Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975) was an Italian filmmaker, writer, poet, and theatre director. Born in Bologna, he studied literature at the University of Bologna and began his career as a writer, publishing novels such as Ragazzi di vita (1955) and Una vita violenta (1959), which depict life in Rome’s working-class neighborhoods. He made his directorial debut with Accattone (1961) and continued with films including Mamma Roma (1962), Il Vangelo secondo Matteo [The Gospel According to Matthew] (1964), Edipo Re [Oedipus Rex] (1967), Teorema (1968), Medea (1969), and the Trilogia della vita [The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights]. His final film, Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma [Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom] (1975), was completed shortly before his murder in Ostia. Pasolini described his blending of styles and traditions as a form of pastiche, creating a cinematic language that opened new aesthetic possibilities. His “cinema of poetry” opposed the formulaic commercial films he called the “cinema of prose,” seeking instead to connect social classes, past and present traditions, and marginalized cultures with the structures of modern society. In 2025, Sabzian published WHO IS ME: Dichter van de as, the Dutch translation of his text Poeta delle ceneri, written in New York in 1966 during a visit to the New York Film Festival.
