (though I highly doubt any audience watching this is unaccustomed to films like that, but I think the principle still applies). Similarly, while I did find the concept of delving into his future project interesting, keeping the desert setting alive and the overall divinity that Pasolini thrived on, the transition from reality to the dream project was not always that easy for me to follow. I occasionally thought a completely new story opened up; but then again, maybe that was deliberate, since Pasolini's film , Theorem, dealt with that kind of storytelling as well where each of the characters would follow a trance on the "guest" character played by Terrence Stamp. A very interesting, but weirdly disjointed way of telling a story. He was represented as absolutely subversive in his nature, and never afraid to say no.
Dafoe was an excellent casting choice for Pasolini. He managed to almost show the pain the man must have felt in being rejected, and dealing with it on a regular basis. But he still managed to bring to life a creative and truly challenging figure, and this was easily the strongest part of the film. Near the ending, I was on edge just watching the twists and turns, and being pulled into his universe, only to have it completely shatter in a second. The way it handled his murder (based on Homophobia) made the whole thing about his controversial nature even more interesting than I ever thought imaginable.
If you are a fan of world cinema, then you owe it to yourself to watch Ferrara's portrayal of a multifaceted human being through the lens of a single day. Though you must be warned that the film does not pull any punches with its violent and sexualised content, but without these core elements, we forget what was going through the man's mind.
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