Pier Paolo Pasolini
40th Anniversary

November 4 - 22, 2015

On the 40th anniversary of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s (1922-1975) death, Pera Film in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Italian Institute of Culture in Istanbul is organizing a film program commemorating him and his work. Pasolini, a filmmaker, a poet, a novelist, a playwright, a painter, a critic and intellectual, was not only one of Italy’s most prominent figures for much of his life, he remains that, but, more importantly, he is a figure who belongs to the world.

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s ability to simultaneously embrace conflicting philosophies—he was both a Catholic and a Marxist; modern-minded, openly gay; who looked to the distant past for inspiration and comfort. What he is best known for is undoubtedly his subversive body of film work. He was a student of the written word, and among his earliest movie jobs was writing additional dialogue for Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria (1957). Soon he was directing his first film, Accattone (1961), a tale of street crime whose style and content greatly influenced the debut feature of his friend Bernardo Bertolucci, La commare secca (1962), for which Pasolini also supplied the original story. The outspoken and always political Pasolini’s films became increasingly scandalous—even, to some minds, blasphemous—from the gritty reimagining of the Christ story The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) to the bawdy medieval tales in his Trilogy of Life (1971–1974). Tragically, Pasolini was found brutally murdered weeks before the release of his final work, the grotesque, Marquis de Sade–derived Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) provides a violent essay on Italy's Nazi-fascist past and still is one of the world’s most controversial films. Writer Ed Vulliamy, in his Guardian article meticulously remarks: “Pasolini had died, so history insists, as though in a scene from one of his films. ‘It is only at the point of death,’ Pasolini had said in 1967, ‘that our life, to that point ambiguous, undecipherable, suspended – acquires a meaning.’’’

This program’s screenings are free of admissions. Drop in, no reservations.

In collaboration

 

November 4

19:00 Accattone

November 6

19:00 Love Meetings

Love and Anger: The Sequence of the Paper Flower

21:00 The Grim Reaper

November 7

14:00 Oedipus Rex

16:00 The Hawks and the Sparrows

November 8

14:00 Mamma Roma

November 11

19:00 Accattone

November 12

19:00 The Gospel According to St. Matthew

November 13

17:00 Prophecy: Pasolini's Africa

19:00 Notes Towards an African Orestes

21:00 Oedipus Rex

November 14

14:00 The Rage of Pasolini

16:00 The Gospel According to St. Matthew

November 15

14:00 The Grim Reaper

17:00 Notes Towards an African Orestes

November 18

19:00 The Hawks and the Sparrows

November 21

12:00 Love Meetings

Love and Anger: The Sequence of the Paper Flower

14:00 The Rage of Pasolini

16:00 Prophecy: Pasolini's Africa

November 22

14:00 Mamma Roma

Accattone

Accattone

Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex

The Hawks and the Sparrows

The Hawks and the Sparrows

The Gospel According to St. Matthew

The Gospel According to St. Matthew

Love Meetings

Love Meetings

Mamma Roma

Mamma Roma

Love and Anger: The Sequence of the Paper Flower

Love and Anger: The Sequence of the Paper Flower

The Grim Reaper

The Grim Reaper

Notes Towards an African Orestes

Notes Towards an African Orestes

The Rage of Pasolini

The Rage of Pasolini

Prophecy: Pasolini's Africa

Prophecy: Pasolini's Africa

Program Trailer

Pier Paolo Pasolini
40th Anniversary

Pasolini, a filmmaker, a poet, a novelist, a playwright, a painter, a critic and intellectual, was not only one of Italy’s most prominent figures for much of his life, he remains that, but, more importantly, he is a figure who belongs to the world.

Jean-Michel Basquiat Look At Me!

Jean-Michel Basquiat Look At Me!

The exhibition “Look At Me! Portraits and Other Fictions from the ”la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection” examined portraiture, one of the oldest artistic genres, through a significant number of works of our times. Paintings, photographs, sculptures and videos shaped a labyrinth of gazes that invite spectators to reflect themselves in the social mirror of portraits.

The Welcoming of Venetian Balios to Ottoman Lands

The Welcoming of Venetian Balios to Ottoman Lands

The series of paintings depicting the audience ceremonies of European ambassadors hold a unique place among the works of Jean-Baptiste Vanmour of Valenciennes, who lived in İstanbul from 1699 until his death in 1737.

At The Well

At The Well

Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz discovered the Orient in 1877, touring Syria, Egypt, Turkey, and the Crimea with Władysław Branicki. This experience made a profound impression on him, and he was to continuously revisit Eastern themes in his works for the rest of his life.