Pasolini (film)

{{Infobox film

| name = Pasolini

| image = Pasolini-Abel-Ferrara.jpg

| caption = Italian theatrical release poster

| director = Abel Ferrara

| producer = {{Plainlist|

Thierry Lounas
Conchita Airoldi
Joseph Rouschop

}}

| writer = Maurizio Braucci

| story = {{Plainlist|

Abel Ferrara
Nicola Tranquillino

}}

| starring = {{Plainlist|

}}

| narrator = Luca Lionello

| cinematography = Stefano Falivene

| editing = Fabio Nunziata

| production_companies = {{Plainlist|

Capricci Films
Urania Pictures
Tarantula
Dublin Films

}}

| distributor = {{Plainlist|

Capricci Films {{small|(France)}}
Europictures {{small|(Italy)}}

}}

| released = {{Film date|2014|09|04|Venice|2014|09|25|Italy|2014|12|31|France|df=yes}}

| runtime = 84 minutes{{cite web | url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/pasolini-film | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924113803/http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/pasolini-film | url-status=dead | archive-date=24 September 2015 | title=Pasolini (18) | work=British Board of Film Classification | date=3 August 2015 | access-date=3 August 2015}}

| country = {{Plainlist|

France
Italy
Belgium

}}

| language = {{Plainlist|

English
Italian
French

}}

Pasolini is a 2014 English-language internationally co-produced drama film directed by Abel Ferrara and written by Maurizio Braucci about the final days of Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini (played by Willem Dafoe). It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/71st-festival/line-up/off-sel/venezia71/ |title=International competition of feature films |access-date=24 July 2014 |work=Venice |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006083927/http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/71st-festival/line-up/off-sel/venezia71/ |archivedate=6 October 2014 }}{{cite web |url=https://deadline.com/2014/07/venice-film-festival-lineup-2014-movie-list-808803/ |title=Venice Film Festival Lineup Announced |access-date=24 July 2014 |work=Deadline|date=24 July 2014 }} It was also screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.{{cite web |url=https://variety.com/2014/film/news/tiff-toronto-intl-film-festival-gala-special-presentations-1201266480/ |title=Toronto Film Festival Lineup |access-date=22 July 2014 |work=Variety|date=22 July 2014 }}

Plot

Pier Paolo Pasolini (Willem Dafoe) is fifty-three, and lives in the rowdy Rome of the 1970s. He has just finished shooting his latest film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, a film that has shocked both critics and audiences. Pasolini is increasingly opposed by the people, critics, and politicians, both for his homosexuality, and because he is considered impulsive and scandalous in showing his reality to the public. Pasolini is going to shoot a new film (which was never made), in which he cast Eduardo De Filippo (Ninetto Davoli) and Ninetto Davoli (Riccardo Scamarcio) - with whom he has a special relationship. While Pasolini is working on the film, his mother (Adriana Asti) and his cousin try to dissuade him from the project, because it would be too wild and visionary for the Italian public to accept.

Pasolini continues with his work, missing many interviews with journalists. He begins a relationship with a boy from the suburbs of Rome, Pino Pelosi, and takes him to a restaurant in the seaside village of Ostia. Pasolini wants to be with him in a loving relationship, but the boy becomes angry with him, attacking him and some other companions. Pasolini is later beaten up and then run over with his own car. In the days following, the press says Pasolini's murder was politically motivated by the police and those whom the poet had always loved and immortalized in his works.

Cast

Willem Dafoe as Pier Paolo Pasolini
Ninetto Davoli as Eduardo De Filippo
Riccardo Scamarcio as Ninetto Davoli
Valerio Mastandrea as Domenico "Nico" Naldini
Adriana Asti as Susanna Colussi Pasolini
Giada Colagrande as Graziella Chiarcossi
Salvatore Ruocco as Socialist politician
Maria de Medeiros as Laura Betti
Francesco Siciliano as Furio Colombo
Luca Lionello as narrator

Production

According to Ferrara, his plans to make a film about Pasolini go as far back as the 1990s. Originally, the project was not meant to have been an actual biopic of Pasolini's life. Instead, it was to have starred Zoë Tamerlis Lund as "a female director living the life that Pasolini lived." However, Lund's death prevented this idea.{{cite web|last=Vestby|first=Ethan|title=Abel Ferrara On Artistic Freedom, Collaboration, 'Ms. 45,' Pier Paolo Pasolini & More|date=9 December 2013|url=http://thefilmstage.com/features/abel-ferrara-on-artistic-freedom-collaboration-ms-45-pier-paolo-pasolini-more/|access-date=23 April 2015}}

Reception

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 78% approval rating, based on 55 reviews, with a weighted average of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads, "Pasolini may frustrate viewers seeking a straightforward biopic, but director Abel Ferrara's unconventional approach is well-matched by Willem Dafoe's performance."{{rottentomatoes|pasolini_2019}} On Metacritic, the film has a score of 71 out of 100, based on 18 critics.{{Metacritic film}}