''Pasolini'' is a 2014 English-language internationally co-produced

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Abel Ferrara Abel Ferrara (born July 19, 1951) is an American filmmaker, known for the provocative and often controversial content in his movies and his use of neo-noir imagery and gritty urban settings. A long-time independent filmmaker, some of his best k ...

and written by Maurizio Braucci about the final days of Italian film director

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

(played by Willem Dafoe). It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. It was also screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Plot

(

Willem Dafoe Willem James Dafoe (; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, in addition to receiving nominations for four Academy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, ...

) is fifty-three, and lives in the rowdy

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

of the 1970s. He has just finished shooting his latest film ''

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom ''Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom'' ( it, Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma, billed on-screen ''Pasolini's 120 Days of Sodom'' on English-language prints and commonly referred to as simply ''Salò'' []) is a 1975 horror film, horror art film dir ...

'', a film that has shocked both critics and audiences. Pasolini is increasingly opposed by the people, critics and politicians, both for his

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

, and because he is considered impulsive and scandalous in showing his reality to the public. Pasolini is going to shoot a new film (which was never made), in which he cast

Eduardo De Filippo Eduardo De Filippo (; 24 May 1900 – 31 October 1984), also known simply as ''Eduardo'', was an Italian actor, director, screenwriter and playwright, best known for his Neapolitan works '' Filumena Marturano'' and '' Napoli Milionaria''. Cons ...

(

Ninetto Davoli Giovanni "Ninetto" Davoli (born 11 October 1948) is an Italian actor who became known through his roles 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 Ninetto Davoli (

Riccardo Scamarcio Riccardo Dario Scamarcio (; born 13 November 1979) is an Italian actor and film producer. Life and career Scamarcio was born in Trani, Apulia, the son of Irene Petrafesa, a painter, and Emilio Scamarcio. He went to train as an actor at the S ...

) - with whom he has a special relationship. While Pasolini is working on the film, his mother ( Adriana Asti) and his cousin try to dissuade him from the project, because it would be too wild and visionary for the Italian public to accept. Pasolini continues with his work, missing many interviews with journalists. He begins a relationship with a boy from the suburbs of Rome, Pino Pelosi, and takes him to a restaurant in the seaside village of

Ostia Ostia may refer to: Places *Ostia (Rome), a municipio (also called ''Ostia Lido'' or ''Lido di Ostia'') of Rome *Ostia Antica, a township and port of ancient Rome *Ostia Antica (district), a district of the commune of Rome Arts and entertainment ...

. Pasolini wants to be with him in a loving relationship, but the boy gets mad at him, attacking him and some other companions. Pasolini is later beaten up and then run over with his own car. In the days following, the press says Pasolini's murder was politically motivated by the police and those whom the poet had always loved and immortalized in his works.

Cast

Valerio Mastandrea Valerio Mastandrea (born 14 February 1972) is an Italian film, stage and television actor. Life and career He was born in Rome. While being a student of philosophy, in the early 1990s Mastandrea enjoyed some success thanks to the semi-regular pa ...

as Domenico "Nico" Naldini * Adriana Asti as Susanna Colussi Pasolini *

Giada Colagrande Giada Colagrande (born 16 October 1975) is an Italian film director and actress. Life and career In 2005 Colagrande directed her second feature, ''Before it Had a Name'', which she co-wrote and co-starred in with Willem Dafoe. The two had met on ...

as Graziella Chiarcossi * Salvatore Ruocco as Socialist politician *

Maria de Medeiros Maria Esteves de Medeiros Victorino de Almeida, DamSE (born 19 August 1965), known professionally as Maria de Medeiros (), is a Portuguese actress, director, and singer who has been involved in both European and American film productions. Ear ...

Laura Betti Laura Betti ( Trombetti; 1 May 1927 – 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 document ...

* Francesco Siciliano as

Furio Colombo Furio Colombo (born 1 January 1931) is an Italian journalist and politician, former editor-in-chief of ''L'Unità''. Biography Journalistic and academic career Colombo was born in Châtillon, Aosta Valley in a Jewish family. In the mid-1950 ...

Luca Lionello Luca Lionello (born January 9, 1964) is an Italian actor. Biography Born in Rome to actor and voice dubbing artist Oreste Lionello, he has been actor since 1986. Since then, Lionello came to international attention in 2004, when he played the ...

as narrator

Production

According to Ferrara, his plans to make a film about Pasolini have gone far back as the 1990s. Originally, the project was not meant to have been an actual biopic of Pasolini's life. Instead, it was to have starred

Zoë Tamerlis Lund Zoe (also ZOE, Zoë, Zoé, etc.) can refer to: *ζωή (''zōḗ''), the Ancient Greek word for " life" People * Zoe (name), including list of persons and fictional characters with the name Film and television * ''Zoe'' (film) * ZOE Broad ...

as "a female director living the life that Pasolini lived." However, Lund's death prevented this idea.

Reception

On the review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film has a 78% approval rating, based on 55 reviews, with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

of 6.8/10. The website's consensus reads, "''Pasolini'' may frustrate viewers seeking a straightforward biopic, but director Abel Ferrara's unconventional approach is well-matched by Willem Dafoe's performance." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 71 out of 100, based on 18 critics.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pasolini 2014 films 2014 drama films 2014 biographical drama films 2014 LGBT-related films 2010s English-language films English-language Belgian films English-language French films English-language Italian films 2010s Italian-language films 2010s French-language films Belgian multilingual films Belgian biographical drama films Belgian LGBT-related films French multilingual films French biographical drama films French LGBT-related films Italian biographical drama films Italian LGBT-related films Italian multilingual films Films about film directors and producers Films directed by Abel Ferrara Films shot in Italy Cultural depictions of Italian men Pier Paolo Pasolini French-language Belgian films 2010s French films