“Pier Paolo Pasolini,” an artist haunted by our personal myths? A brave poet and a tireless traveler with a sharp gaze? A tortured and fireproof man. Contradictory and free? A genius in (un)rest that experimented with concepts, narratives, and renewed lyricism.
The present study examines the programmatic (or not) “conversation” of Greek cinematic culture with the total work of Pasolini. The eclectic affinities and direct references (hommage) to Pasolini's artistic work are identified in the fields of thematics, style, and intertextual references.
The dialogue with Pasolini's artistic legacy relates to ancient and Christian myth, spirituality and Sacredness, the politics of memory, lumpen social groups, sexuality and homophilia, social and sexual deviance. More broadly, it engages with the scientific fields of ethnology and anthropology, queer and postcolonial studies.
For each chapter of the study, a development of the theme is selected focused on two sections: the first presents the main characteristics of Pasolini's films and the processes of their reception in Greece, and in the second section attempts to correlate the films and their intertextual dialogue with Greek cinema. Key points for the reception of Pasolini's work in Greece include films such as The Gospel According to Matthew and Salò, 120 Days of Sodom, Oedipus and Medea, The Decameron, and Teorema.
At the same time, emphasis is placed on the ethnographer and anthropologist artist, and this constitution of his non-fiction cinematic work is linked to the traces of the Pasolinian gaze in Greek cinematic and television documentary.
