That last night, that handful of hours between dinner with Ninetto Diavoli and death on the Via Idroscalo, that lapse of time in which the mystery of the killing of Pier Paolo Pasolini, between 1 and 2 November 1975, he inspired films (Marco Tullio Giordana, Abel Ferrara, David Grieco), filled books and articles and naturally was the focus of inquiries and court files. Yet 45 years after the death of the director and poet, now that even the only one ever formally accused of his murder, that Pino Pelosi, known as the Frog, who was 17 at the time, died what really happened still remains confused and fragmented. The time has come to clarify. The family lawyer Stefano Maccioni argues that, with reference to traces of DNA other than those of Pelosi, he says: “45 years have passed since the crime but we have evidence that can withstand the passage of time. Today we know that Pier Paolo Pasolini he was not killed only or perhaps not even by Pino Pelosi, that is, by the one whom Justice had indicated as the one responsible for the murder. It is therefore necessary to clear the field of the many doubts that still weigh on this complex and tragic story “.
Already 5 years ago, on the occasion of the release of his friend David Grieco’s book and film The machination, we had returned to talk of that last night. The journalist and director proposed his personal truth, very close to that suggested by his family: Pasolini was not killed for a sexual relationship that ended badly, but he was the victim of a plot, precisely a plot, for his ideas, for the mosaic that author was composing in the last years of his life. A mosaic composed of the film Salò or the 120 days of Sodom, set during Fascism but an indictment against his contemporary power, like the articles written for the Corriere della Sera (including the one published on November 14 ’74 entitled “What is this coup? I know”) and of Petroleum, the unfinished novel-investigation that put the ruling class of the time in the dock. Works and reports that according to many cost him his life, a political crime and not a sexual crime, as was hastily led to believe then.
‘Accattone’ by Pier Paolo Pasolini restored, the film debut 45 years after his death
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And precisely for this reason it is as important as ever today to continue reading Pasolini, to study Pasolini, to see Pasolini. And on this November 2, with the shutters of the cinemas down and the theaters closed, we still need to find a way to remember and celebrate it. It should have gone to the cinema on the occasion of the anniversary, the restoration of the director’s first film, thatBeggar which marks the writer and poet’s big screen debut. It is 1961, his first time, in the film with Sergio Citti he talks about the Rome he frequents, which he loves, that of the underclass. A first experiment that undermines his friendship with Federico Fellini (who was supposed to produce it with his Federiz but then retired) but did not ruin it and that led Pasolini to experience months of anguish and torment until the first in December 1961 in Turin where he presents it like this: “I’m terrified. Beggar it’s my first movie. When I started it – now I can confess – I didn’t know anything: I didn’t know that there were, for example, various types of lenses, and I was stunned when the operator asked me which lens I wanted. Indeed – this is huge – I did not know exactly what panoramic meant: I confused it with the long shot … I was, in short, a beginner. This rejuvenates me – and this is always something that pleases me. But, in any case, precisely for this reason I tremble now: I tremble in leaving the word – the difficult anguished word – to my characters, who turn to you as if from another world. “The film was then attacked by neo-fascist groups (who launched bowler hats and fennel in the audience) and by the censorship that made him withdraw from theaters. He won the director’s prize at the Karlovy Vary festival and today, almost 60 years later Martin Scorsese: “Undisputed masterpiece, a film that had an indelible impact on me and many others”.
The young Pasolini on the screen, between school, poetry and early disturbances
Arianna Finos
04 June 2020-
And for a film that finds the cinema closed there is another one, In a future April the documentary by Francesco Costabile and Federico Savonitto that tells the Friulian youth, which moves into the virtual one. The distribution house Tucker Film, following the new closure of the theaters, has decided to keep the release date through online distribution, focusing on www.iorestoinsala.it: the digital circuit of quality Italian cinemas. So for those who want to celebrate and remember Pasolini, discovering his youth, the appointment is set for Monday 2 November. The vision will be introduced, at 8.30 pm, by the two directors, connected in live streaming via Zoom.
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