Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tinear (A) on March 27, 2007 at 08:23:02

Certainly in the top ten films I ever have seen.
This is a true epic made all the more powerful because of its believable scale, its authentic location, and its use of indigenous "extras."
Pasolini created a two-part story, part autobiography and part based on the Greek tragedy. It is a brilliant fusion: the first part of the film, we see Pasolini's birth and home life. In the second, we forcefully are thrust back to the ancient world.
Many scenes have compositions so beautiful you immediately think of Renaissance masters. Pasolini is on record as having said he didn't consider film a collaborative undertaking but rather an individual artistic one wherein he alone was responsible for writing, set-design, camera placement, and even score.
The principal actors will be familiar to Pasolini fans. Franco Citti, in the title role, also was the star of Pasolini's first, "Accatone" (and six other PPP films). Those accustomed to acting "styles" will be nonplussed by Citti: he is unaffected and natural yet, exceedingly powerful when the scene demands it.
Silvana Mangano is like a Tititan or a da Vinci Madonna brought to life. She also is a master actor: her eyes and slightest expression change convey more than most others' limitless movement, mannerisms, and exaggerations.
Pasolini created the film to be like a dream and indeed it is a visual poem quite unlike anything before or after.
It is hard to think of any artist who created two more critical film works in such a short time: three years before O R was completed, he filmed "The Gospel According to St. Matthew."
If you are unfamiliar with his work, I'd suggest this film as an excellent starting point.