06-11-2020, 09:50 AM
After watching Pasolini's Trilogy of Life and noting how Pasolini closely resembled Willem Dafoe, imagine my surprise on discovering this film about Pasolini's final days, starring Willem Dafoe.
I think this is a very good film. But the more you know about Pasolini going into it, the better. It makes little attempt to bring you up to speed.
This focuses on Pasolini's state of mind in his final days. He's still intensely creative, and defiant, but clearly unsettled. His recent release of Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom has really stirred up a hornet's nest. Family members watch out of the corner of their eyes as he sits down to read the paper after dinner, knowing it has news of more murders of marginal types (gays, especially) like him, including some he knows. There's a sense of the noose tightening. Still, he refuses to let it quash his creativity.
The film is mostly in Italian, with English subtitles. Some of the Italian is not subtitled, likely because it's just domestic banter of little importance. Dafoe speaks a mixture of Italian and English throughout. At least one of his story ideas takes flight, and becomes something of a movie within this movie, and it's done well. But in general, Pasolini is like Yukio Mishima to me, with a complex philosophy full of contradictions and largely impenetrable, or maze-like. Still, I find him fascinating. And this strikes me as a suitably jigsawed glimpse of the state of mind of a towering intellect.
Something like that.
No swordfights. No diaphanous gowns. So-r-r-r-r-y.
I think this is a very good film. But the more you know about Pasolini going into it, the better. It makes little attempt to bring you up to speed.
This focuses on Pasolini's state of mind in his final days. He's still intensely creative, and defiant, but clearly unsettled. His recent release of Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom has really stirred up a hornet's nest. Family members watch out of the corner of their eyes as he sits down to read the paper after dinner, knowing it has news of more murders of marginal types (gays, especially) like him, including some he knows. There's a sense of the noose tightening. Still, he refuses to let it quash his creativity.
The film is mostly in Italian, with English subtitles. Some of the Italian is not subtitled, likely because it's just domestic banter of little importance. Dafoe speaks a mixture of Italian and English throughout. At least one of his story ideas takes flight, and becomes something of a movie within this movie, and it's done well. But in general, Pasolini is like Yukio Mishima to me, with a complex philosophy full of contradictions and largely impenetrable, or maze-like. Still, I find him fascinating. And this strikes me as a suitably jigsawed glimpse of the state of mind of a towering intellect.
Something like that.
No swordfights. No diaphanous gowns. So-r-r-r-r-y.
