Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining
public intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...
s in 20th-century
Italian history
Italy has been inhabited by humans Prehistoric Italy, since the Paleolithic. During antiquity, there were many ancient peoples of Italy, peoples in the Italian peninsula, including Etruscan civilization, Etruscans, Latins, Samnites, Umbri, Cisal ...
, influential both as an artist and a political figure. He is known for directing
''The Gospel According to St. Matthew'', the films from Trilogy of Life (''
The Decameron
''The Decameron'' (; or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human Comedy (drama), comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy, Comedy'' "''D ...
'', ''
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse, as part of a fictional storytelling contest held ...
'' and ''
Arabian Nights
''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...
'') and ''
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom''.
A controversial personality due to his straightforward style, Pasolini's legacy remains contentious. Openly
gay while also a vocal advocate for
heritage language
A heritage language is a minority language (either immigrant or indigenous) learned by its speakers at home as children, and difficult to be fully developed because of insufficient input from the social environment. The speakers grow up with a ...
revival,
cultural conservatism
Cultural conservatism is described as the protection of the cultural heritage of a nation state, or of a culture not defined by state boundaries. It is sometimes associated with criticism of multiculturalism, and anti-immigration sentiment. B ...
, and
Christian values in his youth, Pasolini became an avowed
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
shortly after the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. He began voicing extremely harsh criticism of Italian
petty bourgeoisie
''Petite bourgeoisie'' (, ; also anglicised as petty bourgeoisie) is a term that refers to a social class composed of small business owners, shopkeepers, small-scale merchants, semi-autonomous peasants, and artisans. They are named as such ...
and what he saw as the
Americanization
Americanization or Americanisation (see spelling differences) is the influence of the American culture and economy on other countries outside the United States, including their media, cuisine, business practices, popular culture, technology ...
,
cultural degeneration, and greed-driven
consumerism
Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the ...
taking over
Italian culture
The culture of Italy encompasses the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, and customs of the Italian peninsula throughout history. Italy has been a pivotal center of civilisation, playing a crucial role in the development of Western culture. I ...
. As a filmmaker, Pasolini often juxtaposed socio-political
polemic
Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...
s with an extremely graphic and critical examination of
taboo
A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...
sexual matters. A prominent protagonist of the
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of Roman civilization
*Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
intellectual scene during the post-war era, Pasolini became an established and major figure in
European literature
Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, and is shaped by the periods in which they were conceived, with each period containing prominent weste ...
and
cinema.
Pasolini's unsolved and extremely brutal abduction, torture, and murder at
Ostia in November 1975 prompted an outcry in Italy, where it continues to be a matter of heated debate. Recent leads by Italian
cold case
''Cold Case'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series. It ran on CBS from September 28, 2003, to May 2, 2010. The series revolved around a fictionalized Philadelphia Police Department division that specializes in invest ...
investigators suggest a
contract killing
Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, moneta ...
by the
Banda della Magliana, a
criminal organisation
Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a form of illegal business, some ...
with close links to
far-right terrorism
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...
, as the most likely cause.
Biography
Early life
Pier Paolo Pasolini was born in
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, Italy. He was the son of elementary-school teacher Susanna Colussi, named after her great-grandmother, and Carlo Alberto Pasolini, a lieutenant in the
Royal Italian Army
The Royal Italian Army () (RE) was the land force of the Kingdom of Italy, established with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 19th century Italy started to unify into one country, and in 1861 Manfredo Fanti signed a decree c ...
; they had married in 1921. Pasolini was born in 1922 and named after a paternal uncle. His family moved to
Conegliano
Conegliano (; Venetian language, Venetian: ''Conejan'') is a town and ''comune'' of the Veneto region, Italy, in the province of Treviso, about north by rail from the town of Treviso. The population of the city is of people. The remains of a 10th ...
in 1923, then to
Belluno
Belluno (; ; ) is a town and province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about north of Venice, Belluno is the Capital (political), capital of the province of Belluno and the most important city in the Eastern Dolomites region. W ...
in 1925, where their second son, Guidalberto, was born. In 1926, Pasolini's father was arrested for gambling debts. His mother moved with the children to her family's home in
Casarsa della Delizia
Casarsa della Delizia or simply Casarsa (Standard Friulian: , Friulian language#Variants of Friulian, Western Friulian: ) is a (municipality) in the Province of Pordenone, Regional decentralization entity of Pordenone in the Italy, Italian region ...
, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. In that same year, his father first detained, then identified
Anteo Zamboni as the would-be assassin of
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
following his assassination attempt. Carlo Alberto was persuaded of the virtues of
Italian fascism
Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...
.
Pasolini began writing poems at age seven, inspired by the natural beauty of Casarsa. One of his early influences was the work of
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism.
Born in Charleville, he s ...
. His father was transferred to
Idria in the
Julian March
The Julian March ( Croatian and ), also called Julian Venetia (; ; ; ), is an area of southern Central Europe which is currently divided among Croatia, Italy, and Slovenia. (now in
Slovenia
Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...
) in 1931; in 1933 they moved again to
Cremona
Cremona ( , , ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po (river), Po river in the middle of the Po Valley. It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local city a ...
in Lombardy, and later to
Scandiano
Scandiano ( Reggiano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Emilia-Romagna, in the northeast part of the country of Italy, near the city of Reggio nell'Emilia and the Secchia river. It had a population of 25,663 as of 31 December 2016.
History
The cu ...
and
Reggio Emilia
Reggio nell'Emilia (; ), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until Unification of Italy, 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 172,51 ...
. Pasolini found it difficult to adapt to all these dislocations, although he enlarged his poetry and literature readings (
Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influenti ...
,
Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referr ...
,
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
,
Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth ...
,
Novalis
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (; ), was a German nobility, German aristocrat and polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and Mysticism, mystic. He is regarded as an inf ...
) and left behind the religious fervour of his early years. In the Reggio Emilia high school, he met his first true friend, Luciano Serra. The two met again in Bologna, where Pasolini spent seven years completing high school. Here he cultivated new passions, including
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
. With other friends, including Ermes Parini, Franco Farolfi, Elio Meli, he formed a group dedicated to literary discussions.
In 1939, Pasolini graduated and entered the Literature College of the
University of Bologna
The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...
, discovering new themes such as
philology
Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
and
aesthetics
Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...
of
figurative art
Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork (particularly paintings and sculptures) that is clearly derived from real object sources and so is, by definition, representational. The term is often in contrast to abstract a ...
s. He also frequented the local cinema club. Pasolini always showed his friends a virile and strong exterior, totally hiding his interior turmoil. In his poems of this period, Pasolini started to include fragments in
Friulan
Friulian ( ) or Friulan (natively or ; ; ; ) is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance family. Friulian is spoken in the Friuli region of northeastern Italy and has around 600,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom also speak It ...
, a minority language he did not speak but learned after he had begun to write poetry in it. "I learnt it as a sort of mystic act of love, a kind of ''
félibrisme'', like the
Provençal poets." In 1943, he would found the ''Academiuta della lenga furlana'' (Academy of the Friulan Language) with fellow students. As a young adult, Pasolini identified as an
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
.
In the waning years of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Pasolini was
drafted into the
Italian Army
The Italian Army ( []) is the Army, land force branch of the Italian Armed Forces. The army's history dates back to the Italian unification in the 1850s and 1860s. The army fought in colonial engagements in China and Italo-Turkish War, Libya. It ...
.
[Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1922–1975](_blank)
Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation is a United States literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthrop ...
. Retrieved May 9, 2024. After his regiment was
captured by the
Germans
Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...
following
Italy's surrender, he escaped and fled to the small town of
Casarsa where he remained for several years.
Early poetry

In 1942, Pasolini published at his own expense a collection of poems in Friulan, ''Poesie a Casarsa'', which he had written at the age of eighteen. The work was noted and appreciated by such intellectuals and critics as
Gianfranco Contini,
Alfonso Gatto
Alfonso Gatto (17 July 1909 – 8 March 1976) was an Italian poet and writer. Along with Giuseppe Ungaretti he is one of the foremost Italian poets of the 20th century and a major exponent of hermetic poetry.
Biography
Gatto studied at the ...
and Antonio Russi. Pasolini's pictures had also been well received. He was chief editor of a magazine called ''Il Setaccio'' ('The Sieve'), but was fired after conflicts with the director, who was aligned with the
Fascist regime
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
. A trip to Germany helped him also to perceive the "provincial" status of
Italian culture
The culture of Italy encompasses the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, and customs of the Italian peninsula throughout history. Italy has been a pivotal center of civilisation, playing a crucial role in the development of Western culture. I ...
in that period. These experiences led Pasolini to revise his opinion about the cultural politics of Fascism and to switch gradually to a
communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
position.
Pasolini's family took shelter in Casarsa, considered a more tranquil place to wait for the conclusion of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, a decision common among Italian military families. Here he joined a group of other young enthusiasts of the Friulan language who wanted to give
Casarsa Friulan a status equal to that of
Udine
Udine ( ; ; ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Carnic Alps. It is the capital of the Province of Udine, Regional decentralization entity ...
, the official regional standard. From May 1944, they issued a magazine entitled ''Stroligùt di cà da l'aga''. In the meantime, Casarsa suffered
Allied bombardments and forced enlistments by the
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic (, ; RSI; , ), known prior to December 1943 as the National Republican State of Italy (; SNRI), but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò (, ), was a List of World War II puppet states#Germany, German puppe ...
, as well as
partisan
Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII
** Ital ...
activity.
Pasolini tried to distance himself from these events. Starting in October 1943, Pasolini, his mother and other colleagues taught students unable to reach the schools in
Pordenone
Pordenone (; Venetian language, Venetian and ) is a city and (municipality) in the Italy, Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the capital of the Province of Pordenone, Regional decentralization entity of Pordenone.
The name comes from Lati ...
or Udine. This educational workshop was considered illegal and broke up in February 1944. It was here that Pasolini had his first experience of homosexual attraction to one of his students. His brother Guido, aged 19, joined the
Party of Action and their
Brigate Osoppo, taking to the bush near Slovenia. On 12 February 1945, Guido was killed in an ambush planted by the
Brigate Garibaldi serving in the lines of
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 unti ...
's
Yugoslavia
, common_name = Yugoslavia
, life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation
, p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia
, flag_p ...
n
guerrillas
Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...
. This devastated Pasolini and his mother.
Six days after his brother's death, Pasolini and others founded the Friulan Language Academy (''Academiuta di lenga furlana''). Meanwhile, on account of Guido's death, Pasolini's father returned to Italy from his detention period in November 1945, settling in Casarsa. That same month, Pasolini graduated from university after completing a final thesis about the work of
Giovanni Pascoli
Giovanni Placido Agostino Pascoli (; 31 December 1855 – 6 April 1912) was an Italian poet, classical scholar and an emblematic figure of Italian literature in the late nineteenth century. Alongside Gabriele D'Annunzio, he was one of the grea ...
(1855–1912), an Italian poet and
classical scholar
Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
.
In 1946, Pasolini published a small poetry collection, ''I Diarii'' ('The Diaries'), with the Academiuta. In October he traveled to Rome. The following May he began the so-called ''Quaderni Rossi'', handwritten in old school
exercise book
An exercise book or composition book is a notebook that is used in schools to copy down schoolwork and notes. A student will usually have different exercise books for each separate lesson or subject.
The exercise book format is different fo ...
s with red covers. He completed a drama in Italian, ''Il Cappellano''. His poetry collection, ''I Pianti'' ('The cries'), was also published by the Academiuta.
Rome
In January 1950, Pasolini moved to Rome with his mother Susanna to start a new life. He was acquitted of two indecency charges in 1950 and 1952.
After one year sheltered in a maternal uncle's flat next to
Piazza Mattei, Pasolini and his 59-year-old mother moved to a run-down suburb called
Rebibbia
Rebibbia is an urban zone of Rome, Italy. It is located on the ancient Via Tiburtina on the northeast edge of the city. Administratively Rebibbia is part of both Ponte Mammolo quarter of Rome and Municipio IV of Rome.
The suburb, first developed ...
, next to a prison, living there for three years; he transferred his Friulan countryside inspiration to this Roman suburb, one of the infamous ''borgate'' where poor
proletarian
The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist philo ...
immigrants lived, often in horrendous sanitary and social conditions. Instead of asking for help from other writers, Pasolini preferred to go his own way.
Pasolini found a job working in the
Cinecittà
Cinecittà Studios (; Italian for Cinema City) is a large film studio in Rome, Italy. With an area of 400,000 square metres (99 acres), it is the largest film studio in Europe, and is considered the hub of Italian cinema. The studios were constru ...
film studios and sold his books in the ''bancarelle'' ('sidewalk shops') of Rome. In 1951, with the help of the
Abruzzese-language poet Vittorio Clemente, he found a job as a secondary school teacher in
Ciampino
Ciampino () is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, Italy. It was a ''frazione'' of Marino, Italy, Marino until 1974, when it became a ''comune''; it obtained the city () status (being therefore officially known as Cit ...
, just outside the capital. He had a long commute involving two train changes and earned a meagre salary of 27,000
lire.
Career
Writing
In 1954, Pasolini, who now worked for the literary section of Cinecittà, left his teaching job and moved to the Monteverde quarter. At this point, his cousin Graziella moved in. They also accommodated Pasolini's ailing,
cirrhotic father Carlo Alberto, who died in 1958. Pasolini published ''La meglio gioventù'', his first important collection of Friulan poems. His first novel, ''
Ragazzi di vita'' (English: ''Hustlers''), which dealt with the Roman
lumpenproletariat
In Marxist philosophy, Marxist theory, the ''Lumpenproletariat'' (; ) is the underclass devoid of class consciousness. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels coined the word in the 1840s and used it to refer to the unthinking lower strata of society expl ...
, was published in 1955. The work had great success but was poorly received by the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...
(PCI) establishment and, most importantly, by the Italian government. It initiated a lawsuit for "
obscenity
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...
" against Pasolini and his publisher,
Garzanti. Although exonerated, Pasolini became a target of insinuations, especially in the
tabloid press
Tabloid journalism is a popular style of largely sensationalist journalism, which takes its name from the tabloid newspaper format: a small-sized newspaper also known as a half broadsheet. The size became associated with sensationalism, an ...
.
In 1955, together with
Francesco Leonetti
Francesco Leonetti (27 January 1924 – 17 December 2017) was an Italian poet, novelist, art critic, teacher and political activist.
Biography
Leonetti was born in Cosenza in Calabria. In 1955 he moved to Bologna to study philosophy. There he me ...
,
Roberto Roversi
Roberto Roversi (28 January 1923 – 14 September 2012) was an Italian poet, writer and journalist.
Biography
Born in Bologna, he participated as an adolescent to the Italian resistance movement in Piedmont. From 1948 to 2006 he managed the antiq ...
and others, Pasolini edited and published a poetry magazine called ''Officina''. The magazine closed in 1959 after fourteen issues. That year he also published his second novel, ''Una vita violenta'', which unlike his first was embraced by the Communist cultural sphere: he subsequently wrote a column titled ''Dialoghi con Passolini'' (meaning ''Passolini in Dialogue''), for the PCI magazine ''
Vie Nuove'' from May 1960 to September 1965, which were published in book form in 1977 as ''Le belle bandiere'' (''The Beautiful Flags'').
In the late 1960s Pasolini edited an
advice column
An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response.
The responses are w ...
in the weekly news magazine ''
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...
''.
In 1966, Pasolini wrote a screenplay for a never-produced film about the apostle
Saint Paul
Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...
which he subsequently revised. Pasolini's screenplay was intended to depict Paul as a modern contemporary without modifying any of Paul's statements. In Pasolini's story, Paul is a fascist
Vichy France
Vichy France (; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established as a result of the French capitulation after the Battle of France, ...
collaborator who becomes illuminated while traveling to
Franco's Spain
Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of History of Spain, Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . ...
and joins the
antifascist
Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...
French resistance
The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...
, an event which serves as the modern analogue for the
Pauline conversion. The screenplay follows Paul as he preaches resistance in Italy, Spain, Germany, and New York (where he is betrayed, arrested, and executed). As philosopher
Alain Badiou
Alain Badiou (; ; born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault ...
writes, "The most surprising thing in all this is the way in which Paul's texts are transplanted unaltered, and with an almost unfathomable naturalness, into the situations in which Pasolini deploys them: war, fascism, American capitalism, the petty debates of Italian intelligentsia
In 1970, Pasolini bought an old castle near
Viterbo
Viterbo (; Central Italian, Viterbese: ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in the Lazio region of Italy, the Capital city, capital of the province of Viterbo.
It conquered and absorbed the neighboring town of Ferento (see Ferentium) in ...
, several miles north of Rome, where he began to write his last novel, ''Il Petrolio'', in which he denounced obscure dealing in the highest levels of government and the corporate world (
Eni
Eni is an Italian oil and gas corporation.
Eni or ENI may refer to:
Businesses and organisations
* Escuela Nacional de Inteligencia, the Argentine intelligence academy
* Groupe des écoles nationales d’ingénieurs (Groupe ENI), a French engi ...
,
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
,
the Mafia
"Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other organized crime groups from Italy. The central ...
, etc.). The novel-documentary was left incomplete at his death. In 1972, Pasolini started to collaborate with the far-left organization
Lotta Continua
Lotta Continua (LC; ) was a Far-left politics, far-left militant organization in Italy, during the historical period of social turmoil and political violence in the country known as the "Years of Lead (Italy), Years of Lead". Its leaders Adria ...
, producing a documentary, ''
12 dicembre'', concerning the
Piazza Fontana bombing
The Piazza Fontana bombing () was a terrorist attack that occurred on 12 December 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura (the National Agricultural Bank) in Piazza Fontana (near the ''Duomo'') in Mil ...
. The following year he began a collaboration for Italy's most renowned newspaper, ''
Il Corriere della Sera
(; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...
''. At the beginning of 1975 Garzanti published a collection of his critical essays, ''
Scritti corsari'' ('Corsair Writings').
Narrative
* ''
Ragazzi di vita'' (''The Ragazzi'', 1955)
* ''
Una vita violenta'' (''A Violent Life'', 1959)
* ''Il sogno di una cosa'' (1962)
* ''Amado Mio—Atti Impuri'' (1982, originally written in 1948)
* ''Alì dagli occhi azzurri'' (1965)
* ''
Teorema
''Teorema'', known as ''Theorem'' in the United Kingdom, is a 1968 Italian surrealist psychological drama film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini and starring Silvana Mangano, Terence Stamp and Massimo Girotti, with Anne Wiazemsky, La ...
'' (1968)
* ''Reality'' (''
The Poets' Encyclopedia'', 1979)
* ''Petrolio'' (1992, incomplete)
Poetry
* ''La meglio gioventù'' (1954)
* ''Le ceneri di Gramsci'' (1957)
* ''L'usignolo della chiesa cattolica'' (1958)
* ''La religione del mio tempo'' (1961)
* ''Poesia in forma di rosa'' (1964)
* ''Trasumanar e organizzar'' (1971)
* ''La nuova gioventù'' (1975)
* ''Roman Poems''.
Pocket Poets
The City Lights Pocket Poets Series is a series of poetry collections published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights Books of San Francisco since August 1955.
The series included Allen Ginsberg's literary milestone "Howl", which led to an ob ...
No. 41 (1986)
* ''The Selected Poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolini: A Bilingual Edition'' (2014)
Essays
* ''Passione e ideologia'' (1960)
* ''Canzoniere italiano, poesia popolare italiana'' (1960)
* ''Empirismo eretico'' (1972)
* ''Lettere luterane'' (1976)
* ''Le belle bandiere'' (1977)
* ''Descrizioni di descrizioni'' (1979)
* ''Il caos'' (1979)
* ''La pornografia è noiosa'' (1979)
* ''Scritti corsari'' (1975)
* ''Lettere (1940–1954)'' (''Letters, 1940–54'', 1986)
Theatre
* ''Orgia'' (1968)
* ''Porcile'' (1968)
* ''Calderón'' (1973)
* ''Affabulazione'' (1977)
* ''Pilade'' (1977)
* ''Bestia da stile'' (1977)
Films
In 1957, together with
Sergio Citti
Sergio Citti (30 May 1933 – 11 October 2005) was an Italian film director and screenwriter, born in Rome. He often worked with Pier Paolo Pasolini but also worked for others such as Ettore Scola. His own films include ''We Free Kings (film) ...
, Pasolini collaborated on
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and ...
's film ''
Nights of Cabiria
''Nights of Cabiria'' () is a 1957 drama film co-written and directed by Federico Fellini. The film features Giulietta Masina as Cabiria, a sex worker living in Rome. The cast also features François Périer and Amedeo Nazzari. The film is ba ...
'', writing dialogue for the
Roman dialect
Romanesco () is one of the Central Italian dialects spoken in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, especially in the Rome, core city. It is linguistically close to Tuscan dialect, Tuscan and Italian language, Standard Italian, with some notable ...
sections. Fellini also asked him to work on dialogue for some episodes of ''
La dolce vita
''La Dolce Vita'' (; Italian for 'the sweet life' or 'the good life'Kezich, 203) is a 1960 satirical comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini and written by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, and Brunello Rondi. The film stars M ...
''. Pasolini made his debut as an actor in ''
The Hunchback of Rome'' in 1960, and co-wrote ''
Long Night in 1943''. Along with ''Ragazzi di vita'', he had his celebrated poem ''Le ceneri di Gramsci'' published, where Pasolini voiced tormented tensions between reason and heart, as well as the existing ideological dialectics within communism, a debate over
artistic freedom
Artistic freedom (or freedom of artistic expression) can be defined as "the freedom to imagine, create and distribute diverse cultural expressions free of governmental censorship, political interference or the pressures of non-state actors." Gener ...
,
socialist realism and commitment.
Pasolini's first film as director and screenwriter was ''
Accattone'' in 1961, again set among Rome's marginal communities, a story of
pimps
Procuring, pimping, or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term "pimp" ...
,
prostitutes
Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-p ...
, and thieves that contrasted with Italy's postwar economic recovery. Although Pasolini tried to distance himself from
neorealism, it is considered to be a type of second neorealism. Nick Barbaro, a critic writing in the ''
Austin Chronicle
Austin refers to:
Common meanings
* Austin, Texas, United States, a city
* Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...
'', stated it "may be the grimmest movie" he has ever seen. The film aroused controversy and scandal, with conservatives demanded stricter censorship by the government. In 1963, the episode "
La ricotta", included in the
anthology film
An anthology film (also known as an omnibus film or a portmanteau film) is a single film consisting of three or more shorter films, each complete in itself and distinguished from the other, though frequently tied together by a single theme, premise ...
''
Ro.Go.Pa.G.
''Ro.Go.Pa.G.'' (also known as "RoGoPaG") is a 1963 film consisting of four segments, each written and directed by a different director. These include the French director Jean-Luc Godard (segment "Il nuovo mondo") and the Italian directors Ugo Gre ...
'', was censored, and Pasolini was tried for "offence to the Italian state and religion".
During this period, Pasolini frequently travelled abroad: in 1961, with
Elsa Morante
Elsa Morante (; 18 August 1912 – 25 November 1985) was an Italian novelist, poet, translator and children's books author. Her novel '' La storia'' (''History'') is included in the Bokklubben World Library List of 100 Best Books of All Time.
L ...
and
Alberto Moravia
Alberto Pincherle (; 28 November 1907 – 26 September 1990), known by his pseudonym Alberto Moravia ( , ), was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism. Moravia i ...
to
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
(where he went again seven years later); in 1962, to
Sudan
Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...
and
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
; in 1963, to
Ghana
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
,
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
,
Guinea
Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...
,
Jordan
Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
and
Palestine
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...
(where he shot the documentary
''Sopralluoghi in Palestina''). In 1970 he travelled again to Africa to shoot another documentary, ''
Appunti per un'Orestiade africana
''Notes Towards an African Orestes'' () is a 1970 Cinema of Italy, Italian film by director Pier Paolo Pasolini about Pasolini's preparations for making a film version of the Oresteia set in Africa.
Content
The film starts as a cinematic noteboo ...
''. Pasolini was a member of the jury at the
16th Berlin International Film Festival
The 16th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 24 June to 5 July 1966.
The Golden Bear was awarded to film ''Cul-de-sac'' directed by Roman Polanski.
Jury
The following people were announced as being on the jury for the fest ...
in 1966.
In 1967, in
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
, he met and interviewed American poet
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
.
[. Retrieved 22 May 2014.] They discussed the Italian movement ''
neoavanguardia
The Neoavanguardia ("New Vanguard") was a postmodern avant-garde literature of Italy, Italian literary movement oriented towards radical forms of experimentation with language and art. Some of its most prominent members include Nanni Balestrini, E ...
,'' and Pasolini read some verses from the Italian translation of Pound's ''
Pisan Cantos''.
The late 1960s and early 1970s were the era of the
student movement
Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. In addition to education, student groups often play central roles in democratization and winning civil rights.
Modern stu ...
. Pasolini, although acknowledging the students' ideological motivations, and referring to himself as a "Catholic
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
", thought them "anthropologically
middle-class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
" and therefore destined to fail in their attempts at revolutionary change. Regarding the
Battle of Valle Giulia
The Battle of Valle Giulia (''battaglia di Valle Giulia'') is the conventional name for a clash between Italian militants (left-wing as well as right-wing) and the Italian police in Valle Giulia, Rome, on 1 March 1968. It is still frequently rem ...
, which took place in Rome in March 1968, he said that he sympathized with the police, as they were "children of the poor", while the young militants were exponents of what he called "left-wing fascism". His film that year, ''
Teorema
''Teorema'', known as ''Theorem'' in the United Kingdom, is a 1968 Italian surrealist psychological drama film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini and starring Silvana Mangano, Terence Stamp and Massimo Girotti, with Anne Wiazemsky, La ...
'', was shown at the
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...
in a hot political climate. Pasolini had proclaimed that the festival would be managed by the directors.
He wrote and directed the black-and-white film ''
The Gospel According to Matthew'' (1964). It is based on
scripture
Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and ...
, but adapted by Pasolini, and he is credited as a writer. Jesus, a barefoot peasant, is played by
Enrique Irazoqui. In his 1966 film ''
Uccellacci e uccellini'' (literally "Bad Birds and Little Birds" but translated in English as ''The Hawks and the Sparrows''), a
picaresque
The picaresque novel (Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for ' rogue' or 'rascal') is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish but appealing hero, usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrupt ...
—and at the same time mystic—fable, Pasolini hired great Italian comedian
Totò
Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi De Curtis di Bisanzio (15 February 1898 – 15 April 1967), best known by his stage name Totò (), or simply as Antonio de Curtis, and nicknamed ''il principe della risat ...
to work with
Ninetto Davoli
Giovanni "Ninetto" Davoli (born 11 October 1948) is an Italian actor who appeared in several of Pier Paolo Pasolini's films.
Biography
Davoli was born in San Pietro a Maida, Calabria. He was discovered by poet, novelist and film director Pier ...
, the director's lover at the time and one of his preferred "naif" actors. It was a unique opportunity for Totò to demonstrate that he was a great dramatic actor as well. In ''Teorema'' (''Theorem'', 1968), starring
Terence Stamp
Terence Henry Stamp (born 22 July 1938) is an English actor. Known for his sophisticated villain roles, he was named by ''Empire (magazine), Empire'' as one of the 100 Sexiest Film Stars of All Time in 1995. He has received various accolades in ...
as a mysterious stranger, Pasolini depicted the sexual coming-apart of a
bourgeois
The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...
family. (Variations of this theme were later done by
François Ozon
François Ozon (; born 15 November 1967) is a French film director and screenwriter.
Ozon is considered one of the most important modern French filmmakers.
His films are characterized by aesthetic beauty, sharp satirical humor and a free-wheeli ...
in ''
Sitcom
A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...
'',
Joe Swanberg
Joe Swanberg is an American independent filmmaker. Known for micro-budget films which make extensive use of improvisation, Swanberg is considered a major figure in the mumblecore film movement. His films often focus on relationships, sex, tech ...
in ''
The Zone'' and
Takashi Miike
is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over 100 feature film, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films span a variety of different genres, ranging from violent and surrealism, b ...
in ''
Visitor Q.'')
Later films centred on sex-laden folklore, such as
Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was s ...
's ''
Decameron
''The Decameron'' (; or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dante Alighieri's ''Comedy'' "''Divine''"), is a collection of ...
'' (1971),
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He ...
's ''
The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse, as part of a fictional storytelling contest held ...
'' (1972), and ''
Il fiore delle mille e una notte'' (literally ''The Flower of 1001 Nights'', released in English as ''Arabian Nights'', 1974). These films are usually grouped as the ''Trilogy of Life''. While basing them on classics, Pasolini wrote the screenplays and took sole writing credit. This trilogy, prompted largely by Pasolini's attempt to show the secular sacredness of the body against man-made social controls and especially against the venal hypocrisy of the religious state (indeed, the religious characters in ''The Canterbury Tales'' are shown as pious but amorally grasping fools) were an effort at representing a state of natural sexual innocence essential to the true nature of free humanity. Alternately playfully bawdy and poetically sensuous, wildly populous, subtly symbolic and visually exquisite, the films were popular in Italy and remain perhaps his most enduringly popular works. Yet despite the fact that the trilogy as a whole is considered by many as a masterpiece, Pasolini later reviled his own creation on account of the many soft-core imitations of these three films in Italy that happened afterwards on account of the very same popularity he wound up deeply uncomfortable with. He believed that a bastardisation of his vision had taken place that amounted to a commoditisation of the body he had tried to deny in his trilogy in the first place. The disconsolation this provided is seen as one of the primary reasons for his final film, ''
Salò
Salò (; ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Brescia in the region of Lombardy (northern Italy) on the banks of Lake Garda, on which it has the longest promenade. The city was the Governance#Seat of government, seat of government of th ...
'', in which humans are not only seen as commodities under authoritarian control but are viewed merely as cyphers for its whims, without the free vitality of the figures in the Trilogy of Life.
His final work, ''
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma'' (''Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom'', 1975), exceeded what most viewers could accept at the time in its explicit scenes of sexual perversity and intensely
sadistic violence. Based on the novel ''
120 Days of Sodom
''The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinage'' () is an unfinished novel by the French writer and nobleman Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade, written in 1785 and published in 1904 after its manuscript was rediscovered. It ...
'' by
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade ( ; ; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography ...
, it is considered Pasolini's most controversial film. In May 2006, ''
Time Out''s Film Guide named it the "Most Controversial Film" of all time. Salò was intended as the first film of his ''Trilogy of Death'', followed by an aborted
biopic
A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or group of people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudrama films and histo ...
film about
Gilles de Rais
Gilles de Rais, Pays de Retz, Baron de Rais (; also spelled "Retz"; 1405 – 26 October 1440) was a knight and lord from Duchy of Brittany, Brittany, Duchy of Anjou, Anjou and Poitou, a leader in the French army during the Hundred Years' W ...
.
* Note: All titles listed below were written and directed by Pasolini unless stated otherwise.
Episodes in omnibus films
* ''
La ricotta'' in ''
RoGoPaG'' (1963)
* First segment of ''
La rabbia'' (1963)
* "La Terra vista dalla Luna" in ''
The Witches'' (1967)
* "Che cosa sono le nuvole?" in ''
Caprice Italian Style
''Caprice Italian Style'' () is a 1968 Italian comedy film directed by six different directors, including Mario Monicelli and Pier Paolo Pasolini. The film starred both Totò and the comic duo Franco and Ciccio.
Plot
The film is composed of fiv ...
'' (1968)
* "La sequenza del fiore di carta" in ''
Love and Anger'' (1969)
Documentaries
* ''
Love Meetings
''Love Meetings'' (Italian: ''Comizi d'amore'') is a 1964 feature-length documentary, which was shot by Italian writer and director Pier Paolo Pasolini, who also acts as the interviewer, appearing in many of the film's scenes. It was premiered in ...
'' (1964)
* ''
Sopralluoghi in Palestina per Il Vangelo secondo Matteo'' (1965)
* ''
Appunti per un film sull'India'' (1968)
* ''Appunti per un romanzo dell'immondizia'' (1970)
* ''
Appunti per un'Orestiade Africana
''Notes Towards an African Orestes'' () is a 1970 Cinema of Italy, Italian film by director Pier Paolo Pasolini about Pasolini's preparations for making a film version of the Oresteia set in Africa.
Content
The film starts as a cinematic noteboo ...
'' (1970)
* ''Le mura di Sana'a'' (1971)
* ''
12 Dicembre'' (1972)
* ''Pasolini e la forma della città'' (1974)
Personal life
A small scandal broke out during a local festival in
Ramuscello in September 1949. Someone informed Cordovado, the local sergeant of the
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign poli ...
, of sexual conduct (
masturbation
Masturbation is a form of autoeroticism in which a person Sexual stimulation, sexually stimulates their own Sex organ, genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure, usually to the point of orgasm. Stimulation may involve the use of han ...
) by Pasolini with three youngsters aged sixteen and younger after dancing and drinking.
Cordovado summoned the boys' parents, who refused to file charges despite Cordovado's urging. Cordovado nevertheless drew up a report, and the informer elaborated publicly on his accusations, sparking a public uproar. A judge in
San Vito al Tagliamento
San Vito al Tagliamento () is a (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Pordenone, in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about southeast of Pordenone.
Main sights
It is a me ...
charged Pasolini with "
corruption of minors
In common law jurisdictions, statutory rape is nonforcible sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent (the age required to legally consent to the behaviour). Although it usually refers to adults engaging in sexu ...
and
obscene acts in public places".
[Martelini, L. 2006, p. 48] He and the 16-year-old were both indicted.
[Siciliano, Enzo. 2014, 149]
The next month, when questioned, Pasolini would not deny the facts, but talked of a "literary and erotic drive" and cited
André Gide
André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...
, the 1947
Nobel Prize for Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in t ...
laureate
In English, the word laureate has come to signify eminence or association with literary awards or Military awards and decorations, military glory. It is also used for recipients of the Nobel Prize, the Gandhi Peace Award, the Student Peace Pri ...
. Cordovado informed his superiors and the regional press stepped in.
According to Pasolini, the
Christian Democrats
Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics.
Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well a ...
instigated the entire affair to smear his name ("the Christian Democrats pulled the strings"). He was fired from his job in Valvasone
and was expelled from the PCI by the party's Udine section, which he considered a betrayal. He addressed a critical letter to the head of the section, his friend Ferdinando Mautino, and claimed he was being subject to a "tacticism" of the PCI. In the party, the expulsion was opposed by Teresa Degan, Pasolini's colleague in education. He also wrote her a letter admitting his regret for being "such a naif, even indecently so".
Pasolini's parents reacted angrily and the situation in the family also became untenable. In late 1949, he decided to move to Rome along with his mother, seeking to start a new life, settling down in the outskirts of Rome.
In 1963, at the age of 41, Pasolini met "the great love of his life", 15-year-old
Ninetto Davoli
Giovanni "Ninetto" Davoli (born 11 October 1948) is an Italian actor who appeared in several of Pier Paolo Pasolini's films.
Biography
Davoli was born in San Pietro a Maida, Calabria. He was discovered by poet, novelist and film director Pier ...
, whom he later cast in his 1966 film ''
Uccellacci e uccellini'' (literally "Bad Birds and Little Birds" but translated in English as ''The Hawks and the Sparrows''). Pasolini became the youth's mentor and friend.
Important women in Pasolini's life with whom he shared a feeling of profound and unique friendship were, in particular, actress
Laura Betti
Laura Betti ( Trombetti; May 1 1934 – 31 July 2004) was an Italian actress known particularly for her work with directors Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Bernardo Bertolucci. She had a long friendship with Pasolini and made a docume ...
and singer
Maria Callas
Maria Callas (born Maria Anna Cecilia Sophia Kalogeropoulos; December 2, 1923 – September 16, 1977) was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned and influential opera singers of the 20th century. Many critics praised ...
.
Dacia Maraini
Dacia Maraini (; born November 13, 1936) is an Italian writer. Maraini's work focuses on women's issues, and she has written numerous plays and novels. She has won awards for her work, including the Formentor Prize for ''L'età del malessere'' ...
, an Italian writer, said of Callas' behaviour towards Pasolini: "She used to follow him everywhere, even to Africa. She hoped to 'convert' him to heterosexuality and to marriage." Pasolini was also sensible to the problematics related to the "new" role ascribed to women through the Italian media, stating in a 1972 interview that "women are not slot machines".
He was a supporter of his hometown football club
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
.
Political views
Relationship with the Italian Communist Party

By October 1945, the political status of the
Friuli
Friuli (; ; or ; ; ) is a historical region of northeast Italy. The region is marked by its separate regional and ethnic identity predominantly tied to the Friulians, who speak the Friulian language. It comprises the major part of the autono ...
region became a matter of contention between different political factions. On 30 October, Pasolini joined the pro-devolution association ''Patrie tal Friul'', founded in
Udine
Udine ( ; ; ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Carnic Alps. It is the capital of the Province of Udine, Regional decentralization entity ...
. Pasolini wanted a Friuli based on its tradition, attached to the
Catholic Church in Italy
The Italian Catholic Church, or Catholic Church in Italy, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion, communion with the Pope in Rome, under the Conference of Italian Bishops. The pope serves also as Primate of Italy and Bishop ...
, but intent on civic and
social progress
Progress is movement towards a perceived refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. It is central to the philosophy of progressivism, which interprets progress as the set of advancements in technology, science, and social organization effic ...
, as opposed to those advocates of regional autonomy who wanted to preserve their privileges based on "immobilism".
[Siciliano, Enzo. 2014, 111–112] He also criticized the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...
(PCI) for its opposition to
regional devolution and preference instead for
State centralisation. Pasolini founded the party Movimento Popolare Friulano, but resigned upon realizing that it was being covertly manipulated by Italy's ruling
Christian Democratic Party
__NOTOC__
Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...
to counter local
Titoists, who were attempting to annex large swaths of the Friuli region to the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...
.
On 26 January 1947, Pasolini wrote a declaration that was published on the front page of the newspaper ''
Libertà'': "In our opinion, we think that currently only Communism is able to provide a new culture." It generated controversy, partly due to the fact he was still not a member of the PCI. Pasolini planned to extend the work of the Academiuta to the literature of other
Romance language
The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
s, and met
exile
Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...
d
Catalan poet Carles Cardó. He took part in several demonstrations after joining the PCI. In May 1949, he attended the Peace Congress in Paris. Observing the struggles of workers and peasants, and watching the clashes of protesters with Italian police, he began to conceive his first novel. During this period, while holding a position as a teacher in a secondary school, he stood out in the local Italian Communist Party section as a skilful writer, while defying the official Party platform that
Stalinism
Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...
was
anti-Christian
Anti-Christian graffiti from the Alexamenos graffito">Alexamenos worships his god.")
Anti-Christian sentiment, also referred to as Christianophobia or Christophobia, is the fear, hatred, discrimination, or prejudice against Christians and/or asp ...
. Along with the Party leadership, local Christian Democrats and Catholic clergy also took notice. In the summer of 1949, Pasolini was warned by a
Roman Catholic priest
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' re ...
to renounce
Marxism-Leninism or lose his teaching position. Similarly, after some posters were put up in Udine, Giambattista Caron, a Christian Democrat deputy, warned Pasolini's cousin Nico Naldini that "
asolinishould abandon communist propaganda" to prevent "pernicious reactions".
[Siciliano, Enzo. 2014, 148]
Anti-fascism and 1968 protests
Pasolini generated heated public discussion with controversial analyses of public affairs. For instance,
autonomist
Autonomism or ''autonomismo'', also known as autonomist Marxism or autonomous Marxism, is an anti-capitalist
Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose ...
university students were carrying on a guerrilla-style uprising against the police in the streets of Rome during the
disorders of 1968. For their supporters, the disorders were a civil fight of the proletariat against the system. Pasolini made comments that have been interpreted that he was with the police or that he was a man of order, and that he was an anti-anti-fascist.
According to the Centro Studi, Pier Paolo Pasolini, the myth of an "anti-anti-fascist" Pasolini served to propose unlikely anti-globalist alliances by neo-fascists.
''Anti-antifascismo'' was never used by Pasolini and was only added in later years as the title of the ''Scritti corsari'' collection.
Pasolini used the concept to attack various institutional subjects, such as
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics.
Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...
, the Italian president
Giuseppe Saragat
Giuseppe Saragat (; 19 September 1898 – 11 June 1988) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as President of Italy from 1964 to 1971.
Early life
Saragat was born on 19 September 1898 in Turin, Piedmont, Kingdom of Italy, to Sard ...
,
RAI
(), commercially styled as since 2000 and known until 1954 as (RAI), is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many terrestrial and subscription television channels a ...
, and the Health Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, which were all guilty of ignoring some requests from
Marco Pannella
Marco Pannella (born Giacinto Pannella; 2 May 1930 – 19 May 2016) was an Italian politician, journalist and activist. He was well known in his country for his nonviolence and civil rights' campaigns, like the 1974 Italian divorce referendum, ...
, who had been on
hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fasting, fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change. Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are ...
for over two months.
He excluded the PCI from those parties of the constitutional arc that, as declared by Pasolini in June 1975, tried to "rebuild an anti-fascist virginity ... but, at the same time, maintaining the impunity of the fascist gangs that they, if they wanted, would liquidate in a day".
The main source regarding Pasolini's views of the student movement is his poem "Il PCI ai giovani" ('The PCI to Young People'), written after the
Battle of Valle Giulia
The Battle of Valle Giulia (''battaglia di Valle Giulia'') is the conventional name for a clash between Italian militants (left-wing as well as right-wing) and the Italian police in Valle Giulia, Rome, on 1 March 1968. It is still frequently rem ...
. Addressing the students, he tells them that, unlike the international news media which has been reporting on them, he will not flatter them. He points out that they are the children of the
bourgeoisie
The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...
(''Avete facce di figli di papà / Vi odio come odio i vostri papà'' – 'You have the faces of daddy's boys / I hate you like I hate your dads'), before stating ''Quando ieri a Valle Giulia avete fatto a botte coi poliziotti / io simpatizzavo coi poliziotti'' ('When you and the policemen were throwing punches yesterday at Valle Giulia / I was sympathising with the policemen'). He explained that this sympathy was because the policemen were ''figli di poveri'' ('children of the poor'). The poem highlights the aspect of generational struggle within the bourgeoisie represented by the student movement: ''Stampa e Corriere della Sera, News- week e Monde / vi leccano il culo. Siete i loro figli / la loro speranza, il loro futuro... Se mai / si tratta di una lotta intestina'' (
Stampa
Stampa is a former municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Maloja (district), Maloja district of the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton, Graubünden. It is now part of the municipality of Bregaglia.
History
Stampa is fir ...
'' and ''
Corriere della Sera
(; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...
'', ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' and ''
Le Monde
(; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...
'' / they kiss your arse. You are their children / their hope, their future... If anything / it's in-fighting').
The 1968 revolt was seen by Pasolini as an internal, benign reform of the establishment in Italy, since the protesters were part of the petite bourgeoisie. The poem also implied a class hypocrisy on the part of the establishment towards the protesters, asking whether young workers would be treated similarly if they behaved in the same way: ''Occupate le università / ma dite che la stessa idea venga / a dei giovani operai / E allora: Corriere della Sera e Stampa, Newsweek e Monde / avranno tanta sollecitudine / nel cercar di comprendere i loro problemi? / La polizia si limiterà a prendere un po' di botte / dentro una fabbrica occupata? / Ma, soprattutto, come potrebbe concedersi / un giovane operaio di occupare una fabbrica / senza morire di fame dopo tre giorni?'' ('Occupy the universities / but say that the same idea comes / to young workers / So: ''Corriere della Sera'' and ''Stampa'', ''Newsweek'' and ''Le Monde'' / will have so much care / in trying to understand their problems? / Will the police just get a bit of a fight / inside an occupied factory? / But above all, how could / a young worker be allowed to occupy a factory / without dying of hunger after three days?'
Pasolini suggested that the police were the true proletariat, sent to fight for a poor salary and for reasons which they could not understand, against pampered boys of their same age because they had not had the fortune of being able to study, referring to ''poliziotti figli di proletari meridionali picchiati da figli di papà in vena di bravate'' ('policemen, sons of proletarian southerners, beaten up by arrogant daddy's boys'). He found that the policemen were but the outer layer of the real power, e.g. the judiciary. Pasolini was not alien to courts and trials. During all his life, Pasolini was frequently entangled in up to 33 lawsuits filed against him, variously charged with "public disgrace", "foul language", "obscenity", "
pornography
Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is Sexual suggestiveness, sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolv ...
", "contempt of religion", and "contempt of the state", for which he was always eventually acquitted.
The conventional interpretation of Pasolini's position has been challenged.
In an article published in 2015,
Wu Ming
Wu Ming, Chinese language, Chinese for "anonymous", is a pseudonym for a group of Italian authors formed in 2000 from a subset of the Luther Blissett (nom de plume), Luther Blissett community in Bologna.
Four of the group earlier wrote the nove ...
argued that Pasolini's statements need to be understood in the context of Pasolini's self-confessed hatred of the bourgeoisie which had persecuted him for so long, as "Il PCI ai giovani" states that "We (i.e. Pasolini and the students) are obviously in agreement against the police institution", and that the poem portrays policemen as dehumanised by their work. Although the battles between students and the police were fights between the rich and the poor, Pasolini concedes that the students were "on the side of reason" whilst the police were "in the wrong". Wu Ming suggested that Pasolini intended to express scepticism regarding the idea of students being a revolutionary force, contending that only the
working class
The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
could make a revolution and that revolutionary students should join the PCI. Furthermore, he cites a column by Pasolini which was published in the magazine ''Tempo'' later that year, which described the student movement, along with the wartime resistance, as "the Italian people's only two democratic-revolutionary experiences". That year, he also wrote in support of the PCI's proposals for disarming the police, arguing that this would create a break in the psychology of policemen. He said: "It would lead to the sudden collapse of that 'false idea of himself' ascribed to him by Power, which has programmed him like a robot." Pasolini's polemics were aimed at goading protesters into re-thinking their revolt, and did not stop him from contributing to the autonomist ''
Lotta Continua
Lotta Continua (LC; ) was a Far-left politics, far-left militant organization in Italy, during the historical period of social turmoil and political violence in the country known as the "Years of Lead (Italy), Years of Lead". Its leaders Adria ...
'' movement, who he described as "extremists, yes, maybe fanatic and insolently boorish from a cultural point of view, but they push their luck and that is precisely why I think they deserve to be supported. We must want too much to obtain a little."
Rising society of consumption
Pasolini was particularly concerned about the class of the
subproletariat, which he portrayed in ''
Accattone'', and to which he felt both humanly and artistically drawn. He observed that the type of purity which he perceived in the pre-industrial popular culture was rapidly vanishing, a process that he named ''la scomparsa delle lucciole'' ('the disappearance of the fireflies'). The ''joie de vivre'' of boys was being rapidly replaced with more bourgeois ambitions such as a house and a family. He was critical of those leftists who held a "traditional and never admitted hatred against lumpenproletariats and poor populations". In 1958, he called on the PCI to become "'the party of the poor people': the party, we may say, of the lumpenproletarians".
Pasolini's stance finds its roots in the belief that a
Copernican change was taking place in Italian society and the world. Linked to that very idea, he was also an ardent critic of ''consumismo'', i.e.
consumerism
Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the ...
, which he felt had rapidly destroyed Italian society from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s. He described the
coprophagia
Coprophagia ( ) or coprophagy ( ) is the consumption of feces. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek "feces" and "to eat". Coprophagy refers to many kinds of feces-eating, including eating feces of other species (heterospecifics), of o ...
scenes in ''Salò'' as a comment on the
processed food
Food processing is the transformation of agricultural products into food, or of one form of food into other forms. Food processing takes many forms, from grinding grain into raw flour, home cooking, and complex industrial methods used in the mak ...
industry. As he saw it, the society of consumerism ("neocapitalism") and the "new fascism" had thus expanded an alienation / homogenization and centralization that the former clerical fascism had not managed to achieve, so bringing about an anthropological change. That change is related to the loss of
humanism
Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and Agency (philosophy), agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The me ...
and the expansion of productivity as central to the human condition, which he despised. He found that 'new culture' was degrading and vulgar. In one interview, he said: "I hate with particular vehemency the current power, the power of 1975, which is a power that manipulates bodies in a horrible way; a manipulation that has nothing to envy to that performed by
Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...
or
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
." According to Pasolini scholar Simona Bondavalli, Pasolini's definition of neo-capitalism as a "new fascism" enforced uniform conformity without resorting to coercive means. As Pasolini put it, "No Fascist centralism succeeded in doing what the centralism of consumer culture did." Philosopher
Davide Tarizzo summarized Pasolini's position:
Strong criticism of Christian Democracy

Pasolini saw some continuity between the Fascist era and the post-war political system which was led by the Christian Democrats, describing the latter as "clerico-fascism" due to its use of the state as a repressive instrument and its manipulation of power: he saw the conditions among the Roman subproletariat in the ''borgate'' as an example of this, being marginalised and segregated socially and geographically as they were under Fascism, and in conflict with a criminal police force.
He also blamed the Christian Democrats for assimilating the values of consumer capitalism, contributing to what he saw as the erosion of human values.
The
1975 Italian regional elections saw the rise of the leftist parties, and dwelling on his blunt, ever more political approach and prophetic style during this period, he declared in ''Corriere della Sera'' that the time had come to put the most prominent Christian Democrat figures on trial, where they would need to be shown walking in handcuffs and led by the
Carabinieri
The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign poli ...
; he felt that this was the only way they could be removed from power.
[Siciliano, Enzo. 2014, pp. 388–389] Pasolini charged the Christian Democratic leadership with being "riddled with Mafia influence", covering up a number of
bombings by neo-fascists,
collaborating with the CIA, and working with the CIA and the
Italian Armed Forces
The Italian Armed Forces (, ) encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. A fourth Military branch, branch of the armed forces, known as the Carabinieri, take on the role as the nation's Gendarmerie, military police an ...
to prevent the rise of the left.
Television linked to cultural alienation
Pasolini was angered by
economic globalization
Economic globalization is one of the three main dimensions of globalization commonly found in academic literature, with the two others being political globalization and cultural globalization, as well as the general term of globalization.
Econ ...
and cultural domination of the
north of Italy (around
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
) over other regions, especially the
south
South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
. He felt this was accomplished through the power of television. A debate TV programme recorded in 1971, where he denounced censorship, was not actually aired until the day following his murder in November 1975. In a PCI reform plan that he drew up in September and October 1975, among the desirable measures to be implemented, he cited the abolition of television.
Others

Pasolini opposed the gradual disappearance of
Italy's minority languages by writing some of his poetry in
Friulan
Friulian ( ) or Friulan (natively or ; ; ; ) is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance family. Friulian is spoken in the Friuli region of northeastern Italy and has around 600,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom also speak It ...
, the regional language of his childhood. His opposition to the liberalization of
abortion law
Abortion laws vary widely among countries and territories, and have changed over time. Such laws range from abortion being freely available on request, to regulation or restrictions of various kinds, to outright prohibition in all circumstances ...
made him unpopular on the left.
After 1968, Pasolini engaged with the
left-libertarian
Left-libertarianism, also known as left-wing libertarianism, is a political philosophy and type of libertarianism that stresses both individual freedom and social equality. Left-libertarianism represents several related yet distinct approaches to ...
,
anti-clerical
Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historically, anti-clericalism in Christian traditions has been opposed to the influence of Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, ...
, and liberal
Radical Party (''Partito Radicale''). He involved himself in
polemics
Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...
with party leader
Marco Pannella
Marco Pannella (born Giacinto Pannella; 2 May 1930 – 19 May 2016) was an Italian politician, journalist and activist. He was well known in his country for his nonviolence and civil rights' campaigns, like the 1974 Italian divorce referendum, ...
,
supported the Party's initiative calling for eight
referendum
A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
s on various liberalising reforms,
and had accepted an invitation to speak at the Party's congress before he was killed.
Despite supporting the holding of a
referendum
A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
on the decriminalisation of abortion, he was opposed to actually decriminalising it,
and he also criticised the Party's understanding of democratic activism as being a matter of equalising access to capitalist markets for the working class and other
subaltern groups. In an interview he gave shortly before his death, Pasolini stated he frequently disagreed with the Party. He continued to give qualified support to the PCI.
in June 1975, he said that he would still vote for the PCI because he felt it was "an island where critical consciousness is always desperately defended: and where human behaviour has been still able to preserve the old dignity", and in his final months he became close to the Rome section of the
Italian Communist Youth Federation
The Italian Communist Youth Federation (, FGCI) was the youth wing of the Italian Communist Party (''Partito Comunista Italiano''; PCI), and the direct heir of the Federazione Giovanile Comunista d'Italia of the PCd'I.
In 2016 it was refounded ...
. A Federation activist, Vincenzo Cerami, delivered the speech he was due to give at the Radical Party congress: in it, Pasolini confirmed his Marxism and his support for the PCI.
Outside of Italy, Pasolini took a particular interest in the
developing world
A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreeme ...
, seeing parallels between life among the Italian underclass and in the third world, going so far as to declare that
Bandung
Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, the city is the List of Indonesian cities by population, fourth-most populous city and fourth largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabay ...
was the capital of three-quarters of the world and half of Italy. He was also positive about the
New Left
The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
in the United States, predicting that it would "lead to an original form of non-Marxist Socialism" and writing that the movement reminded him of the
Italian Resistance
The Italian Resistance ( ), or simply ''La'' , consisted of all the Italy, Italian Resistance during World War II, resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic ...
. Pasolini saw these two areas of struggle as inter-linked: after visiting
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
he stated that "the core of the struggle for the Third World revolution is really America".
Murder
Pasolini was murdered on 2 November 1975 at a beach in
Ostia. Almost unrecognizable, Pasolini was savagely beaten and also run over several times with his own car. Multiple bones were broken and his
testicles
A testicle or testis ( testes) is the gonad in all male bilaterians, including humans, and is homologous to the ovary in females. Its primary functions are the production of sperm and the secretion of androgens, primarily testosterone.
The ...
were crushed by what appeared to have been a metal bar.
An
autopsy
An autopsy (also referred to as post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of deat ...
revealed that his body had been partially burned with
gasoline
Gasoline ( North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When for ...
after his death. The crime was long viewed as a
Mafia
"Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...
-style
revenge killing
Revenge is defined as committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Vengeful forms of justice, such as primitive justice or retributive justice, are often differentiated from more form ...
, one that was extremely unlikely to have been carried out by only one person. Pasolini was buried in
Casarsa.
Giuseppe "Pino" Pelosi (1958–2017), then 17 years old, was caught driving Pasolini's car and confessed to the murder. He was convicted and sentenced to 9 years in prison in 1976,
initially with "unknown others", but this phrase was later removed from the verdict.
Twenty-nine years later, on 7 May 2005, Pelosi retracted his confession, which he said had been made under the threat of violence to his family. He claimed that three people "with a
southern accent" had committed the murder, while further insulting Pasolini as a "dirty communist".
Other evidence uncovered in 2005 suggested that Pasolini had been murdered by an
extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...
ist. Testimony by his friend Sergio Citti indicated that some of the
rolls of film from ''Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom'' had been stolen, and that Pasolini planned to meet with and negotiate its return from the thieves on 2 November 1975 following a visit to
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
, Sweden. Citti's investigation uncovered additional evidence, including a bloody wooden stick and an eyewitness who said he saw a group of men pull Pasolini from the car.
The Rome police reopened the murder as a
cold case
''Cold Case'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series. It ran on CBS from September 28, 2003, to May 2, 2010. The series revolved around a fictionalized Philadelphia Police Department division that specializes in invest ...
after Pelosi's retraction, but the
investigative magistrate
An examining magistrate is a judge in an inquisitorial system of law who carries out pre-trial investigations into allegations of crime and in some cases makes a recommendation for prosecution. Also known as an investigating magistrate, inquisito ...
s responsible for the investigation found that the new elements were insufficient to justify a continued inquiry. As of 2023, a plea to reopen the case was filed based on
DNA analysis
Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...
and links the murder to the
Banda della Magliana, a
criminal organisation
Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a form of illegal business, some ...
with close ties to
far-right terrorism
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...
, as the probable culprits.
Legacy
As a director, Pasolini created a
picaresque
The picaresque novel (Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for ' rogue' or 'rascal') is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish but appealing hero, usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrupt ...
neorealism, showing a sad reality. Many people did not want to see such portrayals in artistic work for public distribution. ''
Mamma Roma
''Mamma Roma'' is a 1962 Italian drama film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, starring Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, and Franco Citti.
Synopsis
After her pimp Carmine marries, prostitute Mamma Roma starts a new life as a marketer in ...
'' (1962), featuring
Anna Magnani
Anna Maria Magnani (; 7 March 1908 – 26 September 1973) was an Academy Award-winning Italian actress.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', 3 October 1973, pg. 47 She was known for her explosive acting and earthy, realistic portrayals of ...
and telling the story of a prostitute and her son, was considered an affront to the public ideals and morality of those times. His works, with their unequalled poetry applied to cruel realities, showed that such realities were less distant from most daily lives, and contributed to changes in the Italian psyche.
Pasolini's work often engendered disapproval, perhaps primarily because of his frequent focus on sexual behaviour, and the contrast between what he presented and what was publicly sanctioned. While Pasolini's poetry often dealt with his gay love interests, this was not the only, or even main, theme. His interest in and use of Italian dialects should also be noted. Much of the poetry was about his highly revered mother. He depicted certain corners of the contemporary reality as few other poets could do. His poetry, which took some time before it was translated, was not as well known outside Italy as were his films. A collection in English was published in 1996.
Pasolini also developed a philosophy of language mainly related to his studies on cinema.
This theoretical and critical activity was another hotly debated topic. His collected articles and responses are still available today.
These studies can be considered the foundation of his artistic point of view: he believed that the language—such as English, Italian, dialect or other—is a
rigid system in which human thought is trapped. He also thought that the cinema is the "written" language of reality which, like any other written language, enables man to see things from the point of view of truth.
His films won awards at the
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
,
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world.
Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
,
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...
, Italian National Syndicate for Film Journalists,
Jussi Awards
The Jussi Awards are Finland's premier film industry prizes, awarded annually to recognize the achievements of directors, actors, and writers.
History
The first Jussi Awards ceremony was held on 16 November 1944 at the Restaurant Adlon in Hel ...
,
Kinema Junpo Awards
, commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...
, International Catholic Film Office and
New York Film Critics Circle
The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) is an American film critic
Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film scho ...
. ''
The Gospel According to St. Matthew'' was nominated for the United Nations Award of the
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
(BAFTA) in 1968.
Filmography
In popular culture
Many documentaries and films have been released since the time of his murder, some of which include:
* ''Das Mitleid ist gestorben'', a documentary directed by Ebbo Demant and released in 1978.
* In 1986, the avant-garde band
Coil released their album ''
Horse Rotorvator
''Horse Rotorvator'' is the second studio album by English experimental music group Coil (band), Coil, released in 1986.
The album was ranked No. 73 in the ''Pitchfork (website), Pitchfork'' list "Top 100 Albums of the 1980s".
Background
The ...
'', which includes the track "Ostia (The Death of Pasolini)" in tribute to the late filmmaker.
* ''
Who Killed Pasolini?'', directed by
Marco Tullio Giordana
Marco Tullio Giordana (born 1 October 1950) is an Italian film director and screenwriter.
Biography
Born in Milan, during the 1970s he approached the cinema by collaborating on the screenplay of Roberto Faenza's 1977 documentary ''Forza Itali ...
in 1995. The film reconstructs the trial of Pino Pelosi, accused of Pasolini's murder.
* ''
Re: Pasolini'', made by
Stefano Battaglia
Stefano Battaglia (born 1965 in Milan) is an Italian classical and jazz pianist, as well as a soloist and bandleader. He has played more than 3000 concerts as an improviser in many important festivals and international appointments over the world ...
in 2005, was dedicated to Pasolini.
* ''
Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...
'', directed by
Abel Ferrara
Abel Ferrara (; born July 19, 1951) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for the provocative and often controversial content in his movies and his use and redefinition of neo-noir imagery. A long-time independent filmmaker, some of his best ...
. A 2014 biopic directed about Pasolini, with
Willem Dafoe
William James "Willem" Dafoe ( ; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. Known for his prolific career portraying diverse roles in both mainstream and arthouse films, he is the recipient of various accolades including a Volpi Cup Award for ...
in the lead role. It was selected to compete for the
Golden Lion
The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a ...
at the
71st Venice International Film Festival
The 71st annual Venice International Film Festival , was held from 27 August to 6 September 2014, at Venice Lido in Italy.
French composer Alexandre Desplat was the jury president for the main competition. Italian actress Luisa Ranieri hoste ...
.
* ''PPPasolini'', directed by Malga Kubiak, a drama movie based on the story of Pier Paolo Pasolini's life and death, released in 2015. The movie was screened at the seventh edition of the LGBT Film Festival in
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
, and received a People's Choice Award at the festival.
* ''
La macchinazione'', directed by his former collaborator
David Grieco, a 2016 biopic on the last hours of Pasolini's life starring
Massimo Ranieri
Giovanni Calone (born 3 May 1951), known professionally as Massimo Ranieri, is an Italian singer, actor, television presenter and theatre director.
Biography Early life
Ranieri was born in Borgo Santa Lucia, Naples, the fifth of eight children ...
as Pasolini.
See also
*
''Pasolini'' (film)
* ''
La macchinazione''
*
List of unsolved murders
Notes
References
Further reading
* Aichele, George. "Translation as De-canonization: Matthew's Gospel According to Pasolini – filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini – Critical Essay". ''Cross Currents'' (2002).
* Chiesa, Lorenzo. ''Pasolini and the Ugliness of Bodies''. In: Polezzi, Loredana and Ross, Charlotte, eds. In Corpore: Bodies in Post-Unification Italy. Farleigh Dickinson University Press, Madison, pp. 208–227. .
* Distefano, John. "Picturing Pasolini", ''Art Journal'' (1997).
*
* Eloit, Audrene. "Oedipus Rex by Pier Paolo Pasolini The Palimpsest: Rewriting and the Creation of Pasolini's Cinematic Language". ''Literature Film Quarterly'' (2004).
* Fabbro, Elena (ed.). ''Il mito greco nell'opera di Pasolini''. Atti del Convegno Udine-Casarsa della Delizia, 24–26 ottobre 2002. Udine: Forum (2004). .
* Forni, Kathleen. "A "Cinema of Poetry": What Pasolini Did to Chancer's Canterbury Tales". ''Literature Film Quarterly'' (2002).
* Frisch, Anette. "Francesco Vezzolini: Pasolini Reloaded". Interview, Rutgers University Alexander Library, New Brunswick, NJ.
* Ginzburg, Carlo, Safran, Yehuda, Sherer Daniel. "An Interview with Carlo Ginzburg, by Yehuda Safran and Daniel Sherer". Potlatch 5 (2022), special issue on Carlo Ginzburg. Discussion of Ginzburg's meeting with Pasolini and Elsa Morante and Pasolini's interest in Ginzburg's work as a historian of Friuli.
* Green, Martin. "The Dialectic Adaptation".
* Greene, Naomi. ''Pier Paolo Pasolini: Cinema as Heresy''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1990.
* Hamza, Agon. ''Althusser and Pasolini - Philosophy, Marxism and Film''. Palgrave, NY (2016). .
* Meyer-Krahmer, Benjamin. "Transmediality and Pastiche as Techniques in Pasolini's Art Production", in: P.P.P. – Pier Paolo Pasolini and death, eds. Bernhart Schwenk, Michael Semff, Ostfildern 2005, pp. 109–118.
* Passannanti, Erminia, ''Il corpo & il potere. Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma di Pier Paolo Pasolini'', Prima edizione, Troubador, Leicester, 2004; Seconda Edizione, Joker, Savona 2008.
* Passannanti, Erminia, ''Il Cristo del'Eresia. Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cinema e Censura'', Joker, Savona 2009.
* Passannanti, Erminia, ''La ricotta. Il Sacro trasgredito. Il cinema di Pier Paolo Pasolini e la censura religiosa'', 2009 was also published in "Italy on Screen" (Peter Lang Ed., 2011). The book contains excerpts from the 1962 court trial.
* Pugh, Tison. "Chaucerian Fabliaux, Cinematic Fabliau: Pier Paolo Pasolini's I racconti di Canterbury", ''Literature Film Quarterly'' (2004).
* Restivo, Angelo. ''The Cinema of Economic Miracles: Visuality and Modernization in the Italian Art Film''. London: Duke UP, 2002.
* Rohdie, Sam. ''The Passion of Pier Paolo Pasolini''. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana UP, 1995.
* Rumble, Patrick A. ''Allegories of contamination: Pier Paolo Pasolini's Trilogy of life''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.
* Schwartz, Barth D. ''Pasolini Requiem''. 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992.
*
Siciliano, Enzo. ''Pasolini: A Biography''. Trans. John Shepley. New York: Random House, 1982.
* Thompson, N.S., ''Pier Paolo Pasolini: Poet and Prophet'', in Murray, Glen (ed.), ''
Cencrastus
''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature, at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...
'' No. 7, Winter 1981 - 82, pp. 30 – 32.
* Tusa, Giovanbattista. "The Pasolinian Century", in: Hildebrandt, Toni and Tusa, Giovanbattista (eds.), ''PPPP. Pier Paolo Pasolini Philosopher''. Mimesis International, 2022, pp. 317–323.
* Viano, Maurizio. ''A Certain Realism: Making Use of Pasolini's Film Theory and Practice''. Berkeley:
University of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...
, 1993.
* Willimon, William H. "Faithful to the script", ''Christian Century'' (2004).
External links
*
Interview with Jonas Mekas in Bomb Magazine
Pasolini on Filmgalerie451
Piers Paolo Pasolini Italian Website with Extensive Commentary
"Pier Paolo Pasolini" Senses of Cinema
BBC News Report on the Reopening of the Murder Case* Guy Flatley
, MovieCrazed
Doug Ireland, "Restoring Pasolini" ZMag
Pier Paolo Pasolini Poems– Original Italian Text.
* (Interrupted and Half-Censored by
Enzo Biagi
Enzo Biagi (; 9 August 1920 – 6 November 2007) was an Italian journalist, writer and former partisan.
Life and career
Biagi was born in Lizzano in Belvedere, and began his career as a journalist in Bologna. In 1952, he worked on the screenpl ...
)
Italian Website dedicated to PasoliniPasolini's Second to Last Interview, Long Believed to Have Been Lost Dennis Lim, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', 26 December 2012
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