Home
sign up| reviews / editor dvd review |
 content by: editor |
Pasolini’s passion for film. Pier Paolo Pasolini is described as “Italy’s most passionate filmmaker” by Mark Cousins in The Story Of Film, and two new DVD box sets not only show the Italian’s mastery of filmmaking but also his great prose. Volume 1 contains his tome A Violent Life, written in 1959 and detailing the immigrant experience, while Volume 2 includes his excellent first novel, Ragazzi Di Vita, about the street urchin Riccetto. Pasolini first came to prominence as a novelist in the 50s and started his film career with a bang by helping write Federico Fellini’s Nights Of Cabiria. In 1961 he made his first film, Accatone, which is where the first of these box sets starts. Using simple camera techniques, similar to those used by Carl Dreyer, which made faces look like skulls, Pasolini told the story of a pimp who tries to change vocation. Making films that exposed the underbelly of Italian society, he was thrown into jail for four months for making La Ricotta, a short film about a director (played by Orson Welles) who makes a movie about the Passion. It was part of a collection of four shorts (Jean-Luc Godard, Roberto Rossellini and Ugo Gregoretti were the other directors) that were released as the 1963 compendium movie Ro.Go.Pa.G. Completing the box set is his documentary, Love Meetings, which questioned Italians about their private lives. Pasolini himself was homosexual and that always put him at odds with the Italian establishment. Volume 2 of these box sets displays Pasolini’s development as a mischievous filmmaker looking for more and more challenging topics, and his increasing use of fantasy to tell stories. The films, Hawks & Sparrows, Oedipus Rex and Pigsty, feature narratives that jump thousands of years (from pre-WWII to antiquity), cannibals, talking crows and a German who decides that life with pigs is better than living with humans. Sheer genius. It’s important to remember the words of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson when watching Pasolini’s films: “If an Italian says it’s pasta, I check underneath the sauce.” Pasolini was the master of making artistic sauces that uncovered hidden truths. Pier Paolo Pasolini Volume 1 is out now, Pier Paolo Pasolini Volume 2 is out 14 May 07. Both on Tartan Video.
 comments
Read members' comments related to this dvd.
|
 |
related info
 like this? try this... useful links
note: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
see also
film  film archive The best of cinema in the UK from 2002 to 2008. |
send to a friend
access 1000s of articles