El evangelio según San Mateo, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italy, 1964, 134’ 21’ OV with Basque and English subtitles.
Key work in all of Pasolini’s filmography, and perhaps the most rigorous, sensitive cinematographic attempt ever to adapt the life of Jesus Christ to screen. Steering clear of all high-pitched technicolour stridency, and the complete opposite the patchwork largesse of the Biblical adaptations of Hollywood, Pasolini proposes an ancestral experience, basic and close to the core. This is a film of faces (the interpretation-presence of Enrique Irazoqui is unforgettable); this is a film of gestures, of looks, of mysteries. The film faithfully recreates the texts and different episodes of the life of Jesus Christ according to the gospel of St. Mathew. And it proposes a realist, humanist, and deeply moving portrait of Christ, in keeping with the ideology, politics and revolutionary positions of the Italian film director.
Main Jury Prize and Silver Lion at Venice, 1964.
Key work in all of Pasolini’s filmography, and perhaps the most rigorous, sensitive cinematographic attempt ever to adapt the life of Jesus Christ to screen. Main Jury Prize and Silver Lion at Venice, 1964.