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.
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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.