Pasolini

[swo17]

Ferrara's biopic coming Oct 19



This is also being accompanied with the release of a box containing all of the BFI's previous Pasolini releases, namely Trilogy of Life, Medea, Teorema, and Salò.

[zedz]

I really liked Ferrara's film, though its reception has been mixed to say the least. It's less a channelling of Pasolini than 150% Abel Ferrara, working through his issues with somebody else's material.

[swo17]

This is also being accompanied with the release of a box containing all of the BFI's previous Pasolini releases, namely Trilogy of Life, Medea, Teorema, and Salò.

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

Pasolini
A film by Abel Ferrara
Starring Willem Dafoe

Written and directed by cult filmmaker Abel Ferrara (Driller Killer, Bad Lieutenant, Welcome to New York), this dark, daring drama tells the story of the fateful final day of the controversial filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. Released by the BFI in cinemas in September, it now comes to Blu-ray and DVD on 26 October 2015.

Special features include a filmed conversation with Abel Ferrara and the cast of Pasolini and a newly filmed interview with the British actor Robin Askwith on working with Pasolini.

Having recently finished Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Pasolini has enraged audiences, critics and politicians with his outspoken views, overt sexuality and the scandal that surrounds his films. Focusing on both his private and professional life, Pasolini explores the inner world of the filmmaker in the hours leading up to his devastatingly brutal death.

Starring Willem Dafoe (The Last Temptation of Christ) as the great auteur, and featuring Ninetto Davoli, who acted in many of Pasolini’s films, Pasolini is a powerful and evocative look into the dark world of one of cinema’s most controversial figures, as seen through the eyes of one of modern cinema's most astonishing and surprising directors.

Special features
• Original theatrical trailer
• Conversation with Abel Ferrara and the cast of Pasolini (2014, 43 mins): Ferrara, Willem Dafoe, Maria de Medeiros and Giada Colagrande in conversation with Paulo Branco
• Robin Askwith on Pier Paolo Pasolini (2015, 23 mins): the actor recounts his first meeting with Pasolini
• Illustrated booklet with director’s statement and interview, new writing by John David Rhodes, and full film credits

Blu-ray Product details
RRP £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1215 / Cert 18
France/Italy/Belgium / 2014 / colour / English, Italian and French language with English subtitles and English hard-of-hearing subtitles / 84 mins / BD50 / Original aspect ratio 1.85:1 2.0 stereo PCM (48k/24bit) and 5.1 DTS-HD master audio

DVD Product details
RRP £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIV2058 / Cert 18
France/Italy/Belgium / 2014 / colour / English, Italian and French language with English subtitles and English hard-of-hearing subtitles / 81 mins / DVD9 / Original aspect ratio 1.85:1 Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (224kbps) and 5.1 surround (448 kbps)

[Dr Amicus]

• Robin Askwith on Pier Paolo Pasolini (2015, 23 mins): the actor recounts his first meeting with Pasolini

There's something simultaneously so wrong and yet so right about this...

[Alphonse Tram]

• Robin Askwith on Pier Paolo Pasolini (2015, 23 mins): the actor recounts his first meeting with Pasolini

There's something simultaneously so wrong and yet so right about this...

If this is anything like his one man show, then it will be absolutely hilarious. Askwith has some great tales on working with Pasolini and seemingly got on well with him. Unlike Franco Zeffirelli, who he absolutely detested. Actually, the Pasolini tales are some of the only ones you could put on a DVD without fear of reprisals!

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced for the Pasolini box:

Pasolini
Six films 1968 – 1975
Theorem, Medea, The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights, Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom

Brutal and uncompromising, the films of controversial director Pier Paolo Pasolini have shocked and outraged audiences for decades, and their power remains undiminished to this day.

Now presented together for the first time, in a Blu-ray box set released by the BFI on 2 November 2015, these six films stand as a testimony to his unique and untameable talents.

In Theorem, a youthful Terence Stamp seduces each member of a bourgeois family. Medea features opera legend Maria Callas in a dark tale of betrayal and revenge. The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Night form the bawdy ‘Trilogy of Life’, all with scores by the legendary Ennio Morricone. And Pasolini’s final, shocking film, Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom, sees him pushing his art to extremes.

Special features
• Alternative English language versions of all films
• Deleted sequences and alternative shots for selected films
• Original trailers and teaser spots
• Theorem audio commentary by Italian film expert Robert Gordon
• Notes for an African Oresteia (Pasolini, 1970, 73 mins): an exploration of the parallels between Aeschylus’ Orestes trilogy and African politics
• Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die (Philo Bregstein, 1981, 58 mins): the classic documentary on Pasolini’s life and work
• Walking with Pasolini (Roberto Purvis, 2008, 21 mins): documentary featuring Neil Bartlett, David Forgacs and Noam Chomsky
• Pasolini and the Italian Genre Film (Alberto Farina, David Gregory, 2009, 35 mins): exclusive documentary featuring Italian film producers Alfredo Bini and Luciano Martino
• Salò: Fade to Black (Nigel Algar, 2001, 24 mins): Mark Kermode explores the ongoing relevance of Pasolini’s final film
• Open Your Eyes! (Gideon Bachmann, 2008, 21 mins): on the set of Salò
• Ostia (Julian Cole, 1987, 26 mins): short film in which Derek Jarman plays Pasolini
• Ostia audio commentary by director Julian Cole
• ‘Ostia – The Death of Pasolini’ (Peter Christopherson, 2009, 7 mins): short homage, set to the song by Coil
• Illustrated booklet featuring a new essay by Geoffrey Nowell-Smith and full film credits

RRP £69.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1218 / Cert 18
Italian language, English subtitles / 5 x BD50, 1 x BD25 / 24fps / 1080p / 1 x PAL DVD9 / original aspect ratios 1.85:1 / PCM mono audio / 48K/24-bit

Theorem: Italy / 1968 / colour, some tinted black and white / 98 mins
Medea: Italy, France, Germany / 1969 / colour / 111 mins
The Decameron: Italy, France, Germany / 1971 / colour / 111 mins
The Canterbury Tales: Italy, France / 1972 / colour / 111 mins
Arabian Nights: Italy, France / 1974 / colour / 130 mins
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom: Italy, France / 1975 / colour / 117 mins

[Paul Moran]

Having recently bought Theorem, I now have all 6 of the individual BFI BD releases. Is there anything new in this box set, i.e. enough to justify an upgrade?

[swo17]

A stylishly crumpled thin cardboard outer box?

[Altair]

Pasolini is a commendably brief (84 minutes) exploration of the final days of Pier Paolo Pasolini: Abel Ferrara has made a film that lives and breathes in the spirit of the European arthouse films Pasolini himself made. Willem Defoe, despite performing in English, is excellent as the director but what's so refreshing is Ferrara's refusal to play by the rules of conventional biopics: along with showing Pasolini, he dramatises the novel he's working on and his plans for his latest, post-Salò film. It amounts to a truly great biography in that it imagines the art as well as the artist, while still remaining resolutely honest about Pasolini's gay life. It doesn't indulge in any conspiracy theories around Pasolini's murder but operates as a finally very moving portrait of a man who was far more than just a film director. Also, it has a great use of the Staple Singers' I'll Take You There...