A kindred spirit of Luis Buñuel, but one whose existential compulsions are more palpable, Pier Paolo Pasolini perpetually rebelled against moral hegemony, commiserating with outcasts and creating and dying as one. Today, his canon has been co-opted by forces on the right and left, the faithful and the secular. Which is to say, he belongs to us all.
The Criterion Collection’s new box set, Pasolini 101, represents the most comprehensive collection of Pasolini’s films to date, collecting nine of his features, as well as two shorts (1963’s La Ricotta and 1969’s The Sequence of the Paper Flower) that he made for anthology films and two documentaries that he shot during his travels. In addition to his own work, the set’s extensive and richly informative extras, among them two commentary tracks and a 100-page book featuring an essay and notes on the films by critic James Quandt, remind us...
The Criterion Collection’s new box set, Pasolini 101, represents the most comprehensive collection of Pasolini’s films to date, collecting nine of his features, as well as two shorts (1963’s La Ricotta and 1969’s The Sequence of the Paper Flower) that he made for anthology films and two documentaries that he shot during his travels. In addition to his own work, the set’s extensive and richly informative extras, among them two commentary tracks and a 100-page book featuring an essay and notes on the films by critic James Quandt, remind us...
- 6/20/2023
- by Ed Gonzalez
- Slant Magazine
December 28, 2016. R.I.P. Debbie Reynolds, actress and singer. Age 84.There is a nice moment in the documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds where Carrie’s brother Todd is showing the filmmakers a wall in his living room that tells the story of his mother’s life through movie posters. When Debbie Reynolds passed away on December 28—the day after her daughter Carrie in what was certifiably the last straw of 2016— I tried to find a great poster to commemorate her, but I couldn’t find anything really worthy of her (she was rarely the star of her own posters for one thing). I had forgotten, however, about this lovely Italian poster for Singing’ in the Rain which captures her as the burst of sunshine she always was.More often than I would have liked last year I found myself using my Movie Poster of the Day Tumblr as a memorial,...
- 1/14/2017
- MUBI
A rare 35mm revival screening of Bernardo Bertolucci's 1979 controversial drama La Luna, organized and hosted by Cinema Retro columnist David Savage and co-sponsored by Iconic Linx, brought near-sellout crowds to Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan last Monday night, April 25th, including the family of the late Jill Clayburgh (1944-2010) star of the film.
Organized both as a belated tribute to Clayburgh and an attempt, as described by Savage, to bring the neglected film back into popular and critical consciousness, the screening was a family affair for the beloved Clayburgh-Rabe family, bringing together Jill's husband, famed playwright David Rabe, their actress daughter Lily Rabe (star of the forthcoming "Miss Stevens") and their actor son Michael Rabe. Matthew Barry, Jill Clayburgh's co-star and son in the film, now 53 and a casting director, flew in from Los Angeles to attend the screening and panel discussion that followed, moderated by Savage.
They were joined by David Rabe,...
Organized both as a belated tribute to Clayburgh and an attempt, as described by Savage, to bring the neglected film back into popular and critical consciousness, the screening was a family affair for the beloved Clayburgh-Rabe family, bringing together Jill's husband, famed playwright David Rabe, their actress daughter Lily Rabe (star of the forthcoming "Miss Stevens") and their actor son Michael Rabe. Matthew Barry, Jill Clayburgh's co-star and son in the film, now 53 and a casting director, flew in from Los Angeles to attend the screening and panel discussion that followed, moderated by Savage.
They were joined by David Rabe,...
- 4/27/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The Italian film legend, known for his expressive face, made many films with Pier Paolo Pasolini and starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather films
The Italian cinema legend Franco Citti has died in Rome aged 80 following a long illness. Friend and fellow actor Ninetto Davoli confirmed that Citti had died on Thursday.
Citti, known internationally for his role as Calò in Francis Ford Coppola’s the Godfather I and III and as the face of films by director Pier Paolo Pasolini, came to fame at the age of 26 playing the title role in Pasolini’s 1961 Accattone. He continued to work with the legendary director throughout the 60s and 70s, appearing in films such as Mamma Roma, Edipo Re, Pigsty and The Decameron.
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The Italian cinema legend Franco Citti has died in Rome aged 80 following a long illness. Friend and fellow actor Ninetto Davoli confirmed that Citti had died on Thursday.
Citti, known internationally for his role as Calò in Francis Ford Coppola’s the Godfather I and III and as the face of films by director Pier Paolo Pasolini, came to fame at the age of 26 playing the title role in Pasolini’s 1961 Accattone. He continued to work with the legendary director throughout the 60s and 70s, appearing in films such as Mamma Roma, Edipo Re, Pigsty and The Decameron.
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- 1/14/2016
- by Mahita Gajanan
- The Guardian - Film News
Actor known for his roles in the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini
Franco Citti, who has died aged 90, made a memorable screen debut playing the title role of a pimp in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s first film, Accattone (1961), which was inspired by several characters whom Pasolini had met in the barren areas on the impoverished Roman outskirts.
Franco was one of the non-professionals cast in the film after Pasolini had met him through his brother, the writer and director Sergio Citti. The producer Alfredo Bini, who took over Accattone after its stuttering start with Federico Fellini’s production company, accepted Pasolini’s choice of Franco, but insisted that his dialogue be postsynched by a professional, something that Pasolini later regretted. However, Franco’s extraordinarily expressive face was more important than his voice in the film which, respecting the director’s love for Masaccio’s paintings and the films of Carl Theodor Dreyer,...
Franco Citti, who has died aged 90, made a memorable screen debut playing the title role of a pimp in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s first film, Accattone (1961), which was inspired by several characters whom Pasolini had met in the barren areas on the impoverished Roman outskirts.
Franco was one of the non-professionals cast in the film after Pasolini had met him through his brother, the writer and director Sergio Citti. The producer Alfredo Bini, who took over Accattone after its stuttering start with Federico Fellini’s production company, accepted Pasolini’s choice of Franco, but insisted that his dialogue be postsynched by a professional, something that Pasolini later regretted. However, Franco’s extraordinarily expressive face was more important than his voice in the film which, respecting the director’s love for Masaccio’s paintings and the films of Carl Theodor Dreyer,...
- 1/14/2016
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
Stars: Lou Castel, Mark Damon, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Barbara Frey, Rossana Martini, Mirella Maravidi, Franco Citti, Luisa Baratto, Ninetto Davoli, Nino Musco, Carlo Palmucci, Vittorio Duse | Written by Lucio Battistrada, Andrew Baxter | Directed by Carlo Lizzani
Lou Castel takes the lead role in Requiescant, a young man raised to be a pacifist by a travelling preacher who discovered him as a baby after a massacre of his family. Searching for his adopted sister he soon finders her in the employment of George Ferguson (Mark Damon) an evil landowner who manipulates the young man for his own amusement. When his history is heritage is discovered it is revealed Ferguson was the man who ordered the death of the man’s family all for the control over the land that belonged to them.
Requiescant may not be the strongest story for a Western and it does tend to fluff over a few...
Lou Castel takes the lead role in Requiescant, a young man raised to be a pacifist by a travelling preacher who discovered him as a baby after a massacre of his family. Searching for his adopted sister he soon finders her in the employment of George Ferguson (Mark Damon) an evil landowner who manipulates the young man for his own amusement. When his history is heritage is discovered it is revealed Ferguson was the man who ordered the death of the man’s family all for the control over the land that belonged to them.
Requiescant may not be the strongest story for a Western and it does tend to fluff over a few...
- 11/17/2015
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
Above: Giotto, Meeting at the Golden Gate, 1305.
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò (1975) was released by Criterion in 1998 and in 2004 they released Mamma Roma (1962). This past month they released a much belated box-set of his six-hour Trilogy of Life (1971-1974), in a beautiful restoration and accompanied with an awesome heap of great docs, essays and other goodies. On December 13 MoMA started a month-long retrospective dedicated to his work.
I. Defending Pasolini Against His Devotees
The prevailing view of Pier Paolo Pasolini has become subjugated to the misshapen reputation of his most infamous film, Salò (1975). The film’s unyielding serial descent into ever more severe cycles of mutilation, sodomy, coprophagia, and chronic rape of a group of 12-15 year olds has scandalized and influenced a culture that is frantic for any stimuli that can remind its constituents of their humanity. The film has furnished ample fodder for generations of filmmakers intent on...
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò (1975) was released by Criterion in 1998 and in 2004 they released Mamma Roma (1962). This past month they released a much belated box-set of his six-hour Trilogy of Life (1971-1974), in a beautiful restoration and accompanied with an awesome heap of great docs, essays and other goodies. On December 13 MoMA started a month-long retrospective dedicated to his work.
I. Defending Pasolini Against His Devotees
The prevailing view of Pier Paolo Pasolini has become subjugated to the misshapen reputation of his most infamous film, Salò (1975). The film’s unyielding serial descent into ever more severe cycles of mutilation, sodomy, coprophagia, and chronic rape of a group of 12-15 year olds has scandalized and influenced a culture that is frantic for any stimuli that can remind its constituents of their humanity. The film has furnished ample fodder for generations of filmmakers intent on...
- 12/26/2012
- by Gabriel Abrantes
- MUBI
His life tragically and brutally cut short by a still unknown assassin, Italian auteur Pier Paolo Pasolini’s last completed project, known as the Trilogy of Life, gets the master treatment from Criterion this month, which includes three films based on classic literary anthologies, The Decameron (1971), The Canterbury Tales (1972), and Arabian Nights (1975). Pasolini was one third done with his next project, to be called the Trilogy of Death, of which his last film, Salo (1975), was the first installment. Upon each of their initial releases, the Life films were all equally greeted with controversy, celebration, and a distinct notoriety, but all overshadowed by the infamy of Salo, which stands on many lists as one of the most difficult to watch films of all time (and was the first Pasolini title to be inducted into Criterion’s annals). Pasolini’s overall motif encapsulated in these three features is a celebration of life,...
- 11/27/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Valerio Zurlini, writer-director, is someone I find a little hard to pin down: a career which contains both Girl with a Suitcase (1961), in which prostitute/aspiring actress Claudia Cardinale becomes houseguest of a teenage boy (but it's Not like Risky Business) and Desert of the Tartars (1976), an existential historical epic based on a novel which David Lean had planned to film at one point. What initially seems to unite the work is a rare seriousness: Zurlini is earnest, almost humorless, and at times despairing.
The strikingly titled Black Jesus (1968 - the Italian title translates, more subtly, as Sitting on His Right) is a good example of Zurlini's willingness to follow a story into the darkest places. It's based blatantly on the true story of Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected Congolese leader, who was deposed, tortured and assassinated under the watchful eye of the Un, and with the probable connivance of the Us and Belgium.
The strikingly titled Black Jesus (1968 - the Italian title translates, more subtly, as Sitting on His Right) is a good example of Zurlini's willingness to follow a story into the darkest places. It's based blatantly on the true story of Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected Congolese leader, who was deposed, tortured and assassinated under the watchful eye of the Un, and with the probable connivance of the Us and Belgium.
- 7/24/2012
- MUBI
Producer of Pier Paolo Pasolini's early films
Though an enterprising film producer, often ahead of his times, Alfredo Bini, who has died aged 83, is best remembered for having given the poet Pier Paolo Pasolini the chance to make his debut as a film-maker with Accattone (1960), when no other film company was prepared to back it. Bini produced more than 40 films, including all the features made by Pasolini up until 1967, including Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St Matthew, 1964). Among his other films were many starring his wife, Rosanna Schiaffino.
Bini was born in Livorno, Tuscany, and, during the second world war, ran away from home to join the army. He was wounded and got a medal, but went back to finish his studies in biology. He soon gave up the idea of a scientific career and in 1945 moved to Rome, where, after taking on various jobs, he managed a theatre group.
Though an enterprising film producer, often ahead of his times, Alfredo Bini, who has died aged 83, is best remembered for having given the poet Pier Paolo Pasolini the chance to make his debut as a film-maker with Accattone (1960), when no other film company was prepared to back it. Bini produced more than 40 films, including all the features made by Pasolini up until 1967, including Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St Matthew, 1964). Among his other films were many starring his wife, Rosanna Schiaffino.
Bini was born in Livorno, Tuscany, and, during the second world war, ran away from home to join the army. He was wounded and got a medal, but went back to finish his studies in biology. He soon gave up the idea of a scientific career and in 1945 moved to Rome, where, after taking on various jobs, he managed a theatre group.
- 11/2/2010
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
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