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It is a performances centric movie

Best movie ever!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

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.

Without spoilers to begin: Pasolini is undoubtedly a highly artistic account of the famed film maker and his inglorious death whilst pursuing young hustlers in Rome. William Dafoe was an inspired choice to portray the master and both his looks and style are highly convincing. The pace of the film is good and the screenplay wonderfully imaginative with a confusion of reality and the imaginings of Pasolini as he constructs his last but sadly unfinished work in 1975. Anyone with an interest in the foundations of true artistic film making and the interface twixt reality and fantasy should certainly give this attention - as well as those who simply remember Pasolini and his films. With spoilers now: Unfortunately the true circumstances of Pasolini's death are masked in obscurity and this film does little to help identify the possibilities surrounding it. Indeed it positively leads the viewer to believe that he was killed largely as a result of theft and anti gay aggression by a gang of street youths.But a number of crucial facts are omitted that would suggest he was assassinated on the orders of higher interests who simply paid the street youths to do the work. The youths arrived by their own transport and left with it. They had followed Pasolini from Rome and waited their chance to spring him in the act. Only 17 year old Pino Pelosi, the boy baited to attract Pasolini, left in his car. Returning to Rome from the beach he was checked by the police, arrested and later imprisoned for nearly 10 years as the sole assassin. Moreover the youths chanted anti communist insults at Pasolini which is again not depicted the film. This is relevant because a random group would not have realized Pasolini's political views - and certainly not from the expensive car he was driving. In 2005 Pelosi detailed the incident some 20 years after his release. He cites a set up and explains that Mafia pressure forced him to make a false confession and prevented him from talking in the intervening period. Two of the attackers disappeared shortly after the murder and we are left with a clear suspicion that Pasolini was murdered not by these youths but by others higher placed to distort the investigation process that led to the simplistic conclusion still portrayed in this film.

"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.