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Review

Accattone: Pasolini's first feature film is a harrowing, realistic and unsentimental look inside the slums of Rome, where its denizens -- the prostitutes, hustlers and petty thieves -- attempt to eke out an existence any way they can. Within this underworld of corruption is Accattone (Citti), a young pimp who is torn between the easy pickings on the street and his efforts, motivated by love, to go straight. A brutal slice-of-life film which documents Pasolini's lifelong obsession with the outcasts of society, an obsession which eventually led to his death in 1975 at the hands of a man not unlike Accattone. Pasolini was assisted on the film by a young Bernardo Bertolucci. (Italian with English subtitles) ***½

The Gospel According to St. Matthew: Dedicated to the memory of Pope John XXIII, Pasolini's remarkable film is a modern interpretation of the last days of Christ. Using non-professionals and filmed in a realistic, pseudo-documentary fashion in the arid regions of Calabria in southern Italy, the film depicts Jesus Christ as a man of the people and a revolutionary, fighting the social injustices of the time. Yet despite his faithful use of the scriptures, the film is imbued with a Marxist ideology, a situation which produced confused acclaim from Church leaders. (Italian with English subtitles) ****

The Hawks and the Sparrows: This post-neorealist parable is an unconventional story featuring Italy's beloved stone-faced clown Toto as an Everyman who, with his empty-headed son, travels the road of life accompanied by a talking crow, who waxes philosophically and amusingly on the passing scene. Pasolini presents a tragic fable which shows two delightful innocents caught between the Church and Marxism. (Italian with English subtitles) ***