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DVD The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Released in 1964, The Gospel According to St. Matthew marks an important shift away from the gritty urban realism of Pasolini's earlier films towards the visionary imagery of his later work. A committed but far from conformist Marxist, Pasolini took a powerful and immediate approach, with no false piety or sentimentality. Employing a cast drawn largely from the peasantry of Southern Italy, where the film was shot, the action has the feel of a mystery play reenacted for the camera. Enrique Irazoqui's Christ is part folk hero, part political agitator, but always pursuing his destiny with unswerving conviction. The disciples make for vivid contrasts in facial expression, while Susanna Pasolini (mother of) is unforgettable as Mary, distraught at the Crucifixion. The recourse to handheld cameras and zoom sequences is well ahead of its time, while the almost jump-cut editing and diverse soundtrack--including Bach, Mozart and the Missa Luba--enhance the sense of action being experienced as it happens. A classic of post-war cinema which has lost none of its urgent humanity. --Richard Whitehouse
Review(s): DVD The Gospel According to St. Matthew
The second gem of Pier Paolo!
Visionary account of the multiple Jesus conflicts related with ambition, greed and above all social injustices. Shot and immersed in the same spirit that his spiritual predecessors of the Italian Neo Realism : Roselini, De Sica and Visconti tough impregnated of a strong definite politic position. Acclaimed in Venice; it is a status film after his supreme achievement: Mama Roma.
Filmed with non profesional actors, it possesses an intelectual vigor that has resisted the acid taste of time, widely.
Picture too dark
The video of the Gospel according To St. Matthew is of poor video quality. While this is a public domain film, there still should be a half decent video available.
The Lord works in mysterious ways
One hardly knows where to begin when discussing The Gospel According to Saint Matthew. Aside from the religious aspects of the film, you have to talk about Pasolini's techniques and motivations. While I didn't like certain aspects of the film, I certainly can't deny the fact that, as a Christian, this film moved me in a very powerful way. What makes this so amazing is the fact that Pasolini is both a Marxist and an atheist (basically the anti-me). I would go so far as to speculate that The Gospel According to Saint Matthew is both Marxist and anti-Catholic in terms of Pasolini's motives. The Jesus in this film is definitely the poor man's Jesus who would seem to represent the Italian peasantry which Pasolini held in such high regard.
I can't say I'm in love with Pasolini's filmmaking technique. The opening scenes of the film play like a silent film, with words few and far between. Pasolini tells most of the early story through the faces of his characters (and I should mention that he depended heavily on regular people rather than actors in the cast - his mother, for example, plays Mary). Pasolini is absolutely in love with pans and close-ups. On occasion, the camera starts moving one way, then suddenly zigs and zooms in an entirely different direction - this, to me, is sloppy technique; either the cameraman started going the wrong way or else he decided on the spur of the moment to capture something entirely different than what was planned. Once Jesus begins his ministry, the dialogue takes hold of the story, but the cinematography is always a prominent part of the presentation. All of the panning yields blurred background images, for example. More importantly, Pasolini presents his story from the viewpoint of a follower of Jesus; oftentimes, you have the equivalent of someone walking behind the action with a camcorder. I found this rather annoying early on, but the technique works wonderfully once Jesus is put on trial and crucified, as you see events unfold from the perspective of a John the beloved or a Mary. The music, while noticeably strange at first (e.g., "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" with its English-language lyrics and a later song that seems to have roots in 20th century blues), becomes nothing short of mesmerizing as the movie progresses toward the end. Unconventional, thy name is Pasolini.
The film truly does tell the story of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection as recorded in the book of Matthew. You won't see several well-known scenes of Jesus' life and teaching simply because they weren't recorded in the first Gospel. Likewise, the trial of Jesus, his crucifixion, and his resurrection all feel a little rushed simply because Luke and John describe the scenes in much greater detail than does Matthew. Still, the final scenes of this film are extraordinarily powerful. One problem I had with the film, though, was the fact that Jesus came across as quite an angry young man throughout much of the film - but, of course, Matthew presents Jesus in a slightly different light than do Mark, Luke, and John.
I don't know much about Pier Paolo Pasolini, nor do I think I could figure the man out even if I did. A half-hour look at the man is included on this DVD, and it certainly shows what a complicated fellow he is. As I mentioned earlier, he is both an atheist and a Marxist with strong Communist ties. His efforts with this film seem to be an attempt to take the Jesus of Matthew's Gospel and have him speak, in a strong socialistic sense, for the Italian peasantry of Pasolini's era (the film came out in 1964). That, I believe, explains the anger I saw in Pasolini's Jesus, and Jesus' bitter denunciations of the religious hypocrites of ancient Palestine could, I would surmise, apply to the Catholic Church or any institution of authority in Pasolini's own time. All I know for sure, however, is that this film is wide open for interpretation and debate.
The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways. With The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, an avowed atheist and Marxist has given the world one of the most powerful film representations of the life, love, and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
What happens to the people putting on a Passion Play? Someday Mel Gibson may tell us, but Denys Arcand's Jesus of Montreal proposes an engaging possibility. In hip present-day Montreal, a group of actors stages the Passion in an outdoor, somewhat avant-garde style, led by the quietly charismatic and increasingly uncanny young man (Lothaire Bluteau, Black Robe) playing Christ. His identification with the role, and the way it bleeds into real life, gives director Denys Arcand plenty of opportunities for social comment--some of it spot-on, some of it a little facile. But the fragile Bluteau is such a fascinating lead presence (the other actors are familiar from Arcand's Barbarian Invasions and Decline of the American Empire) that the movie's spell lasts long after... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Lothaire Bluteau Director(s): Denys Arcand DVD Release Date: Released the 09 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Originally made for TV in 1977, this in-depth (six hours plus) version of Jesus' life is so thorough that the first hour is devoted solely to the story of his birth. The film doesn't skimp on some of the other landmark events of this famous story either. Director Franco Zeffirelli gives more than 12 minutes screen time each to the Last Supper and the Crucifixion. Passages of the Bible are quoted verbatim, the locations have a Palestine-like authenticity, and, aside from some of the principals (Robert Powell as Jesus, Olivia Hussey as Mary, and Stacy Keach as Barabbas), many of the non-Roman characters are actually played by Semitic-looking actors. Zeffirelli diligently provides the sociopolitical background that gave rise to Jesus' following and the crisis in belief it caused for the... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Franco Zeffirelli DVD Release Date: Released the 01 March 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This 1961 version of Jesus' story gives historical context to the best-known Biblical tale and features many memorable moments, such as a moving Sermon on the Mount and a vixenish Salome dancing for her stepfather in a performance that rivals today's MTV video offerings. Orson Welles keeps the 168-minute film moving along with informative narration helpful to those who haven't read the New Testament in a while. Made with backgrounds that resemble Southern California more than Palestine and a European and American cast--including a blonde, blue-eyed Jesus and an Irish-accented Mary--this movie has the definite stamp of Hollywood. --Kimberly HeinrichsMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jeffrey Hunter - Siobhan McKenna Director(s): Nicholas Ray DVD Release Date: Released the 25 February 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Un Chien Andalou remains a startling artifact suggesting ways in which film can express the subconscious. The result of Luis Bunuel's collaboration with Salvador Dali, the 17-minute, 1929 film was designed expressly to shock and provoke. Opening with the canonical eyeball-slashing sequence and divided into baffling "chapters", this is a work of art obsessed with religion, lust, decay, violence, and death. Un Chien Andalou isn't simply one of the great works of the surrealist movement, but a segment of cinematic DNA that irrevocably altered the aesthetics of film. In its tangled corridors you find the seeds to the disappearing-mouth bit in The Matrix, the carcasses strewn through Peter Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts and pretty much the entire oeuvre of David... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Simone Mareuil - Pierre Batcheff Director(s): Luis Buñuel DVD Release Date: Released the 28 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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At three brief hours, La Dolce Vita, a piece of cynical, engrossing social commentary, stands as Federico Fellini's timeless masterpiece. A rich, detailed panorama of Rome's modern decadence and sophisticated immorality, the film is episodic in structure but held tightly in focus by the wandering protagonist through whom we witness the sordid action. Marcello Rubini (extraordinarily played by Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid reporter trapped in a shallow high-society existence. A man of paradoxical emotional juxtapositions (cool but tortured, sexy but impotent), he dreams about writing something important but remains seduced by the money and prestige that accompany his shallow position. He romanticizes finding true love but acts unfazed upon finding that his girlfriend has taken... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Marcello Mastroianni - Anita Ekberg Director(s): Federico Fellini DVD Release Date: Released the 21 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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