Customer Reviews

Pier Paolo Pasolini: Cinema As Heresy

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This book is a decent analysis of Pasolini's works, including both his major films and writings on film theory.

It starts by examining the director's early neorealist films which the author, Greene, frames within the Marxist beliefs Pasolini was enthusiastic about early in his life. She says Marxist critics had issues with these films for being too "decadent." Pasolini's growing disillusionment with Marxism led to his later movies having different styles than his earlier ones: instead of reaching his audience through dramatic social tales of Italian peasants, he tried to convey his themes by playing up the subtle "decadence" of his earlier realistic films with more over-the-top metaphor and myth.

Films that the author discusses include such varying titles as "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" and the highly controversial "Salo." The later films are all quite interesting, as most of them deal with some sort of taboo or controversial topic.

A lot of the author's commentary on Pasolini's works deal with his Marxist beliefs and struggles with his religious convictions and sexual orientation.

The chapter dealing with Pasolini's film theory writings is not for the beginner in this subject looking for an easy read. Greene gets into things like free indirect discourse, semiology, and linguistics, which can be a little tough to grasp if you haven't studied film theory before.

The book also includes a section of 24 pages of B+W photographs, mostly from Pasolini's movies. Overall, this is a good introduction to a complex director, but the chapter on his theoretical writings gets a little technical for the beginner.