Irish Film Institute -FOCUS ON PIER PAOLO PASOLINI

FOCUS ON PIER PAOLO PASOLINI

SEPTEMBER 5TH – 13TH

Filmmaker, poet, journalist, novelist, playwright, painter, actor, philosopher… the talents of Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) seemed endless. At the same time, he was also a Marxist and a Catholic, openly gay, and a staunch leftist who sympathised with the working-class police. After contributing to a number of screenplays, including Fellini’s The Nights of Cabiria (1957), Pasolini moved into directing with Accattone (1961), a story of life amongst the pimps and prostitutes of contemporary Rome.

Throughout his career, Pasolini explored the sacred and the profane, frequently using literature and mythology as the backdrop to films such as Oedipus Rex (1967), Medea (1969), and one of the most notorious and devastating films ever made, Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). This short selection of his work is intended to give a flavour of Pasolini’s range as a filmmaker on the occasion of the release of Abel Ferrara’s biopic.

Introduction and notes on individual films by Kevin Coyne.

Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini, starring Willem Dafoe, opens at the IFI on September 11th.

 

Programme

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The IFI is supported
by The Arts Council

Arts Council of Ireland