Films A to Z

Pasolini

Runtime:
84 min.
Year of Production:
2014
Country:
France/Italy/Belgium
Director:
Abel Ferrara
Cast:
Willem Dafoe
Maria de Medeiros
Riccardo Scamarcio
Production Company:
Berlinale Section:
Homage
Berlinale Category:
Feature Film

There are no indications that it will be the last day in the life of Italian writer and director Pier Paolo Pasolini. As usual, he spends the morning of November 2, 1975 with his mother, before reading the newspaper and working on a screenplay. Actress Laura Betti comes by for lunch. That afternoon at home, Pasolini meets yet another journalist for an interview about his scandalous film 'Saló, o le 120 giornate di Sodoma' (Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom). In the evening, he has dinner with friends at a restaurant, then drives his Alfa Romeo to the local gay pick-up strip, where 17-year-old Pino Pelosi gets into the director’s car. The two drive to the beach at Ostia, where a group of young men appear out of the darkness…
 
The linear biopic narrative is interspersed with scenes shot based on Pasolini’s final screenplay. Among other things, those film snippets show veteran Pasolini actor Ninetto Davoli visiting an alleged “homosexual paradise”. In contrast to Davoli’s exuberant comic mien, Willem Dafoe plays the director as a contemplative person. Enriched with many original Pasolini quotes, his intense portrayal gives us a hint of what might have been…

BIOGRAFIE Abel Ferrara

Born in the Bronx, Ferrara started making amateur films on Super 8 in his teens before making his debut with violent exploitation films such as 'Driller Killer' and 'Ms.45'. Good reviews for the latter helped create his cult reputation, leading to larger budgets, studio funding and 'name' actors (Christopher Walken, Harvey Keitel), but he still likes taking his camera out onto the meanest streets of New York, as the ultra-cheap, highly controversial 'Bad Lieutenant' demonstrates.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Michael Brooke

FILMOGRAFIE Abel Ferrara (selection)

2014 Pasolini  2005 Mary  1998 New Rose Hotel  1992 Bad Lieutenant  1990 King of New York 

Abel Ferrara IMDb
Trailer
Interview with Abel Ferrara & Willem Dafoe

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