SummaryA look at the final days of Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini (Willem Dafoe) and the confusion surrounding his death in 1975.
Directed By:Abel Ferrara
Written By:Maurizio Braucci, Abel Ferrara, Nicola Tranquillino
Pasolini
Metascore
Generally Favorable
71
User score
Generally Favorable
7.3
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
72% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
28% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
May 9, 2019
90
The blend of pornography and humor, obnoxiousness and elegance, sweetness and cruelty reminds you that this is, above all, an Abel Ferrara movie. And the splendor of Pasolini lies in its essentially collaborative nature.
May 9, 2019
80
“Narrative art is dead – we are in a period of mourning”; “To scandalise is a right, to be scandalised a pleasure”; “Refusal must be great, absolute, absurd…” Abel Ferrara’s infatuated tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini is littered with such gnomic bon mots, which could apply equally to either director.
Sep 14, 2014
80
It’s a work of startling maturity from this incorrigible tearaway, a minor-key dream that finally turns towards darkness.
May 30, 2019
70
Ultimately, Ferrara makes a convincing case for being Pasolini’s biographical caretaker, one troublemaker looking after another’s legacy, albeit with a more serious, thoughtful approach than a transgressive one.
Aug 7, 2019
67
Of course it helps tremendously that Willem Dafoe plays Pasolini. Just as he did with 2018’s "At Eternity’s Gate," in which he embodied the artist Vincent van Gogh, Dafoe brilliantly captures the essence and a more-than-reasonable resemblance to the real figures.
Sep 14, 2014
60
One feels its subject would have admired the boldness of its conception, if perhaps not its overly slick execution.
Sep 14, 2014
42
Ferrara is openly inviting comparison with Pasolini’s work in this ambitious but messy and flawed piece, where reality bends and stretches and sensation rules.
User score
Generally Favorable
75% Positive
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
13% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
13% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Sep 14, 2019
7
It's a great movie, Defoe showed a great performance, but I thought the whole set was a little empty.
Sep 16, 2021
6
I cannot help but feel disappointed when a director tries to approach a figure to whom he cannot do justice, and that is the case of Abel Ferrara and his attempt to shed a light on a subject as tricky as Pier Paolo Pasolini's murder. Certainly I don't think that he has delivered a bad film, but even in the face of the good acting yet bad casting choice of Willem Dafoe as the mythical director, Pasolini is more the idea of a tribute according to Ferrara, but that obviously doesn't have the strength or the potential to be something more deserving of true praise.
Production Company:
- Capricci Films
- Urania Pictures S.r.l.
- Tarantula
- Dublin Films
- ARTE
- Eurimages
- Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo (MiBACT)
- Canal+
- Région Aquitaine
- Région des Pays-de-la-Loire
- Agence ECLa
- Région Wallone
- Belgacom
- Cinéfinance Tax Shelter
Release Date:May 10, 2019
Duration:1 h 24 m
Awards
Venice Film Festival
• 2 Nominations
International Cinephile Society Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
