IMDb RATING
5.9/10
4.8K
YOUR RATING
A kaleidoscopic look at the last day of Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1975.A kaleidoscopic look at the last day of Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1975.A kaleidoscopic look at the last day of Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1975.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
- Awards
- 2 wins & 5 nominations total
Luca Lionello
- Narrator
- (voice)
Guillaume Rumiel Braun
- Interviewer
- (as Lucien Rumiel)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
Although beautifully shot and well acted, this movie is fairly disappointing and inconclusive.
It doesn't really say much about Pasolini and the oniric scenes just fall flat.
a real good film. for the flavor of the period, for the presence of Ninetto Davoli, for the performance of Willem Dafoe, for the status of precise map for Pasolini's universe, for the passion of director. a film like an old picture. support for memories, reflection, rediscover the name of one of the greatest conscience of Italian XX century. an occasion to understand an universe. not in its profound sense but in its precise borders. at first sigh confuse, it is only expression of absence of courage. Abel Ferrara has not a clear way for explore the world of Pasolini.or the courage to create the painting more than its sketch. but he has an idea. result - few lines, short images, suggestion and words, the interview and the family around the table, the meeting with young man and the dream of a travel to noway. sure, it could be disappointment.the looking for the heart of life is only suggested ignoring its fundamental position in Pasaolini's work. but it remains a good film. for the silences. for emotions. for the pieces of a life who remains an important legacy for our time. because the questions are the same. because the answers are ambiguous. and the voice of Psolini, in his writings, interview or films remains high powerful.
An observational glimpse on the last hours of the famed and controversial Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, "Pasolini" is a glacial record of art and society in 1970s Italy. Willem Dafoe plays the complicated artist highlighting the man's torment and humanity. The real life Pasolini's oddball intensity is missing in this portrayal; rather, Dafoe embodies a reserved, cultured homosexual who lived the opposite worlds of cultivated society and the seamy underworld. Amidst this depiction is the backdrop of a turbulent Rome in the throes of political and social unrest. Being an Abel Ferrara flick there's nudity and some graphic sex (both straight and gay) that provides some chuckles and titillation. While not for everyone this highbrow and arty film serves as a compelling tribute to one of the most fascinating artistic figures of the 20th-Century.
Defoe is not demanded. A documentary would be more enjoyable, if this could be said.
Part hero worship, part true-crime tragedy and completely of a piece with its creator's obsessions over the spiritual and the sordid. An unconventional approach to what should be a straightforward biopic, Pasolini's willingness to get lost within the artist's creative perspective while detailing his life creates a powerful and evocative look into the dark world of one of cinema's most controversial figures. It may be only one man's version of what many have speculated about... but its clear-eyed grittiness is also a tribute from a filmmaker for whom the night's temptations were ripe and its dangers legion. In depicting Pasolini's final hours, director Abel Ferrara emphasises the tranquil, serene environment in which his subject worked, the foundation of domesticity that anchored him, though ultimately could not shield him. Despite Ferrara's attempts to generate scandalous imagery of his own, he winds up with many sequences of touching beauty. The jumbling of languages offers a way forward, reaching towards a medium in which modes of communication become equivalent, offset by the marvellous central performance of one of cinema's greatest actors, Willem Dafoe. The idea of a search is a significant parallel between the two intertwined portions of the film, which seem to work towards opposing ends yet culminate in the conclusion of a common node: the art of Pier Paolo Pasolini is inseparable from his death.
Did you know
- TriviaNinetto Davoli, who plays Epifanio in this film, has acted in many of Pier Paolo Pasolini's films and was, for a period of time, his lover. He is also a character in the film, played by Riccardo Scamarcio.
- GoofsLaura Betti (Maria de Medeiros) brings a record as a gift to Pasolini and mentions that it is "traditional Croatian music", but the song that is played from the record is in fact Macedonian.
- Quotes
Pier Paolo Pasolini: Let me be frank to you.
Pier Paolo Pasolini: I have been to hell and I know things that don't disturb other people's dreams
- ConnectionsFeatured in Sportin' Life (2020)
- How long is Pasolini?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $30,757
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $8,362
- May 12, 2019
- Gross worldwide
- $551,192
- Runtime1 hour 24 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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