Theorem (Teorema) Blu-Ray Review

Theorem is very important film in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s career in many different ways. It was the first time he had worked with primarily with professional actors (and international actors), first film he did with dealt explicitly with homosexuality and the influence of Luis Buñuel was evident.

Theorem is about a mysterious visitor (played by Terrence Stamp) who appears in the lives of an Italian bourgeois family. He has sexual affairs with all of family… the religious maid, the son, the sexually repressed mother, the daughter and lastly the father. The first half of the film is basically that but about half way thought the film he disappears as mysteriously as he appears. The rest of film is about what happens to the family and how the live their lives after the visitor have touched them in some way.

The film is quite clearly about divine intervention and Terrence Stamp is clearly playing a angel of some kind. Curiously the film was given a special award by the International Catholic Film Office at the Venice Film Festival but was quickly withdrawn when the Vatican protested for obviously reasons. The film has long been talked about because of the ambiguousness of the film. It has been interpreted as statement as a disgust at bourgeois society and the emergence of consumerism in Italian Society. Other interpretations are it’s both a critique of bourgeois society and the working class maid and Pasolini’s other struggle with his homosexuality.

It’s a fascinating film from one of Cinema’s great enigma’s Pasolini who was of course brutally murdered soon after the release of his still shocking Salo. He worked in neo-realism, films based on mythology, surrealism, and social satire and often in the same film. He was full of many contractions but his body of work is one of the most fascinating in post-war European cinema.

★★★★☆

Ian Schultz

Rating: 15
DVD/BD Release Date: 27th May 2013 (UK)
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Terence Stamp, Massimo Girotti, Anne Wiazemsky, Silvana Mangano

Buy: Theorem (DVD + Blu-ray)

Pigsty (Porcile) DVD Review (Masters Of Cinema Release)

★★★★☆

Pigsty is a relatively obscure film made by Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1969. It has been very hard to find until Eureka has released a part of their “Masters of Cinema” range. It was previously released in Tartan Pasolini’s films.

It consists of 2 concurrent stories. One features a man who is runs around in a timeless barren wasteland and becomes a cannibal. The man joins forces with a thug and ravages the landscape. The other story is about a fascistic tycoon Herr Klotz (who has a Hitler tash) and his son Julian’s interest in developing relationships with pigs more than his left leaning fiancé, the young couple are played by French actors Jean-Pierre Léaud (most famously portrayed Antoine Doinel in Truffaut’s films) and Anne Wiazemsky (starred in some Godard films and was married Jean-Luc as well).

The film is almost Bunùelian satire about capitalism, fascism, suggested bestiality and cannibalism. Léaud and Wiazemsky previously starred in Godard’s La Chinoise and the leftist banter between them defiantly has echoes of that film which Pasolini would have certainly been aware of. The completely silent until the last scene story of the man in the timeless wasteland is arguably the more effective story. That segment is all about the extremes humanity can get to which of course Pasolini went back to in his most famous/infamous film Salò. The more conventional story about the young couple and the man’s father is a amusing and ultimately is quite as dark or funny as it could be. However it still works with a nice twist at the very end.

Pigsty is a very interesting film in Pasolini’s cannon. It’s a film that is very much a early attempt to deal with the themes he would later in do in “Salò like fascism, the abuse of power etc. It works quite well as a surrealist black comedy and an important film in the development of Pasolini.

Ian Schultz

UK Rating: 15
(Re-)Release Date: July 2012
Directed By: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Pierre Clémenti, , Jean-Pierre Léaud, Anne Wiazemsky
Buy:Pigsty [Porcile] [Masters of Cinema] (DVD) [1969]