Pasolini’s passion for cinema, always alternated with that of literature, began at a young age: already a student at the University of Bologna at age seventeen, he was a zealous member of the local film club and was very taken by the cycle of films dedicated to Renè Clair. However, his first real contact with the film world took place later when he arrived in Rome and participated in writing the screenplay of Mario Soldati’s “The River Girl”. Subsequently, he again put his now-known writer’s skills at the service of the seventh art, collaborating in making such films as “Marisa “ by Mauro Bolognini and “Nights of Cabiria” by Federico Fellini who asked him to write the dialogues in Roman dialect and the parts that dealt with the underworld.
The definitive turning point in his career as a filmmaker came in the early sixties with the film “Accattone” in 1961. The following year was his second work “Mamma Roma”, staring, in place of the young non-protagonist actors of the first work, the award-winning Anna Magnani. Again in 1962, he filmed the episode “La ricotta” for the film “RoGoPaG”, from the initials of its directors: Rossellini, Godard, Pasolini and Gregoretti.
In 1964 Pasolini tried his hand at revisiting the sacred writings through his poetics. “The Gospel according to St. Matthew” faithfully reproduces the sacred text. The idea behind the film came from the enthusiasm aroused by the progressive Catholicism of Pope John XXIII, which fostered dialogue between believers and non-believers, between Christians and Marxists. The following year he filmed “The Hawks and the Sparrows” staring Totò, a film that, in a surrealistic way, examined the crisis of the Italian Communist Party and Marxism.
“Theorem” was made in 1968, first published as a novel and then the subject of the film of the same name.
Between 1970 and 1974, he made three films for a single project called Trilogia della vita or “Il Decameron”, “I racconti di Canterbury (Canterbury Tales)” and “Il fiore delle Mille e una notte (Arabian Nights)” that confirmed Pasolini’s success as a filmmaker with audiences.
The year of Pasolini’s death, 1975, was also the year he made “Salò or the 120 days of Sodom” partly inspired by the novel by the Marquis De Sade and presented to the public three weeks after his death. In the author’s project it was to be the first of the Trilogy of Death.
Through his films we perceive his provocative vision, the cause of censorship and court trials. He opposed the hypocritical closed-mindedness of the right-wing mentality. His poetic perception of the underclasses from his novels is poured into unforgettable movie characters, while his style surpasses neorealist technique and gradually veers towards the grotesque.