Pasolini

Casting Willem Dafoe in the role of the controversial and brutally murdered Italian film director, writer, poet, and thinker was perhaps inevitable, seeing how Dafoe not only resembles the late director in looks but he himself is no stranger to controversy. Abel Ferrera’s PASOLINI offers as an insight into the complex mind of the director whose untimely and violent death caused as much controversy as his works.

The film begins with Pier Paolo Pasolini being interviewed by various journalists while we see clips from his most scandalous movie Saló (aka The 120 Days of Sodom). “To scandalise is a right, to be scandalised is a pleasure” he matter-of-factly remarks when confronted with disbelief and probing questions.
We then witness extracts from Pasolini going about his daily business – typing, thinking, meeting friends in restaurants, enjoying supper with family members in his mother Susanna’s house (Adriana Asti) and displaying excitement when flamboyant family friend Laura Betti (Maria de Medeiros), a champion of the Marxist era of 70’s Italy, presents him with a vinyl of East-European folk music. As she performs a dance to the delight of the assembled family, Pasolini reveals plans of a new film project in which he wants to cast famous actor Eduardo de Filippo (Ninetto Davoli) and Davoli (as a young man, played by Riccardo Scamarcio). This was a stroke of witty and ironic casting at the hands of director Ferrara, admittedly a rather unlikely candidate to direct this film!

Fragments from Pasolini’s script take on a life of their own, and we see the protagonists de Fillippo and Davoli in imaginary scenes which have yet to be filmed – some are ultra erotic, others are of more disturbing nature. We also see fragments from Pasolini’s novel-in-progress come to life, including a plane crash.
Pasolini’s sister and in particular his mother try to talk him out of going ahead with the new project as they fear it would be misunderstood by the Italian public… who already harbour a grudge against Pasolini due to his open homosexuality and general militant views and works.
Brushing off any well-meant advice, Pasolini continues regardless and gets sucked ever deeper in his script and visions.
One evening, he picks up a young boy named Pino and buys him dinner in his local restaurant. After the meal and some rather awkward conversation, the two drive away in the director’s Alfa Romeo to an isolated spot for a bout of ‘love-making’ – however, when Pasolini demands further passion he and Pino step out of the car before a group of other cruisers provoke the pair. Here it gets a bit confusing for it is hard to make out whether only the other bunch savagely beat the director to the ground or whether Pino is in with them. They then steal his car and make off, but not before driving over the fatally wounded Pasolini whose mangled corpse is discovered the next day.
Here, truth and fiction seem to rift as the actual murder of Pasolini was not only much more savage but rumoured to be politically motivated… which would make it an execution rather than plain murder.

Dafoe is his usual intense self and portrays the director in all his various facets – from loving to tormented, from creatively absorbed to deliberately provoking, from passionate to alienated. Dafoe’s Italian wife Giada Colagrande (who in the film plays the part of Graziella Chiarcossi) presented her hubby with a book of poetry by Pasolini and by doing so set the process of how ‘Pasolini’ came about in motion.

SPECIAL FEATURES on this Blu-ray and DVD release include:

• Original trailer
• Conversation with Abel Ferrara and cast members
• Robin Askwith (Confessions of a Window Cleaner) on Pasolini and his memories of working with him.
• Illustrated booklet