Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) was arguably the most complex director of postwar Italian cinema. His films—Accattone, The Canterbury Tales, Medea, Saló—continue to challenge and entertain new generations of moviegoers. A leftist, a homosexual, and a distinguished writer of fiction, poetry, and criticism, Pasolini once claimed that "a certain realism" informed his filmmaking.
Masterfully combining analyses of Pasolini's literary and theoretical writings and of all his films, Maurizio Viano offers the first thorough study of Pasolini's cinematic realism, in theory and in practice. He finds that Pasolini's cinematic career exemplifies an "expressionistic realism" that acknowledges its subjective foundation instead of striving for an impossible objectivity.
Focusing on the personal and expressionistic dimensions of Pasolini's cinema, Viano also argues that homosexuality is present in the films in ways that critics have thus far failed to acknowledge. Sure to generate controversy among film scholars, Italianists, and fans of the director's work, this accessible film-by-film treatment is an ideal companion for anyone watching Pasolini's films on video.
A Certain Realism Making Use of Pasolini's Film Theory and Practice
About the Book
Reviews
"Superb. . . . In its careful handling of the biographical and the autobiographical, the factual and the speculative, this book will become a model for how studies of individual directors should be done in the future."—Peter Brunette, author of Roberto RosselliniTable of Contents
Preface
1 Authorial lntertext
2 Extravagantly Interdisciplinary
3 An Explosion of My Love for Reality
4 Accattone
5 Mamma Roma
6 La ricotta
7 La rabbis
8 Comizl d'amore
9 Sopraluoghl in Palestlna
1 O // Vangelo secondo Matteo
11 Uccellacci uccellini
12 La terrs vista dalla /una and Che cosa sono le nuvole?
13 Edipo re
14 La sequenza del flore di carta
15 Appunti per un film sull'India
16 Teorema
17 Porcile
18 Medea
19 Appunti per un'Orestiade Africans 2
20 Le mura di Sana'a
21 La trilogia della vita
22 Salo o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
Coda
Notes
Bibliography
Filmography
Index