Comments on: Poetry for Sunday: my favorite Pasolini (and Orson Welles)

By: E Onegin

E Onegin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:51:31 +0000

For the record, Pasolini was an atheist. The poem is famous as an insight to his torn self. Starts out by proclaiming his love for tradition and ends with embracing his modern self, but also highlighting that he’s alone (because of this contradiction in his personality). Shame you missed the obvious point.

By: tom hyland

tom hyland — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:32:00 +0000

Jeremy:

Thanks for the insight. You’re right- the visual is much more important here than dialogue.

Wasn’t part of it also filmed amidst the caves of Basilicata?

By: Do Bianchi

Do Bianchi — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:39:24 +0000

@Tom it really is an amazing film, isn’t it? It was filmed in Ravello on the Amalfi coast. One of the things PPP was trying to do was recreate Renaissance depictions of Christ on the screen. I believe he was more interested in 17th century painting at that point than 16th. It was part of the Italian nouvelle vague notion that movies should tell stories with moving paintings rather than with dialog. Of all of PPP’s movies, this is the one were dialect plays the smallest role… (similar to his Oedipus and Medea).

By: tom hyland

tom hyland — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:18:14 +0000

Jeremy:

I watched Pasolini’s “Gospel According to St. Matthew” a couple nights ago. As someone who grew up Catholic and was forced to watch some pretty dreadful adaptations of the Passion story, I was quite impressed by this film. At the start, it seemed a bit amateurish to me, but after a few scenes I was drawn in. Pasolini’s images are wonderful and he really lets the message of the film come across without the usual bells and whistles other directors have used to tell this story.

It’s a very moving film.

By: Tobias

Tobias — Sat, 30 May 2009 07:03:57 +0000

Thanks a lot for this. A very cool discovery on several levels.

By: Alfonso

Alfonso — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:41:51 +0000

On to Umberto Eco?

By: Do Bianchi

Do Bianchi — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:55:25 +0000

Thanks everyone for reading. And thanks are really due to Stephen who shared this unpublished translation. He wrote me that U Chicago wanted to cut some of the works to make the volume more cost-effective but Stephen insisted that they publish the entire collected poems… they agreed…

By: Marco

Marco — Wed, 27 May 2009 19:52:20 +0000

As I read this Forza Italia passage again, I was reminded of a John Cheever quote from today’s Writer’s Almanac: “A page of good prose is invincible.”

By: Marco

Marco — Mon, 25 May 2009 14:08:20 +0000

Thanks for this. In the face of post-modern monstrosity, his words come from an ancient healing well.

By: Alfonso

Alfonso — Mon, 25 May 2009 05:19:56 +0000

Why do we even try, when this has gone before us? I am once again humbled, even from this tiny remote island.

Grazie, grazie