Awful film


I bought this video through amazon a few years ago. I thought it was abolutely terrible to the point of being unwatchable.

Also there was an unusual quirk on the tape as well which I'm sure was not part of Pasolini's film.

When the Hitler lookalike is wheeled into the room where Julian (Jean-Pierre Léaud) and Ida (Anne Wiazemsky) are already stood the picture jumps around and switches briefly to what looks like a test card.

This reminded me of the one that used to be seen on BBC in the mornings with the girl holding a piece of chalk and writing on a blackboard....

The film was bizarre and barely made any sense to me like the scene where Julian and Ida are walking on either side of the water at the big house and punctuating the end of their sentences with 'tralala' and 'tralalera'

Mamma Roma is the only Pasolini feature I haven't seen and Porcile is by far his worst. It makes Salo seem like a decent movie!!

reply

well yeah, you are right, "Porcile" is not amongst Pasolini's best works, actually it's one of his weakest films (perhaps only "Teorema" is worst).

Anyway I've enjoyed most of his films, some of them are truly masterpieces: Accatone, Mamma Roma, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, La rabbia, and I can't help it: I liked Salò.


reply

Porcile is one of Pasolini's best

Julian = Jesus

Ida = Mary Magdalene

Julian never had sex, has a desire for fulfillment, a limitless supply of happiness and freedom, an obscure destination, and he is neither obedient nor disobedient to his Father [G-d]. A sorrowful mystery is over him, he remains inalienable, his prestige is intact yet he is fleeing, he bitterly assumed an authority, he feels struck with limitless grace, he is referred to as a guinea pig [G-d's experiment of sending a Man down amongst the people...], he enters a catatonic state [death] and rises out of it [resurrection], and he is mysteriously crucified by Pigs [Jewish rabble...], and because nothing remains of his body to prove he was killed, his existence becomes a mystery.

Julian mentions that his Father is his ambiguous friend and ambiguous enemy, and that his Father's ambiguous conscience merged with Julian's pure existence.

All of this is directly derived from the dialogue, Pasolini gave us a post-WWII Gospel of Jesus.

There is much more to this, a few more tidbits to think about - Julian/Jesus prefers spending his time with Pigs [Jewish people/the Jewish "rabble" that needed sorting out and people in need of spiritual guidance]

For 800+ years, Jewish people were accused of cannibalism and of sacrificing children and drinking their blood, in the film they are accused of killing Jesus [the Pigs kill Julian] yet Jewish people do not eat pork or consume blood and are prohibited from killing (and would therefore not kill and eat a human), and pigs themselves predominantly eat grass, leaves, flowers, fruits, and tree bark...yet ironically have been known to eat their own infant piglets and other pig carcasses (but this is rare, except in factory farms)

Julian feels his Father is hypocritical and unjust yet he feels powerless to counter him

Even though Jesus was resurrected, many non-believers [enemies of G-d] then and now continue to attack and denigrate Jesus, and even though Julian was resurrected, enemies of his Father attacked and denigrated Julian, and even in Julian's second death the denigration will continue because his habits and death were mysterious

Julian's Father was a war profiteer whose son perhaps paid the price for his inhumanity

Many people feel the G-d of the Hebrew Bible was a violent, warring G-d, and Jesus paid the price for that [killed by Jews who followed G-d of Torah] and for humankind's violence in general

In the second tra-la-la sequence (there were two, one in the palace, one outside), Julian admits he has never been kissed (virgin Jesus), and he tells Ida that if she loves him, she is free (salvation is Jesus = freedom). He asks for her pity and she refuses (Jews supposedly did not pity Jesus, demanded his death, the Romans did not pity Jesus, executed him). Ida laments her dignity (Mary Magdalene) and Julian' response is "if you love me, you're free" which parallels salvation.

In the film it is also mentioned that Germans suffered idleness, unemployment, and exile. Jews suffered this as well. Still resolving that. I do not like the meaning I am personally inferring - Germans were to blame for their plight, Jews were to blame for the Holocaust. But I do believe that is what Pasolini meant.

Tra-La-La = Verily, Verily

reply

And I have not even begun to assess the other part of the film!

reply

I'm sure the film has a lot of symbolism and depth behind it but it is still virtually unwatchable.

In response to one of the earlier posts, oddly enough I thought Teorema was one of his best films.

reply

Wow! Very insightful analysis. I definitely thought that Julian was a Christ figure since the comparison was explicitly stated by one of his parents, but I didn't realize all these that you posted.

What I noticed more were the more obvious remarks about socialism, capitalism, Nazism, and barbarism. The finer details are still somewhat obscure to me. For me, the most memorable message is consumerism/consumption will consume the consumers. Consumerism is equated with capitalism represented by Julian's rich industrialist parents, also depicted as pigs (there's a line in the film saying how pigs can consume a whole class and how Julian's father is fat, and his mother eats the cream puff voraciously). Julian represents the ultimately doomed consumer. Julian should have not driven Ida away; Ida represents socialism, esp. when she announces she's marrying someone who looks Russian. Ida/socialism could have saved Julian from his catatonia (the dialog between Ida and Julian's mother while Julian is sleeping). This catatonia is perhaps due to Julian's qualms about his father's capitalistic activities.

To me, the storyline in the past perhaps tells us what life is like without any economic system/barbarism.

Obscure film. Reminded me of Teorema. I like both. I love the cinematography in this one. The form supports the matter. The civilized present of the tamed villa is shown with symmetric, ordered shots. The barbaric past of the raging volcanic earth is shown with wide shots allowing the viewer to appreciate the full ferocity of seething nature.

Any thoughts?

reply

I absolutely agree with everything you said.

All of that streamed through my mind when I watched the film, and the Jesus angle hooked me because religious elements always gravitate towards me, and because the thought of Jean-Pierre Léaud as a Jesus figure drove me wild, but of course, my luck, Pasolini's Jesus was the antithesis of all the roles Léaud had ever portrayed. Which is amusing, because Léaud's earlier roles always had a Jesus-like quality to them.

Pasolini always always always made films to express his views on socialism, capitalism, Nazism, and barbarism, and consumerism and industrialism and fascism.

You should not find anyone who would disagree with your analysis.

reply

Cool. Thanks for the reply. Now, time to watch more Pasolini...

reply