Chichester Cinema at New Park
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
- Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo
Pasolini’s humanist version of the Gospel is the first film in the season of Spiritual Cinema, which continues in our May-June programme.
This is a literal, marvellous interpretation of St. Matthew's Gospel, which is sometimes simple and sometimes quite savage. Filmed in Southern Italy in rocky hillside villages and along the coast, Pasolini's "Gospel" with its cast of non-professional actors, which include Susanna Pasolini, the filmmaker's mother has a gritty realism. The camera loves these rough, beautiful and distinctive faces… it is like a moving tapestry of Renaissance paintings, and a visual artist's dream film. Enrique Irazoqui's Jesus, with his lofty forehead, thick eyebrows that meet over his nose, and coal black eyes, is stern and compelling, and recites the Gospel with strength and mettle. The soundtrack includes Bach, Mozart, Prokofiev, Webern, some American spirituals ("Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" during the Manger scene), Kol Nidrei during the Last Supper scene, and Missa Luba. Ironically Pasolini was a gay, Marxist atheist who made what many consider to be the best film there is about Jesus and dedicated it to Pope John XI1 (subtitles).
Part of the SPIRITUAL CINEMA SEASON
Italy · 1964 · Pier Paolo Pasolini · 127min
