Accattone 1961  N/R, 120 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Franco Citti, Franca Pasut, Silvana Corsini, Paola Guidi, Adriana Asti, Renato Capogna, Roberto Scaringella, Mario Cipriani, Luciano Conti, Luciano Gonini
Pasolini's first feature film is a study of peasants living in the back alleys of Rome. Accattone (Franco Citti) hates work but makes a comfortable living as a pimp and small-time thief. After his partner (Silvana Corsini) is jailed for prostitution, Accattone starts a downward spiral until he meets and falls in love with virtuous Stella (Franca Pasut). He fails in his search for honest work and eventually sinks back into his former life.
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Arabian Nights 1974  NC-17, 155 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama / Adventure / Comedy / Fantasy
aka: A Thousand and One Nights
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Ninetto Davoli, Franco Citti, Franco Merli, Ines Pellegrini, Tessa Bouche, Margaret Clementi, Francelise Noel, Ali Abdulla, Christian Aligny, Salvatore Sapienza, Luigina Rocchi, Alberto Argentino, Francesco Paolo Govenale, Zuedi Biasolo, Elizabetta Genovese
Pier Paolo Pasolini's third film in his series–following "The Decameron" (1971) and "The Canterbury Tales" (1972)–is the erotic tale of a prince, Nured-Din (Franco Merli), who searches his known world (the Middle East) for his lover, slave girl Zumurrud (Ines Pellegrini). Zumurrud has been kidnapped, disguises herself as a man, marries a woman, and is declared the ruler of a great city. While Nured-Din tries to find Zumurrud, he hears various stories involving nudity and betrayal, but he is not able to forget Zumurrud and continues his search.
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The Canterbury Tales 1972 NC-17, 109 min.
Genre: Drama / Comedy / Romance
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Hugh Griffith, Laura Betti, Ninetto Davoli, Josephine Chaplin, Franco Citti, Alan Webb, Pier Paolo Pasolini, J.P. Van Dyne, Vernon Dobtcheff, Adrian Street, O.T., Derek Deadman, George Bethell Datch, Nicolas Smith, Dan Thomas
Following "The Decameron" (1971), Pier Paolo Pasolini is back with his second bawdy classic. Several of Chaucer's tales, including those of the Friar, the Wife of Bath, the Cook, the Merchant, the Miller, the Summoner, and the Reeve are told with both humor and drama. The stories reveal 14th-Century English culture–including sexual, social, and political life.
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The Decameron 1971 R, 110 min.
Genre: Foreign / Comedy / Drama
aka: Il decameron
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, Giuseppe Zigaina, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Angela Luce, Silvana Mangano, Vincenzo Amato, Vincenzo Cristo, Gabriella Frankel, Vincenzo Ferrigno, Salvatore Bilardo, Guido Alberti, Giorgio Iovine, Luigi Seraponte, Mirella Catanesi
Boccaccio's story is the first of a series of three, 14th century tales brought to the screen by Pier Paolo Pasolini. "Canterbury Tales" (1972) and "Arabian Nights" (1974) follow. The stories in this film involve lovers, merchants, priests, and scoundrels handling life in their own unique ways in a world filled with sexual repression during a much earlier era.
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The Gospel According to St. Matthew 1964  N/R, 136 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini, Marcello Morante, Mario Socrate, Settimio Di Porto, Alfonso Gatto, Luigi Barbini, Giacomo Morante
Although this unconventional view on the life of Jesus Christ contains Marxist thought, it is based solely on the Gospel of Saint Matthew and expresses sincerity and dignity.
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Mamma Roma 1962 N/R, 110 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti, Silvana Corsini, Luisa Loiano, Paolo Volponi, Luciano Gonini, Vittorio La Paglia, Piero Morgia, Lanfranco Ceccarelli, Marcello Sorrentino, Sandro Meschino
Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) abandons her life as a prostitute and moves to another part of the city with 16-year-old son Ettore (Ettore Garofolo) in tow. But leaving the past behind doesn't prove to be as simple as she thought.
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Medea 1969 N/R, 110 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama / Fantasy
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Maria Callas, Giuseppe Gentile, Massimo Girotti, Laurent Terzieff, Margaret Clementi, Annamaria Chio, Sergio Tramonti, Paul Jabara, Luigi Barbini, Gerard Weiss, Gian Paolo Durgar
In this adaptation of Euripides' play, opera star Maria Callas plays Medea, the sorceress queen, who meets Jason (Giuseppe Gentile) when he arrives to recover the Golden Fleece stolen by Medea's father. She falls for Jason, they return to Greece, marry, and have two children. Ten years later, Jason tells her that he is going to wed another, and Medea demonstrates her destructive powers.
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Oedipus Rex 1967 N/R, 110 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Franco Citti, Silvana Mangano, Alida Valli, Carmelo Bene, Julian Beck, Luciano Bartoli, Francesco Leonetti, Ahmed Bellashmi, Giandomenico Davoli, Ninetto Davoli
This version of Sophocles' classic Greek story of a man fated to kill his father and marry his mother is fraught with Freudian messages. Unfortunately, the result is too much psychology and not enough Greek mythology.
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Porcile 1969  N/R, 95 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
aka: Pigpen
Pigsty
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Pierre Clementi, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Alberto Lionello, Ugo Tognazzi, Anne Wiazemsky, Margarita Lozano, Marco Ferreri, Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli
Two obscure narratives are told in this film. One involves the son of a post-World War II German industrialist who gets fed up with human relationships and protests by becoming involved with pigs. The other, set several centuries ago, follows a young cannibal as he searches for food in his volcanic surroundings.
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Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom 1975  N/R, 115 min.
Genre: Foreign / Horror
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Umberto Paolo Quintavalle, Aldo Valletti, Caterina Boratto, Elsa De Giorgi, Helene Sugere, Sonia Saviange, Ines Pellegrini, Claudio Troccoli, Maurizio Valaguzza, Ezio Manni, Ines Pellegrini
Set during World War II in Northern Italy, this is the tale of 18 teenaged captives who are "treated" to sexual fun and games that evolve into sadistic torture and rape followed by execution. Who needs this?
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Teorema 1968 N/R, 98 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
aka: Theorem
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Terence Stamp, Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti, Anne Wiazemsky, Laura Betti, Andres Jose Cruz Soublette, Ninetto Davoli, Alfonso Gatto, Carlo De Mejo, Luigi Barbini, Giovanni Ivan Scratuglia, Susanna Pasolini
This highly symbolic film tries to combine Marxism and Christ into one philosophical sphere. A stranger visits a wealthy Italian family and makes love with every man and woman at the estate. He then leaves, and the family is faced with voids. Who was the stranger? Was he Christ, or was he the Devil?
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| 1. Accattone (1961)
2. Arabian Nights (1974)
aka: A Thousand and One Nights
3. The Canterbury Tales (1972)
4. The Decameron (1971)
aka: Il decameron
5. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)
6. Mamma Roma (1962)
7. Medea (1969)
8. Oedipus Rex (1967)
9. Porcile (1969)
aka: Pigpen
aka: Pigsty
10. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
11. Teorema (1968)
aka: Theorem
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