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Pasolini Requiem
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–75) was one of the most important Italian intellectuals of the post–World War II era. An astonishing polymath—poet, novelist, literary critic, political polemicist, screenwriter, and film director—he exerted profound influence on Italian culture up to his untimely death in 1975 at the age of fifty-three. This revised edition of what the New York Times Book Review has called “the standard Pasolini biography” introduces the artist to a new generation of readers.
Based on extensive interviews with those who knew Pasolini, both friends and enemies, admirers and detractors, Pasolini Requiem chronicles his growth from poet in the provinces to Italy’s leading “civil poet”; his flight to Rome in 1950; the scandalous success of his two novels and political writing; and his transition to film, where he started as a contributor to the golden age of Italian cinema and ended with the shocking Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. Pasolini’s tragic and still unsolved murder has remained a subject of contentious debate for four decades. The enduring fascination with who committed the crime—and why—reflects his vital stature in Italy’s political and social history.
Updated throughout and with a new afterword covering the efforts to reopen the investigation—and the legal maelstrom surrounding Pasolini’s demise—this edition of Pasolini Requiem is a riveting account of one of the twentieth century’s most controversial, ever-present iconoclasts.
Based on extensive interviews with those who knew Pasolini, both friends and enemies, admirers and detractors, Pasolini Requiem chronicles his growth from poet in the provinces to Italy’s leading “civil poet”; his flight to Rome in 1950; the scandalous success of his two novels and political writing; and his transition to film, where he started as a contributor to the golden age of Italian cinema and ended with the shocking Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. Pasolini’s tragic and still unsolved murder has remained a subject of contentious debate for four decades. The enduring fascination with who committed the crime—and why—reflects his vital stature in Italy’s political and social history.
Updated throughout and with a new afterword covering the efforts to reopen the investigation—and the legal maelstrom surrounding Pasolini’s demise—this edition of Pasolini Requiem is a riveting account of one of the twentieth century’s most controversial, ever-present iconoclasts.
656 pages, Paperback
First published November 17, 1992
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August 4, 2023
A Troubled Prophet of Vanishing Culture
I am a lifelong fan of cinema, studying film as well as writing at the University of Michigan in the early '70s as an undergraduate and then writing many film reviews and columns about cinema over the past half century. At various points, I wrote film criticism for three different newspapers and a magazine. Always, I was fascinated by one of the world's most challenging directors: Italy's Pier Paulo Pasolini who was murdered in 1975. That ghastly crime sparked weeks of headline news around the world in 1975, connecting both with my emerging role as a journalist and as a film critic.
However, for decades, there was no way to see Pasolini's films except for the occasional showings on campuses like U of M, which has always had a rich diversity of cineastes. When world cinema finally began to circulate in VHS and later in DVD, Pasolini's body of work still was hard to find. Then, on June 27, 2023, Criterion released "Pasolini 101," which is a Blu-ray collection of most of his films, except the so-called "Trilogy of Life" films and "Salo," which Criterion already had released in Blu-ray.
Finally, I felt compelled to "watch my way" through his cinematic career—but that odyssey is quite a challenge, even with the new "101" set and it's "extras." Among the reasons this is such a daunting cinematic journey is the fact that Pasolini regarded himself first and foremost as a writer and a public activist. His films are only one of his many media expressions!
So, to appreciate these films, I knew I had some serious reading to do. Now, I've just finished David Schwartz's remarkably well researched second edition of Pasolini Requiem, which has the imprint of The University of Chicago Press and, among film critics I know, was recommended to me as "the main book you should read about Pasolini's life."
The first thing I discovered is that, as a very young man, Pasolini's medium of choice was posters. He would create vivid posters with prophetic words of wisdom about social injustices and plaster them on the walls around town in the middle of the night.
Another thing I discovered in Schwartz's biography, which I had never understood about Pasolini, was his passion for Friulian language and culture—an endangered linguistic culture in northeastern Italy. That historical area is even further east than Venice. Pasolini became fascinated with this linguistic community that has roots stretching back to Roman Latin, mixed with other European influences through the centuries. Pasolini began to write poetry in Fruilian, an astonishingly iconoclastic feat for a young and aspiring poet! Throughout his life, he worked on projects to highlight Friulian.
Why is this so important? Because it illustrates the authenticity of Pasolini's core values. Within Italy, Pasolini is remembered as a towering "public intellectual" of the second half of the 20th century as well as a filmmaker. Outside Italy, he's largely known for directing controversial films, often because his depiction of sexuality pushed boundaries in the eras when the movies were released. And, if American movie fans have even heard of Pasolini, the one biographical detail they know, beyond the fact that he was murdered, is: "He was a Communist, wasn't he?"
Well, he certainly was not a Communist in any Stalinist mold, which Schwartz makes clear in repeated passages of this lengthy biography. In fact, Italian Communists often were among his public foes. When Pasolini prophetically described himself as "communist" or "socialist," what he really was advocating was a preservation of the cultural heritage of Italy's vast underclass—the communities of peasants and laborers whose lives and unique cultures began disappearing even before World War II. That's why, after World War II, Pasolini was so opposed to American efforts to shore up Italy's new Western affiliations. Pasolini saw Western media, consumer goods and cultural icons as wiping out endangered cultures that had survived for millennia. His entire media presence throughout his life was an attempt to lift up the lives of what he often called "the poor" and show the corrosive effects of global consumerism and media.
So, having read Schwartz's thorough biography, I should be ready to enjoy watching (or re-watching) all of Pasolini's films and writing about the movies. Right?
Well, no, because Schwartz also painstakingly documents Pasolini's other controversial passion: a sexual desire that emerged publicly in his 20s for casual encounters with boys in their mid-teens on the outskirts of various Italian towns. In his 20s, he had his first run-in with police, charged with casual outdoor sex with teens. This, of course, was the sexual obsession that eventually led to his death at age 53. Schwartz documents that Pasolini continued to pursue these desires with mid-teen boys wherever he traveled. In 1975, one of those encounters went horribly wrong. I am well aware of at least a couple of film critic friends who are tempted to argue away this troubling part of Pasolini's life and even to argue that his murder really was a plot by right-wing thugs who assassinated him because of his political activism. Schwartz has sifted the evidence to an almost exhaustive degree and, nope, that rationale doesn't make sense. The truth is: Pasolini's life-long desire for dangerous, taboo sex finally caught up with him.
I include that point last in this review of Schwartz's book because I honestly, as a journalist who has reported from around the world for 50 years, do not know how to assess such a troubled life. Today, for example, there's an active campaign to isolate Woody Allen for pursuing under-age sexuality. I agree with that movement. Because my own professional focus has been on religious and cultural diversity, I was in the vanguard of reporting on sexual abuse within the Catholic church over the past three decades—and I strongly believe that the church still has not atoned for its past or protected the vulnerable going forward. I have reported on the lives of scores of victims. I am not an apologist for the world's predators.
However, there's clearly something different about Pasolini. For one thing, Criterion just released this massive boxed set that took years for professionals to curate, celebrating Pasolini's work. One possible difference to consider between Allen and Pasolini is that Allen is still alive and is unrepentant. Pasolini is long dead and, as Schwartz points out, he actually was forthright in writing about his sexuality. Perhaps that makes these cases so different that, today, we can look at Pasolini's cinematic work and isolate discussions of his personal life to another realm of consideration.
In fact, the sexual lives of film notables are notoriously complex. If we begin purging our cinemas of anyone with a troubling sexual life, well, you can see the moral and ethical and cultural dilemmas.
I feel that I needed to write at this length about this book to explain what Schwartz gives us in this weighty, thorough biography. Why even write about such a controversial subject? Because I feel someone in public journalism needs to write about these issues if only because Criterion has just asked the whole world to begin celebrating Pasolini, once again. My own instinct is that we should, indeed, learn about the life of this troubled prophet and discuss how these issues should be weighed.
So, I think I've been nearly as thorough as Schwartz in explaining—in this review format—what you'll find in this book. I was fascinated by Schwartz's biography. The sections on Pasolini's posters and on his advocacy for Friulian culture are aspects of his life I had never encountered before this book. I'm giving the biography 5 stars for the thorough research and honesty that Schwartz brings to the task from start to finish.
I am a lifelong fan of cinema, studying film as well as writing at the University of Michigan in the early '70s as an undergraduate and then writing many film reviews and columns about cinema over the past half century. At various points, I wrote film criticism for three different newspapers and a magazine. Always, I was fascinated by one of the world's most challenging directors: Italy's Pier Paulo Pasolini who was murdered in 1975. That ghastly crime sparked weeks of headline news around the world in 1975, connecting both with my emerging role as a journalist and as a film critic.
However, for decades, there was no way to see Pasolini's films except for the occasional showings on campuses like U of M, which has always had a rich diversity of cineastes. When world cinema finally began to circulate in VHS and later in DVD, Pasolini's body of work still was hard to find. Then, on June 27, 2023, Criterion released "Pasolini 101," which is a Blu-ray collection of most of his films, except the so-called "Trilogy of Life" films and "Salo," which Criterion already had released in Blu-ray.
Finally, I felt compelled to "watch my way" through his cinematic career—but that odyssey is quite a challenge, even with the new "101" set and it's "extras." Among the reasons this is such a daunting cinematic journey is the fact that Pasolini regarded himself first and foremost as a writer and a public activist. His films are only one of his many media expressions!
So, to appreciate these films, I knew I had some serious reading to do. Now, I've just finished David Schwartz's remarkably well researched second edition of Pasolini Requiem, which has the imprint of The University of Chicago Press and, among film critics I know, was recommended to me as "the main book you should read about Pasolini's life."
The first thing I discovered is that, as a very young man, Pasolini's medium of choice was posters. He would create vivid posters with prophetic words of wisdom about social injustices and plaster them on the walls around town in the middle of the night.
Another thing I discovered in Schwartz's biography, which I had never understood about Pasolini, was his passion for Friulian language and culture—an endangered linguistic culture in northeastern Italy. That historical area is even further east than Venice. Pasolini became fascinated with this linguistic community that has roots stretching back to Roman Latin, mixed with other European influences through the centuries. Pasolini began to write poetry in Fruilian, an astonishingly iconoclastic feat for a young and aspiring poet! Throughout his life, he worked on projects to highlight Friulian.
Why is this so important? Because it illustrates the authenticity of Pasolini's core values. Within Italy, Pasolini is remembered as a towering "public intellectual" of the second half of the 20th century as well as a filmmaker. Outside Italy, he's largely known for directing controversial films, often because his depiction of sexuality pushed boundaries in the eras when the movies were released. And, if American movie fans have even heard of Pasolini, the one biographical detail they know, beyond the fact that he was murdered, is: "He was a Communist, wasn't he?"
Well, he certainly was not a Communist in any Stalinist mold, which Schwartz makes clear in repeated passages of this lengthy biography. In fact, Italian Communists often were among his public foes. When Pasolini prophetically described himself as "communist" or "socialist," what he really was advocating was a preservation of the cultural heritage of Italy's vast underclass—the communities of peasants and laborers whose lives and unique cultures began disappearing even before World War II. That's why, after World War II, Pasolini was so opposed to American efforts to shore up Italy's new Western affiliations. Pasolini saw Western media, consumer goods and cultural icons as wiping out endangered cultures that had survived for millennia. His entire media presence throughout his life was an attempt to lift up the lives of what he often called "the poor" and show the corrosive effects of global consumerism and media.
So, having read Schwartz's thorough biography, I should be ready to enjoy watching (or re-watching) all of Pasolini's films and writing about the movies. Right?
Well, no, because Schwartz also painstakingly documents Pasolini's other controversial passion: a sexual desire that emerged publicly in his 20s for casual encounters with boys in their mid-teens on the outskirts of various Italian towns. In his 20s, he had his first run-in with police, charged with casual outdoor sex with teens. This, of course, was the sexual obsession that eventually led to his death at age 53. Schwartz documents that Pasolini continued to pursue these desires with mid-teen boys wherever he traveled. In 1975, one of those encounters went horribly wrong. I am well aware of at least a couple of film critic friends who are tempted to argue away this troubling part of Pasolini's life and even to argue that his murder really was a plot by right-wing thugs who assassinated him because of his political activism. Schwartz has sifted the evidence to an almost exhaustive degree and, nope, that rationale doesn't make sense. The truth is: Pasolini's life-long desire for dangerous, taboo sex finally caught up with him.
I include that point last in this review of Schwartz's book because I honestly, as a journalist who has reported from around the world for 50 years, do not know how to assess such a troubled life. Today, for example, there's an active campaign to isolate Woody Allen for pursuing under-age sexuality. I agree with that movement. Because my own professional focus has been on religious and cultural diversity, I was in the vanguard of reporting on sexual abuse within the Catholic church over the past three decades—and I strongly believe that the church still has not atoned for its past or protected the vulnerable going forward. I have reported on the lives of scores of victims. I am not an apologist for the world's predators.
However, there's clearly something different about Pasolini. For one thing, Criterion just released this massive boxed set that took years for professionals to curate, celebrating Pasolini's work. One possible difference to consider between Allen and Pasolini is that Allen is still alive and is unrepentant. Pasolini is long dead and, as Schwartz points out, he actually was forthright in writing about his sexuality. Perhaps that makes these cases so different that, today, we can look at Pasolini's cinematic work and isolate discussions of his personal life to another realm of consideration.
In fact, the sexual lives of film notables are notoriously complex. If we begin purging our cinemas of anyone with a troubling sexual life, well, you can see the moral and ethical and cultural dilemmas.
I feel that I needed to write at this length about this book to explain what Schwartz gives us in this weighty, thorough biography. Why even write about such a controversial subject? Because I feel someone in public journalism needs to write about these issues if only because Criterion has just asked the whole world to begin celebrating Pasolini, once again. My own instinct is that we should, indeed, learn about the life of this troubled prophet and discuss how these issues should be weighed.
So, I think I've been nearly as thorough as Schwartz in explaining—in this review format—what you'll find in this book. I was fascinated by Schwartz's biography. The sections on Pasolini's posters and on his advocacy for Friulian culture are aspects of his life I had never encountered before this book. I'm giving the biography 5 stars for the thorough research and honesty that Schwartz brings to the task from start to finish.
February 9, 2010
With rigorous scholarship, this biography captures the complexity of Pasolini and his time. Politics and culture are intertwined, as with no other country except Russia. Pasolini saw himself as a writer and teacher. Italy was his classroom. From scholar, poet, philologist, professor, writer, editor, critic, intellectual, polemicist, and, finally, filmmaker, Pasolini was doggedly communicating to the Italian populace.
His early films are reflections of reality ~ the life of the subproletarian, a symbol of fascism and its failed recovery. With the advent of capitalism, consumerism, and bourgeois middle-class, the marginalized no longer retained their innocence. The people and culture were becoming more homogenized. Pasolini is rendered aphasic, as the culture no longer listens or understands. His films are increasingly metaphoric, symbolic, and allegorical in attempts to communicate. With his final film, there is no hope for humanity. Provocation never led to understanding, nor would it be possible until the messenger was dead. The mythos is created.
Discussions of anti-Fascism, Marxism, and Freud are simplifications of his work and art (as is the above commentary). Pasolini's epoch demands further scrutiny. Only in this Italy, with its reigning triumvirate of ecclesiastic, monarchist, and dictatorial rule, could a Pasolini and this symbiotic relationship with culture exist.
His early films are reflections of reality ~ the life of the subproletarian, a symbol of fascism and its failed recovery. With the advent of capitalism, consumerism, and bourgeois middle-class, the marginalized no longer retained their innocence. The people and culture were becoming more homogenized. Pasolini is rendered aphasic, as the culture no longer listens or understands. His films are increasingly metaphoric, symbolic, and allegorical in attempts to communicate. With his final film, there is no hope for humanity. Provocation never led to understanding, nor would it be possible until the messenger was dead. The mythos is created.
Discussions of anti-Fascism, Marxism, and Freud are simplifications of his work and art (as is the above commentary). Pasolini's epoch demands further scrutiny. Only in this Italy, with its reigning triumvirate of ecclesiastic, monarchist, and dictatorial rule, could a Pasolini and this symbiotic relationship with culture exist.
July 10, 2022
En nu Salò bekijken!
March 5, 2023
Citaat :
Review : Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922 – 1975) was een Italiaans filmregisseur, dichter, schrijver en marxist. In 1939 ging hij studeren aan de universiteit van Bologna. Hij publiceerde zijn eerste gedichtenbundel, Poesia a Casarsa, in 1941.
Tijdens de toen aan de gang zijnde Tweede Wereldoorlog werd hij in het leger opgenomen en raakte hij later in Duitse krijgsgevangenschap waaruit hij echter wist te ontvluchten. Na zijn studies in Bologna kwam hij begin jaren vijftig definitief in Rome terecht, samen met zijn moeder. Zijn va-der, een officier in het fascistische leger, was op dat moment al overleden. Zijn jongere broer was als partizaan tijdens de oorlog gesneuveld. Pasolini studeerde in ’48 af met een proefschrift over de dichter Giovanni Pascoli en begon les te geven. Hij bestudeerde de ideeën van Antonio Gramsci en wilde niet enkel intellectueel zijn, maar zich ook concreet engageren en sloot zich aan bij de PCI, de Italiaanse communistische partij. In 1949 brak echter een eerste seksueel schandaal los rond zijn figuur. Nog voor zijn schuld bewezen was, werd hij als leraar de deur gewezen én uit de com-munistische partij gezet. Moeder en zoon konden aanvankelijk de eindjes moeilijk aan elkaar kno-pen. Ze woonden in een verpauperde buitenwijk van Rome, onderwerp van zijn spraakmakende novelle Ragazzi di vita (1955), en later van de film Accattone. Voor zijn novelle kreeg hij behalve literaire lof ook kritiek vanwege het obscene karakter van het betreffen-de werk.
Na zijn tweede roman, Una vita violenta, die zich eveneens afspeelt in de schaduwzij-de van de Romeinse samenleving, maakte Pasolini zijn eerste film, Accattone. Pasolini kreeg internationale bekendheid met zijn opmerkelijke film Il Vangelo secondo Mat-teo (1964) die zelfs vanuit de Kerk werd geprezen. Vanuit zijn sociale bewogenheid groeide zijn kritiek op de gangbare christelijke opvattingen. Pasolini paste sommige stijlelementen en technieken van het Italiaanse neorealisme toe in zijn film en – opvallend – de meeste van zijn acteurs waren geen beroepsacteurs. Zijn volgende twee kortfilms, La terra vista della luna (1966) en Che cosa sono le nuovole (1967), waren bijna surrealistische fabels die overvloedig in kleur baadden. In de tweede helft van de ja-ren 60 maakte hij een vijftal mythische films, waarin de mens en het concept ‘macht’ cen-traal staan. Dit kwintet vormt misschien wel de meest persoonlijke films van Pasolini. Zijn films schiepen verwarring en waren omstreden, niet het minst vanwege bepaalde obsceniteiten.
Op 2 november 1975 werd Pasolini vermoord en gruwelijk verminkt aangetroffen op een strand in Ostia (bij Rome). De echte omstandigheden van zijn moord zijn onbekend, maar een zeventienja-rige schandknaap, Giuseppe Pelosi, werd veroordeeld voor de moord. Het is wel mogelijk dat Pa-solini om politieke redenen zou zijn vermoord. Begin mei 2005 werd bekendgemaakt dat de moordzaak mogelijk heropend zou worden. In 2007 vroegen ruim zevenhonderd Italiaanse schrij-vers en intellectuelen met een petitie een dringende heropening van het moordonderzoek. In 2009 werd bekend dat het moordonderzoek werkelijk heropend zou worden.
Pasolini was een eigenzinnige intellectueel die worstelde met het marxisme en het christendom. Bovendien was hij in zijn persoonlijk leven een enfant terrible, en nog homoseksueel óok.Zijn in alle opzichten rijke kunstenaarsleven is door Barth David Schwartz in een zeer kloeke biogra-fie gedocumenteerd. De biografie begint met Pasolini's laatste dagen en de lezer maakt di-rect kennis met Schwartz' wijdlopige verteltrant. In de rest van het boek verraadt die aanpak hoeveel moeite het Schwartz kostte om greep te krijgen op de massa materiaal die hij verzamelde: details worden uitgekauwd en verschillende malen valt hij in herhaling. Hij besteedt uitgebreid aandacht aan de complottheorieën en de eventuele identiteit van de opdrachtgevers, maar hij verliest niet uit het oog dat het drama begon op het moment dat Pier Paolo Pasolini zijn autopor-tier opende voor de erotiek zoals hij die het liefst beleefde: anoniem, in de open lucht en met een jonge jongen in goedkope kleren. In de overige ruim zevenhonderd bladzijden van zijn boek maakt Schwartz waar dat Pasolini's gedichten, geschriften en films, de ontwikkeling van zijn denkwereld, ja, de loop van zijn leven, pas samenhang krijgen wanneer ze worden beschouwd in het teken van zijn seksuele voorkeur voor die jongens uit haveloze milieus. Zijn passie maakte hem gelukkig. Ze gaf aanleiding tot zijn intense liefdeslyriek; ze maakte hem van volslagen naïef tot een sociaal-politieke straatvechter; ze vormde de grondvesten voor zijn, ondanks hun barokke vorm steevast leerstellige, romans en films. Maar die passie maakte zijn leven ook tot een aaneenschakeling van schandalen en processen, een monstruositeit van publieke aandacht waarop Pasolini slechts venijnig schoppend en trappend een privé-bestaan kon veroveren. Sch-wartz beschrijft Pasolini als een geniaal kunstenaar en een oorspronkelijk cultuurfilosoof en hij kon dat oordeel staven doordat hij sprak met ongeveer iedereen die Pasolini heeft gekend en door grondig elke letter te lezen die hij schreef. Gelukkig belet dat hem niet om Pasolini's neiging tot bombast te relativeren, er zelfs de gek mee te steken. Meermalen tekent Schwartz Pasolini ook als een kille man, ziekelijk egocentrisch en niet loyaal.
Pasolini requiem is toch wel een heel bijzondere biografie te noemen.
Review : Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922 – 1975) was een Italiaans filmregisseur, dichter, schrijver en marxist. In 1939 ging hij studeren aan de universiteit van Bologna. Hij publiceerde zijn eerste gedichtenbundel, Poesia a Casarsa, in 1941.
Tijdens de toen aan de gang zijnde Tweede Wereldoorlog werd hij in het leger opgenomen en raakte hij later in Duitse krijgsgevangenschap waaruit hij echter wist te ontvluchten. Na zijn studies in Bologna kwam hij begin jaren vijftig definitief in Rome terecht, samen met zijn moeder. Zijn va-der, een officier in het fascistische leger, was op dat moment al overleden. Zijn jongere broer was als partizaan tijdens de oorlog gesneuveld. Pasolini studeerde in ’48 af met een proefschrift over de dichter Giovanni Pascoli en begon les te geven. Hij bestudeerde de ideeën van Antonio Gramsci en wilde niet enkel intellectueel zijn, maar zich ook concreet engageren en sloot zich aan bij de PCI, de Italiaanse communistische partij. In 1949 brak echter een eerste seksueel schandaal los rond zijn figuur. Nog voor zijn schuld bewezen was, werd hij als leraar de deur gewezen én uit de com-munistische partij gezet. Moeder en zoon konden aanvankelijk de eindjes moeilijk aan elkaar kno-pen. Ze woonden in een verpauperde buitenwijk van Rome, onderwerp van zijn spraakmakende novelle Ragazzi di vita (1955), en later van de film Accattone. Voor zijn novelle kreeg hij behalve literaire lof ook kritiek vanwege het obscene karakter van het betreffen-de werk.
Na zijn tweede roman, Una vita violenta, die zich eveneens afspeelt in de schaduwzij-de van de Romeinse samenleving, maakte Pasolini zijn eerste film, Accattone. Pasolini kreeg internationale bekendheid met zijn opmerkelijke film Il Vangelo secondo Mat-teo (1964) die zelfs vanuit de Kerk werd geprezen. Vanuit zijn sociale bewogenheid groeide zijn kritiek op de gangbare christelijke opvattingen. Pasolini paste sommige stijlelementen en technieken van het Italiaanse neorealisme toe in zijn film en – opvallend – de meeste van zijn acteurs waren geen beroepsacteurs. Zijn volgende twee kortfilms, La terra vista della luna (1966) en Che cosa sono le nuovole (1967), waren bijna surrealistische fabels die overvloedig in kleur baadden. In de tweede helft van de ja-ren 60 maakte hij een vijftal mythische films, waarin de mens en het concept ‘macht’ cen-traal staan. Dit kwintet vormt misschien wel de meest persoonlijke films van Pasolini. Zijn films schiepen verwarring en waren omstreden, niet het minst vanwege bepaalde obsceniteiten.
Op 2 november 1975 werd Pasolini vermoord en gruwelijk verminkt aangetroffen op een strand in Ostia (bij Rome). De echte omstandigheden van zijn moord zijn onbekend, maar een zeventienja-rige schandknaap, Giuseppe Pelosi, werd veroordeeld voor de moord. Het is wel mogelijk dat Pa-solini om politieke redenen zou zijn vermoord. Begin mei 2005 werd bekendgemaakt dat de moordzaak mogelijk heropend zou worden. In 2007 vroegen ruim zevenhonderd Italiaanse schrij-vers en intellectuelen met een petitie een dringende heropening van het moordonderzoek. In 2009 werd bekend dat het moordonderzoek werkelijk heropend zou worden.
Pasolini was een eigenzinnige intellectueel die worstelde met het marxisme en het christendom. Bovendien was hij in zijn persoonlijk leven een enfant terrible, en nog homoseksueel óok.Zijn in alle opzichten rijke kunstenaarsleven is door Barth David Schwartz in een zeer kloeke biogra-fie gedocumenteerd. De biografie begint met Pasolini's laatste dagen en de lezer maakt di-rect kennis met Schwartz' wijdlopige verteltrant. In de rest van het boek verraadt die aanpak hoeveel moeite het Schwartz kostte om greep te krijgen op de massa materiaal die hij verzamelde: details worden uitgekauwd en verschillende malen valt hij in herhaling. Hij besteedt uitgebreid aandacht aan de complottheorieën en de eventuele identiteit van de opdrachtgevers, maar hij verliest niet uit het oog dat het drama begon op het moment dat Pier Paolo Pasolini zijn autopor-tier opende voor de erotiek zoals hij die het liefst beleefde: anoniem, in de open lucht en met een jonge jongen in goedkope kleren. In de overige ruim zevenhonderd bladzijden van zijn boek maakt Schwartz waar dat Pasolini's gedichten, geschriften en films, de ontwikkeling van zijn denkwereld, ja, de loop van zijn leven, pas samenhang krijgen wanneer ze worden beschouwd in het teken van zijn seksuele voorkeur voor die jongens uit haveloze milieus. Zijn passie maakte hem gelukkig. Ze gaf aanleiding tot zijn intense liefdeslyriek; ze maakte hem van volslagen naïef tot een sociaal-politieke straatvechter; ze vormde de grondvesten voor zijn, ondanks hun barokke vorm steevast leerstellige, romans en films. Maar die passie maakte zijn leven ook tot een aaneenschakeling van schandalen en processen, een monstruositeit van publieke aandacht waarop Pasolini slechts venijnig schoppend en trappend een privé-bestaan kon veroveren. Sch-wartz beschrijft Pasolini als een geniaal kunstenaar en een oorspronkelijk cultuurfilosoof en hij kon dat oordeel staven doordat hij sprak met ongeveer iedereen die Pasolini heeft gekend en door grondig elke letter te lezen die hij schreef. Gelukkig belet dat hem niet om Pasolini's neiging tot bombast te relativeren, er zelfs de gek mee te steken. Meermalen tekent Schwartz Pasolini ook als een kille man, ziekelijk egocentrisch en niet loyaal.
Pasolini requiem is toch wel een heel bijzondere biografie te noemen.
March 29, 2021
Ik las de Nederlandstalige vertaling van deze monumentale biografie (Karel van Eerd, Pauline Moody, Rob van der Veer en Han Visserman bij uitgeverij Meulenhoff ). Ik kan mij niet voorstellen dat e nog vollediger, gedetailleerder kan zijn over Pasolini, dan wat Barth David Schwartz. Een huzarenstukje. Bij mijn weten nog altijd de ultieme bio over één van de belangrijkste en markantste Italiaanse intellectuelen uit de vorige eeuw.
March 13, 2025
Una biografia imponente per un personaggio ingombrante e controverso, che con la sua grande eredità culturale, oltre che la sua morte mai del tutto chiarita, continua a essere discusso e prominente nel panorama culturale italiano anche a 50 anni dalla sua scomparsa.
Libro molto ben scritto, ottimamente documentato e abbastanza scorrevole. Consigliato a chiunque sia interessato ad approcciarsi al pensiero di Pasolini.
Libro molto ben scritto, ottimamente documentato e abbastanza scorrevole. Consigliato a chiunque sia interessato ad approcciarsi al pensiero di Pasolini.
November 27, 2023
So Pasolini liked em' young, huh?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 20, 2016
It took me a long time to finish this book. It has an interesting start, clear structure, following the works of Pasolini with citations of his poems, but the meat is too dry to get my full involvement—accumulation of facts with little story skill. The author is a contributor of Scientific American, which may limit his potential as literature biographer.
February 2, 2007
I came across a galley of this before it was actually published, so I've never read the published version. This book would be the best choice for anyone wanting to learn about Pasolini's life.
February 13, 2010
J'ai kiffé !
August 8, 2019
读起来还挺爽的。一些问题：材料丰富，但组织上乏力凌乱，力求客观但视野较窄，有不少奇怪的细节错误。其中引用的诗歌，经过翻译，让人一个字也看不懂，其实他的意大利语诗我觉得已经算相对好懂的了……
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