Pasolini, Pier Paolo (redirected from Pier Paolo Pasolini)

Pasolini, Pier Paolo (pyĕr pä`ōlō päsōlē`nē), 1922–75, Italian writer and film director. A former Roman Catholic and a Marxist, Pasolini brought to his work a combination of religious and social consciousness. His early works, including the novel A Violent Life (1957; tr. 1985) and the film Accatone (1961), deal with the grim effects of poverty and squalor. His other films include The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), Oedipus Rex (1967), and Teorema (1968). His later films, which are imagistic and erotic adaptations of classical literature, include The Decameron (1970), The Canterbury Tales (1972), and Arabian Nights (1974). His final work, Salo (1977), based on a Marquis de Sade novel, 120 Days of Sodom, took place in Fascist Italy and generated immense controversy. Shortly after the completion of Salo, Pasolini was murdered under violent and mysterious circumstances by two street hustlers.

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Pasolini, Pier Paolo

(born March 5, 1922, Bologna, Italy—died Nov. 2, 1975, Ostia, near Rome) Italian film director, poet, and novelist. He wrote novels about Rome's slum life as well as a significant body of poetry. Pasolini became a screenwriter in the mid-1950s, collaborating most notably on Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (1956). His directorial debut, Accattone (1961), was based on his novel A Violent Life (1959). His best-known film, stylistically unorthodox and implicitly radical, is perhaps The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (1964). Later films include Oedipus Rex (1967), Teorema (1968), Medea (1969), The Canterbury Tales (1972), and The Arabian Nights (1974), which won a special jury prize at Cannes. His use of eroticism, violence, and depravity were criticized by Italian religious authorities.