Παζολίνι

by René de Ceccatty, Προκόπης Σοφράς (translator)

«Όσοι, όπως εγώ, είχαν την μοίρα να μην ερωτεύονται σύμφωνα με τον κανόνα, καταλήγουν να υπερεκτιμήσουν το θέμα του έρωτα. Κάποιος φυσιολογικός μπορεί να υπομείνει – τι τρομερή λέξη – την αποχή από τον έρωτα, τις χαμένες ευκαιρίες, αλλά σε εμένα, η δυσκολία να ερωτευτώ μετέτρεψε σε εμμονή την ανάγκη να ερωτεύομαι, γιατί η λειτουργία δημιούργησε υπερτροφία στο όργανο, ενώ στην εφηβεία μου, ο έρωτας μου φαινόταν μια άπιαστη χίμαιρα».

Η ζωή του Πιέρ Πάολο Παζολίνι (1922-1975), σκηνοθέτη, μυθιστοριογράφου, θεωρητικού της τέχνης και της λογοτεχνίας, εκτυλίχθηκε και ως τραγικό πεπρωμένο και ως σύμβολο της πιο γενναιόφρονης ελευθερίας. Αυτή τη γενναιότητα την πλήρωσε ακριβά με σκάνδαλα, δίκες και τέλος ως θύμα μιας μυστηριώδους δολοφονίας, σε μια παραλία της Όστια, μια νύχτα του Νοέμβρη.

Genres: Biography

288 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

Reviews

[Clapton · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, for the sake of transparency, I’ll point out that I picked up the Portuguese translation by Renée Eve Levié. For some reason, this version is not to be found in the Goodreads database.

If you are a fan of Pasolini, the book is worth reading (it’s a quick read), but I was a little put off by what, to me, seemed like a lack of focus. The cover says it’s a biography, but I don’t feel like I got a very good understanding––at least not a clear chronological one––of his life. The book seems like it wants to be an analysis of Pasolni’s ideas and philosophy, while sometimes changing into a (somewhat limited) biography. Of course, you need some biography to analyze a person’s thinking, but just as the author doesn’t turn the book into a fully fledged biography, I didn’t feel that it went deep enough in its philosophical analysis.

While I appreciate an author trying to be innovative, I ultimately don’t think his choice to divide Pasolini’s life into more abstract categories (“A son,” “A poet,” “A language,” “A combat,” “A body,” etc.), instead of telling it chronologically, was very useful. It gets a little confusing and the sections tend to overlap. It inevitably lead to jumping back and forth within Pasolini’s timeline, which requires a skillful narrator to pull it off. In this respect, the author didn’t succeed.

Concluding on a highly subjective note, to me the book came off as a biography written by a philosophical mind, who couldn’t get either the biography or the philosophy part quite right. While reading the book, I imagined the author as initially excited by the project––outlining chapters according to concepts instead of simply a “banal” chronological order––but as the writing got along, he saw the mess it was becoming and simply wanted to get the thing over with. That being said, if you are interested in Pasolini and his work, there are still some insights to be extracted from this book.

[Camille · Rating 4 out of 5]

La biographie de référence, pour les pasolinistes francophones. René de Ceccatty écrit comme un écrivain, plus que comme un biographe, aussi le lecteur novice doit-il parfois s'accrocher pour repérer les périodes et comprendre les événements qui marquent la vie de PPP.
Tout de même passionnant, extrêmement bien mené, et complet.

[Paul Turquois · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'avoue que je m'attendais à mieux, le texte sur Marilyn Monroe d'Anne Plantagenet m'avait beaucoup plus séduit. Ici, j'ai été englouti par la constante énumération de noms propres, de citations, de titres d'œuvres, etc... Difficile de faire plus impersonnel que ça. Même la fin est "bâclée", dans le sens où j'ai tourné la dernière page en m'attendant à trouver quelque chose de plus derrière. Ceci dit, quelques passages (surtout ceux sur le cinéma, j'en aurais voulu plus) sont d'une richesse remarquable, et arrivent très bien à éclairer le lecteur sur l'art de Pasolini. Dans l'ensemble, j'ai plus compris de choses sur moi-même que sur la vie de l'artiste, ce n'est peut être pas une si mauvaise chose après tout.

[Liciane Mamede · Rating 3 out of 5]

É um bom livro para se ter uma visão geral e panorâmica sobre a vida do Pasolini. Mas, até pela extensão da biografia, a impressão é que passa meio de sobrevoo pela vida do poeta/cineasta. Achei difícil de engrenar, porque o Ceccatty tem uma forma de escrita que não é nem um pouco didática, é um tanto literária. Mas a partir do momento em que me acostumei com o estilo, deslanchou. Também achei que o autor destila muito um compilado da visão francesa sobre o Pasolini, principalmente no que tange à obra teórica dele. É preciso então ler com cuidado suas análises.