WATCH FILM

Abel Ferrara • Italy • 2014

Autumn, 1975. In an apartment in Rome, Pier Paolo Pasolini sits for an interview, unaware that it will be his last. These days he follows similar routines—post-production on his latest film, Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom; chipping away on an unfinished novel; driving his Alfa Romeo through the streets of the eternal city, searching for companionship. Despite Pasolini’s senselessly violent end on the beach of Ostia, what persists is his acerbic intellect, dualistic ideologies, and tender affection for life.

At once a biopic and tribute from one subversive artist to another, Pasolini parses together historical transcripts with imagined quotidian scenes to offer an intimate glimpse at the iconoclastic intellectual in his final days. Abel Ferrara’s portrait of the legendary Italian auteur premiered at Berlin, Venice, Toronto and San Sebastián. Pasolini is a New York Times Critic's Pick.