Teorema

Teorema (English: "Theorem" ) is a 1968 Italian allegorical art film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The film centers on an upper-class Milanese family who are introduced to, and then abandoned by, an otherworldly man with a mysterious divine force. Themes include the timelessness of divinity and the spiritual corruption of the bourgeoisie. Pasolini's sixth film, it was the first time he had worked primarily with professional actors. British actor Terence Stamp stars as the mysterious Visitor, along with Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti, Anne Wiazemsky and Laura Betti. Other roles are played by Andrés José Cruz Soublette, Ninetto Davoli, Alfonso Gatto and Carlo De Mejo. The film was nominated for the Golden Lion 29th Venice International Film Festival, while Laura Betti won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance.

Teorema (English: "Theorem" ) is a 1968 Italian allegorical art film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The film centers on an upper-class Milanese family who are introduced to, and then abandoned by, an otherworldly man with a mysterious divine force. Themes include the timelessness of divinity and the spiritual corruption of the bourgeoisie. Pasolini's sixth film, it was the first time he had worked primarily with professional actors. British actor Terence Stamp stars as the mysterious Visitor, along with Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti, Anne Wiazemsky and Laura Betti. Other roles are played by Andrés José Cruz Soublette, Ninetto Davoli, Alfonso Gatto and Carlo De Mejo. The film was nominated for the Golden Lion 29th Venice International Film Festival, while Laura Betti won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance.

Plot

A mysterious figure known only as The Visitor appears in the lives of a typical bourgeois Italian family. His arrival is heralded at the gates of the family's Milanese estate by an arm-flapping postman. The enigmatic stranger soon engages in sexual affairs with all members of the household: the devoutly religious maid, the sensitive son, the sexually repressed mother, the timid daughter and, finally, the tormented father. The stranger gives unstintingly of himself, asking nothing in return. He stops the passionate maid from committing suicide with a gas hose and tenderly consoles her; he befriends and sleeps with the frightened son, soothing his doubts and anxiety and endowing him with confidence; he seduces the bored and dissatisfied mother, giving her sexual joy and fulfilment; he cares for and comforts the despondent and ailing father; and he becomes emotionally intimate with the overprotected daughter, removing her childish innocence about men. One day the herald returns and announces that the stranger will soon leave the household, just as suddenly and mysteriously as he came. In the subsequent void of the stranger's absence, each family member is forced to confront what was previously concealed by the trappings of bourgeois life. The maid returns to the rural village where she was born and is seen to perform miracles; ultimately, she immolates herself by having her body buried in dirt while shedding ecstatic tears of regeneration. The daughter sinks into a catatonic state and is institutionalized; the son leaves the family home to become an artist, obsessively drawing the stranger's face; the mother seeks sexual encounters with young men; and the father strips himself of all material effects, handing his factory over to its workers, removing his clothes at a railway station and wandering naked across the slopes of Mount Etna, where he ultimately screams in primal rage and despair.

Cast

as The Visitor]]

Reception

On its release the religious right and the Vatican criticized the sexual content of the film. Others considered the film "ambiguous" and "visionary". The film won a special award at the Venice Film Festival from the International Catholic Film Office, only for the award to be withdrawn later when the Vatican protested. Scholars view the film differently owing to the openness or ambiguity of the film. The author of A Certain Realism: Making Use of Pasolini's Film Theory and Practice, Maurizio Viano, says that in order to understand the film there must be "adequate translation". Most scholars writing about the film do not discuss Pasolini's cinematographic techniques but his philosophical arguments. Viano argues that Pasolini intended to be theoretical in this film because he wanted to be recognised as "a film theorist". Pasolini and producer Donato Leoni were charged with obscenity by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rome but were acquitted after only an hour's deliberations. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10.

Other versions

The same year Pasolini expanded Teorema into a novel of the same name, written simultaneously with the film's production. Giorgio Battistelli composed an opera based on the film. In 2009 Dutch theatre company Toneelgroep Amsterdam created and performed a play version of the film.

References

Bibliography

External links

Teorema (Film-Forward review) Teorema: Just a Boy – an essay by James Quandt at The Criterion Collection – Interview with Pier Paolo Pasolini conducted by Guy Flatley in 1969 (first published in The New York Times; posted by Flatley on Moviecrazed)

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