Retrospective: Pier Paolo Pasolini

Columbus, OH—The next two months will see the Wex present a nearly complete retrospective of work by famed director Pier Paolo Pasolini, with many titles screening in newly restored 35mm prints.

Best known in the US as one of the great Italian postwar filmmakers, Pasolini was also an influential, outspoken, and openly gay poet, novelist, critic, journalist, playwright, and painter who held seemingly conflicting philosophies as both a Marxist and a Catholic, and was a staunch leftist who once spoke out against left-wing student protests in favor of the working-class police. Pasolini’s filmography represents perhaps the most subversive body of work ever put to film, still provoking outrage and charges of blasphemy in some quarters. However controversial, the themes he explores achieve a measure of timelessness and universality as many of his films are set in the distant past. Most importantly, his films often portray the lives of those existing on the fringes of society, in roles often played by nonprofessional actors.

The series was coproduced by the Wex. All films will screen in 35mm in Italian (with English subtitles realized by Luce Cinecittà), unless otherwise noted.

David Filipi, director of film/video (and one of the series’ co-organizers), notes, “The films of Pasolini are among the greatest in the canon of world cinema. It’s a tremendous thrill to bring Columbus audiences such an extensive survey of his work, as well as associated talks that will give viewers a much deeper look and understanding of this major filmmaker’s life, work, and continuing influence.”

Retrospective: Pier Paolo Pasolini

• Hawks and Sparrows (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1965–66)
  Porcile (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969)
  Thu, Jan 9 | 7 PM
   
• The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)
  In Search of Locations for ‘The Gospel According to Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)
  Fri, Jan 10 | 7 PM

• The Paper Flower Sequence (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968)
  The Decameron (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1971, HD CAM)
  Tue, Jan 14 | 7 PM

• Pasolini and the Queer Avant Garde
  At this talk, Italian literature and film scholar Derek Duncan explores this connection and how it reinserts Pasolini into a Queer avant-garde tradition of filmmaking.
  Thu, Jan 16 | 5 PM
  FREE

• Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962)
  Fri, Jan 17 | 7 PM

• Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975)
  Fri, Jan 17 | 9:15 PM

• The Earth as Seen from the Moon (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1966)
  The Canterbury Tales (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1972)
  Tue, Jan 21 | 7 PM
   
• Accattone (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1961)
  The Anger of Pasolini (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1963)
  Thu, Jan 23 | 7 PM

• La ricotta (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962–63)
  Oedipus Rex (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1967)
  Thu, Feb 6 | 7 PM

• Medea 1969, or Women’s Self-Abolition in the Years of Lead
  Louis-Georges Schwartz, associate professor of film studies in Ohio University’s School of Dance, Film, and Theater, examines Pasolini’s film Medea in the context of Italian feminism and the women’s struggle within militant movements between 1969 and 1978.
  Thu, Feb 13 | 5 PM
  FREE

• Medea (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969)
  Thu, Feb 13 | 7 PM

• Arabian Nights (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1973–74)
  Tue, Feb 18 | 7 PM

• Love Meetings (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1963–64)
  Notes for an African Oresteia (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1970)
  Tue, Feb 25 | 7 PM