This film is timely since it is now 40 years since Pasolini’s murder and the Italy and world in which he lived has certainly changed, but his acute voice still rings true — the openness and freedom of thinking and living that Pasolini sought are as much under siege now as they were then. Nonetheless, you can expect Ferrara to endure endless criticism from linguistic purists for this choices — it didn’t bother me and mostly everyone else in the screening that Dafoe’s Pasolini conversed mostly in English. And even Pasolini himself, a great experimenter in filmmaking, would have likely appreciated it.

Premiered at the 71st Venice Film Festival, almost the entire cast of Abel Ferrara’s ‘Pasolini’ was present and rightfully so. Led by Dafoe and Davoli who are superb as Pasolini and his alter-ego, the ‘ensemble’ cast performances played perfectly to the potent message and personality of the artist they were depicting, without losing the authenticity of that depiction. Particularly remarkable is Adriana Asti as Pasolini’s mother. Pasolini was a friend of Asti’s as he was to Davoli and more, and their infectious performances went deep. At the conclusion of the premier screening, the person seated next to me exhaled and uttered “intense”. For Ferrara, and obviously the inspirational force of Pasolini, nothing short of this would do.

This film, co-written by Ferrara and Maurizio Braucci, like many others Ferrara has made, is a reckoning of sorts. That Pasolini was vilified as a gay, marxist artist is only part of the story; that he is not celebrated as one of Italy’s and the world’s courageous artists that defies labels is the other. This remarkable film, unapologetically reverent, will go a long way in rekindling that conversation. Abel Ferrara received a Golden Lion nomination at the 71st Venice Film Festival for this movie.

Alfredo Romano