Synopsis
We are with Pasolini during the last hours of his life, as he talks with his beloved family and friends, writes, gives a brutally honest interview, shares a meal with Ninetto Davoli, and cruises for the roughest rough trade in his gun-metal gray Alfa Romeo. Over the course of the action, Pasolini’s life and his art are constantly refracted and intermingled to the point where they become one.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Willem DafoePier Paolo Pasolini
- Ninetto DavoliEpifanio
- Riccardo ScamarcioNinetto Davoli
- Valerio MastandreaNico Naldini
- Roberto ZibettiCarlo
- Andrea BoscaAndrea Fago
- Giada ColagrandeGraziella Chiarcossi
- Damiano TamiliaPino Pelosi
- Francesco SicilianoFurio Colombo
- Luca LionelloNarrator (voice)
- 88
Slant Magazine
Biopics ascribe titanic importance to a subject's every gesture, but Ferrara stresses the reality of creation, of its ordinary activities that nonetheless give an artist a sense of fulfillment. - 80
The Guardian
It’s a work of startling maturity from this incorrigible tearaway, a minor-key dream that finally turns towards darkness. - 80
The Telegraph
Ferrara has come up with something pretty special here: a subtle, seductive, lamp-lit hymn to one artist’s talents from another in the process of rediscovering his own. - 80
Time Out
To be fair, the full impact probably depends on some prior Pasolini knowledge, but even those coming in fresh will appreciate a haunting portrait of an artist destroyed by the anticommunist prejudices he fought to tear down. - 75
The A.V. Club
And yet the movie never errs in its sincerity, which extends all the way to the decision to depict Pasolini’s murder in graphic detail. - 67
The Playlist
Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini is a frustrating film, despite vast stretches of compelling storytelling. - 60
CineVue
One feels its subject would have admired the boldness of its conception, if perhaps not its overly slick execution. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
It was a given that this meeting of two iconoclastic directors would yield something far more unfettered and instinctive than conventional bio-drama. But the result borders on incoherence, providing few startling insights for aficionados and minimal illumination for the uninitiated.
