Stupendous, Miserable City: Pasolini's Rome

by John David Rhodes

John David Rhodes places the city of Rome at the center of this original and in-depth examination of the work of Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini—but it’s not the classical Rome you imagine. Stupendous, Miserable City situates Pasolini within the history of twentieth-century Roman urban development. The book focuses first on the Fascist period, when populations were moved out of the urban center and into public housing on the periphery of the city, called the borgate, and then turns to the progressive social housing experiments of the 1950s. These environments were the settings of most of Pasolini’s films of the early to mid-1960s. Discussing films such as Accattone, Mamma Roma, and The Hawks and the Sparrows, Rhodes shows how Pasolini used the borgate to critique Roman urban planning and neorealism and to draw attention to the contemptuous treatment of Rome’s poor. To Pasolini, the borgate, rich in human incident, linguistic difference, and squalor, “were life”—and now his passion can be appreciated fully for the first time. Carefully tracing Pasolini’s surprising engagement with this part of Rome and looking beyond his films to explore the interrelatedness of all of Pasolini’s artistic output in the 1950s and 1960s—including his poetry, fiction, and journalism—Rhodes opens up completely new ways of understanding Pasolini’s work and proves how connected Pasolini was to the political and social upheavals in Italy at the time. John David Rhodes is lecturer in literature and visual culture at the University of Sussex.

Genres: Film

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a great source to learn more about the city - the real rome, that i know and live in. and also a great source of pasolini criticism. i searched for months on modern histtories about romes peripheral neighborhoods ....and found this treasure in a musky old english bookstore a few blocks from where pasolini wrote "i ragazzi"... it was meant to be!

it was well written and researched. some of his film criticism is a little elementary -- the urban theory and study is the real gem.

[Dan Humphrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although limited in scope, this is one of the best studies of Pasolini. It’s meticulously researched and very convincing. Beautifully written, too.