The By popular demand screenings allow us to respond to special requests from you, our audience! Whether it's a film from a retrospective you want to see again, or a work you want to draw our attention to, we are open to all suggestions. The programming team collects suggestions from the public and responds to them whenever possible.
We invite you this month to rediscover Pier Paolo Pasolini's Medea, in a copy recently acquired by the Cinémathèque québécoise. Pasolini draws freely from the tragedy of Euripides to make the conflict between Medea and Jason a powerful metaphor for the acculturation and loss of spirituality resulting from mass society and materialism. In the title role, the Greek singer Maria Callas makes her first and only film appearance.
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini was born in Bologna in 1922, the son of a military officer and a schoolteacher. During World War II, he began teaching, but was deeply affected by the death of his brother, a partisan fighter. In 1949, Pasolini was accused of corrupting minors and had to give up teaching. He was also expelled from the Communist Party due to his homosexuality, although this didn't deter him from his Marxist beliefs. He moved to Rome, where his early writings stirred both controversy and acclaim. Pasolini then turned to cinema, initially writing scripts for others before directing his own films in the early 1960s. His filmography grew increasingly hard to categorize, blending political and mystical themes. He was a relentless critic of fascism, bourgeois conformity, consumerism, and globalization. Frequently at odds with his era, Pasolini's career was marked by trials, controversies, and censorship, culminating in 1975 with the release of his most infamous and provocative film, Salò, shortly before his mysterious assassination.
Photo : Bruno Massenet | Collections de la Cinémathèque québécoise
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Le passage de Pasolini au cinéma s’est fait par l’écrit : romancier et poète en premier lieu, il est sollicité pour ses talents de scénariste avant de réaliser ses propres films. Ce dialogue entre l’écrit et le cinéma se poursuivra tout au long de son parcours, au gré des adaptations.
Medea by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Medea by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Medea by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Medea by Pier Paolo Pasolini
