The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964, Italy (9*)
Pasolini's intention was to film the gospel verbatim, without Hollywood scripting, without blue-eyed, blond Jesus actors - his actor was a Spanish student, Enrique Irazoqui, who'd never made a film! The extras are all Mediterraneans, so they look authenic for once. Roger Ebert said "it looks like a documentarian with a low budget followed Jesus around", and gave it 5 *'s, top rating. It's like NO other religious film I've seen: grainy, gritty, realistic, almost manic and fanatical in places.
Make sure you view the subtitled, black and white original version. There's an awful dubbed version, and even a colorized version out there. The disk I rented had the original, and the colorized/dubbed one both - they managed to ruin it both ways in one version.
Pasolini's intention was to film the gospel verbatim, without Hollywood scripting, without blue-eyed, blond Jesus actors - his actor was a Spanish student, Enrique Irazoqui, who'd never made a film! The extras are all Mediterraneans, so they look authenic for once. Roger Ebert said "it looks like a documentarian with a low budget followed Jesus around", and gave it 5 *'s, top rating. It's like NO other religious film I've seen: grainy, gritty, realistic, almost manic and fanatical in places.
Make sure you view the subtitled, black and white original version. There's an awful dubbed version, and even a colorized version out there. The disk I rented had the original, and the colorized/dubbed one both - they managed to ruin it both ways in one version.
Pasolini was murdered in Italy in 1975 after making a dozen films, most say by the neo-fascist right wing. He had just completed "Salo", based on the Marquis de Sade.
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