438 - The Gospel According to St. Matthew, Italy, 1964. Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Pier Paolo Pasolini filmed original stories, but he also filmed stories based on other sources. He began as a screenwriter for other directors, and as such he helped write the screenplays for Federico Fellini's The Nights of Cabiria (1957) and La Dolce Vita (1960), as well as for Bernardo Bertolucci's The Grim Reaper (La Commare Secca) (1962).
For his adapted screenplays he often chose classical texts. We have seen his adaptations of The Decameron (1971), written by Giovanni Boccaccio; The Canterbury Tales (1972), written by Geoffrey Chaucer; and Arabian Nights (1974), written by the great anonymous, who has written so many things.
Pasolini also directed films based on Oedipus Rex (1967), by Sophocles, and Medea (1969), by Euripides.
Here he takes on the Gospel According to Matthew, written by Matthew.
Pasolini tells the story in a simple, straightforward, undramatic way. It has a documentary kind of quality to it. There is no musical score. He focuses on the words over the images. He emphasizes the text of Matthew, and specifically the words of Jesus, more than production design.
Pasolini films it inexpensively, using local sites and non-professional actors.
Pasolini makes the film quiet and lightly populated and theatrically staged. Where Matthew explicitly states that multitudes followed Jesus and refers to his fame, describing his movements as similar to how a rock star's movements would be described today, Pasolini strips away the people and gives us just the essential characters. Jesus with a leper. Jesus with two disciples at a time. Jesus with all the disciples. Jesus with a handful of Pharisees and children with some disciples looking on. But where is everyone else? Entire villages are empty and may as well be ghost towns. It might be that Pasolini did not have the budget for crowds of extras, but the result is a misreading of the text.
In another misreading of the text, the Angel of the Lord is played by a petite girl rather than the large, strong man described in the Bible. Several of the characters seem miscast, in the way that a local play is miscast, as they are played by local citizens.
The film hits the bullet points of the narrative in an almost documentary way. This happens, and then this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens. But by doing so it leaves out the dramatic life of the individual moments as well as the dramatic arc connecting all of the material together. It is more like a series of theatrically staged vignettes than a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
One might appreciate its simplicity when comparing it to a Cecil B. DeMille epic, but one might find it wanting when comparing it to the Book of Matthew.
I am now going to take a moment to discuss the acting. I will be harsh, and then I will be kind.
The man playing Jesus, Enrique Irazoqui, is a non-actor. Indeed, he is a 19-year-old economics student who was cast when visiting Pasolini's house to discuss his studies.
Ernest Hemingway observed that critics see your weaknesses and confuse them for your style. How does that apply to Irazoqui?
Irazoqui delivers Jesus' words in a manner similar to that of an amateur performing Shakespeare in local community theater. Which is not to say that he is terrible, but that he gives speeches rather than communicating with human beings. He maintains a fixed, intense gaze and stares nervously at a point in space rather than connecting with the eyes or the heart of another person. He says all his lines with the same staccato, flat-line punch no matter what the circumstances. Whether he is rebuking Pharisees or instructing disciples or healing the sick or preaching the Beatitudes or loving and healing the brokenhearted or crying out to God, he never adjusts the volume or dynamic range of his voice, nor the intentions of his will, nor the affections of his heart. He emotes. He plays a tone.
He is on auto-pilot. Look there and say this. Look there and say this.
The French filmmaker Robert Bresson made the same mistake as the Italian Neo-Realists in hiring non-actors to act. Filmmakers who do this base it on an abstract theory that "real people" are more real than actors. The same theory that motivates companies to put "real people" in their television commercials. The performances in a Bresson film or an Itanlian Neo-Realist film therefore tend to be uniformly stiff, lifeless, emotionless, awkward, lacking in energy, and imprecise. The performers simply do not know what they are doing.
That is the harsh part.
Now for the kind part.
One could be the kind of critic Hemingway is talking about by translating Irazoqui's flaws into his style. One can say Irazoqui plays Jesus in a formal, distanced manner, focusing more on his divinity than his humanity, intent upon communicating divine revelation more than engaging in human relations.
There. Is that kind?
And despite this, the film is watchable--and especially listenable--because tells the story of Jesus.
You can see a favorite or familiar play performed by amateurs and still enjoy it. Some people watch A Christmas Carol or The Nutcracker Suite every year and enjoy it no matter how amateur it is.
Or maybe Rent or The Odd Couple or Romeo and Juliet.
Or perhaps your Sunday School teacher is not a good storyteller but tells the story just the same. And because it is the story, you listen to it, and you enjoy it.
Many critics love this movie.
And despite its flaws, its great strength lies in its dialogue. Pasolini did not write a screenplay. He just opened the book of Matthew and let Irazoqui speak.
The greatest words ever spoken.
The words of life.
* * * * *
The Decameron (1971)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/06/173-decameron-1971-italy-dir-pier-paolo.html
The Canterbury Tales (1972)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/06/174-canterbury-tales-1972-italy-dir.html
Arabian Nights (1974)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/06/arabian-nights-1974-italy-dir-pier.html
La Dolce Vita (1960)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/06/156-la-dolce-vita-1960-italy-dir.html
The Grim Reaper (La Commare Secca) (1962)
http://realbillbillions.blogspot.com/2017/06/170-grim-reaper-1962-italy-dir-bernardo.html
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