Good concept, poorly executed.

Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely brilliant

It's one of the most original films you'll likely see all year, which, depending on your threshold for certifiably crazy storylines, could be a rewarding experience or one that frustrates you.

I remember the reporting on the sordid killing of poet and director, Pier Paolo Pasolini but was stunned to learn it took place as long ago as 1975, just after the completion of Salo. The last day or so of Pasolini's life is told here in a fittingly realistic and dark way but with clips from that last (very difficult) film and newly shot sequences from the director's script for a newly proposed enterprise, once more mixing the magical the religious and downright dirty. Ferrara is, of course, as uncompromising man as his subject and this believable portrait is simply that rather than some flattering or ego boosting enterprise. Willem Dafoe's performance is quite amazing and the look he achieves quite uncanny, Having an Italian wife who adored Pasolini seems to have helped him with this but it is a truly astonishing performance within a very good film. Neither Ferrara nor Pasolini have produced work that is the easiest to enjoy but nor can either be ignored.

Well, he was a pretty weird film-maker, so it's fitting that this movie version of his last 24 hours should be packed with weirdness. Willem Dafoe is the only non-Italian in the cast: his scenes are mostly played in English, with just a few Italian phrases (and an interview in French) to remind us we're watching a Continental movie. And very Continental it is. The night before his murder we see Pasolini on his knees in front of a series of punk suburban toughs in a scene as close to hardcore as anything in his movies. The following day comprises a series of meals and meetings (with his mother, friends, movie people, his rent-boy nemesis): all slow-paced and stylised with echoes of THEOREM Pasolini's own contribution to the cinema of the New Wave. He's writing a book and visualises it in cinematic terms: it combines a vision of the Second Coming of the Messiah with a return to orgy-rich Sodom (does the pun on 'second coming' work in Italian?). And the day ends with his fateful encounter with the rent-boy and the tougher punks who will write 'Finis' to the Pasolini story. Writer/director Abel Ferrara does not venture into Oliver Stone territory to explore the conspiracy theories which sprang up immediately after Pasolini's death in 1975.So, this is film-making at its weirdest, turgid and pretentious to a rare degree, as were most of Pasolini's pictures. But this one is beautifully shot, and Dafoe gives an immersive performance (and bears a striking resemblance to the man he is playing). One maverick director's epitaph for another.

"To scandalize is a right to be scandalized is a pleasure" -Pier Paolo PasoliniLisbon & Estoril Film Festival #4Pasolini was undeniably one the Festival's highlights, I considered it a must see and so did many because the theater was packed. Not only we were going to see the picture but we were also have the opportunity of hearing Maria de Medeiros (who's in the picture) reading some of Pier Paolo's poems and then after words of having a talk with Abel Ferrara. I was pretty excited, but I really just hoped for a decent movie.Pasolini is Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini and it stars Willem Dafoe, Maria de Medeiros, Riccardo Scamarcio, Giada Colagrande, Adriana Asti and Tatiana Luter.To be sincere I left disappointed, I mean this is just not a good movie. Still though I'm glad I saw it and I'm glad I had this experience, it was worth it even if just to see Abel Ferrara. I'm a fan of the man, I have seen very little of his filmography but he certainly made an impression on me and on the rest of the audience that stayed. The highlight was the interview bit, Ferrara was a bit off the hook, very loose, feeling at home, cursing and being super sarcastic and honest at the same time. It's sad but yeah, I think Ferrara himself had more energy and life than the picture. Even sadder because you could see that Ferrera was an admirer of Pier Paolo's work.In Pasolini we follow the last few hours of Pier Paolo's life, as we follow him through his lunch with his family, through an interview, through his memories and ultimately his death. This kind of narrative can work, this idea has definitely worked out in the past but it doesn't here. It's incredible to see how the film lost focus and control of it's narrative, even though it was only 80 minutes long and even though the concept is so simple. I felt lost and emotionally unmoved by it all. Sequences like the "film sequence" of the picture are scenes that ruined the movie.I was actually extremely surprised to see how little Pasolini (Willem Dafoe) there actually was in the picture, it was almost as though he's a supporting character in his own picture. It's as though there is no lead actor. Some people say that that was a good thing, that less is more and I agree to some extent, I admire the unsentimentally with which the story is told but that ultimately led into becoming a cold picture. Pasolini, a man whose life was so fascinating since he was revolutionary figure with his ideas and his approach to art plus the controversy and talk that he brought with him. I wanted to take a look into the man's thoughts, ideas, I wanted insight, I guess that was what I was looking for and that I did not get.Before seeing the film, I was so excited to see Willem Dafoe impersonating Pier Paolo, in the end though, we don't even see that much from him. When he's on screen he's able to capture something true and he grabs the screen, however his performance is far from memorable which is disappointing. There's not enough of him. Dafoe is good while on screen and one example is the interview scene, which is the highlight of the picture. The mood and tension are palpable and Dafoe owns it.The audience and I were left disappointed, as I could hear whispers saying "I didn't like it". Many immediately left the theater and didn't wait for the highlight which was Ferrara's presence. He was more entertaining and had more life than the film itself. A film that feels awfully pale, with little to say. It's a little bit of a mess, from underdeveloped characters and plot, to bad narrative construction choices. Dafoe's performance and Ferrara's love for the picture were not enough to save the film.Rating:C-

Abel Ferrara's Pasolini was a resounding Dud at Venice 2014. Because of Pasolini's notoriety as the Baddest Boy ever of Italian film history -- he made some of the most controversial Italian films of all time (for example, "The 210 Days of Sodom and Gomorrah") and was a strident homosexual who was murdered in an unsolved sex related incident that is still heatedly discussed -- coupled with the fact that director Abel Ferarra, is an Italian American admirer of Pasolini, himself noted for controversial independent films ("The Bad Lieutenant" among others), and with actor Willem Defoe looking like an ideal choice for the role -- "Pasolini"was easily the festival film with the highest audience and critical expectations. Extensive press and magazine interviews with striking photographic portraits of Mr. Ferarra helped create an atmosphere of collective bated breath such that no fan worthy of his film buff salt would have been caught dead missing this super highly touted picture. Well, to make a long story short, "Pasolini" turned out to be the biggest Dud and Disappointment of the entire week.One could cite endless reasons but here are the salient facts.While Defoe with his distinctively chiseled features looked like the perfect choice to play Pasolini, he was pathetic if not ridiculous in the role. Most other characters in the picture spoke Italian but Defoe, except for one scene in which he answered some questions in French, spoke English throughout, which in itself totally undermined the Pasolini character -- a man who was also an eloquent and outspoken Italian poet. On top of which Defoe was constrained by Ferrara to perform in an uncharacteristically restrained manner --all of which just blew it completely. Everything else about the film was a fiasco -- clumsy mise-en-scene with too many extreme closeups --plodding narrative, etc. Ferrara was on record as stating that he had no interest in trivial facts like who killed Paolini, or anything like that -- ("me ne frego di tutto quello") -- he was only interested in showing what a great loss to the world Pasolini's untimely death was. The film recounts only the last day in the life of the director and does end with the brutal murder -- in this version by a band of violent homophobes -- but is utterly empty of anything even slightly memorable. Bottom line -- the biggest dud and disappointment of the festival and no great loss to cinema history. Poor Pasolini is probably turning over in his grave.