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Comizi d’amore

Enquête sur la sexualité

Pier Paolo Pasolini

27.06 Palace 19:00 BUY YOUR TICKET
Documentary . 92' . Italy . 1964 . IT / ST : FR

Where do babies come from?

The stork brings them, they grow on a tree, they are sent by the Good Lord, by a faraway relative. But take a closer look at the faces of these kids: they do not even try to give the impression that they believe what they say. […] The stork is a way to make fun of the ‘grown-ups’, a way of paying them back in their own counterfeit money. It is the ironic, impatient sign that the questioning will go no further, that the adults are prying, that they shall not join the game, and that the child will keep the ‘real story’ for himself. That’s how Pasolini’s film begins. Enquête sur la sexualité (An Inquiry into Sexuality) is a very strange way of translating the Italian Comizi d’amore: a meeting, a convention or perhaps a forum on love. It is the age-old game of the ‘Symposium’, but outdoors, on the beaches and bridges, on street corners with children playing ball, young boys hanging around, bored girls in bathing suits, clusters of prostitutes on sidewalks, and workers after hours. […] These are street conversations about love. After all, the street is the most spontaneous form of Mediterranean conviviality. Pasolini, as if in passing, holds out his mic to a group of people strolling or basking in the sun; off-camera, he throws out a question about ‘love’, that vague area where sex, the couple, pleasure, the family, betrothal and its customs, prostitution and its rates, all intersect. Someone makes up his mind, answers with some hesitation, gets up his nerve again, speaks for the others; they draw nearer, give their approval or grumble, arms on shoulders, face against face. Laughter, tenderness, some feverishness passes quickly between those bodies huddled together, or touching each other. And they speak of themselves with a reserve and a distance inversely proportionate to the warmth and closeness of their contact. The ‘adults’ stand next to each other and make speeches, the ‘young’ talk briefly and take each other’s arms. Pasolini, the interviewer, fades out; Pasolini, the director, watches with both ears. This document cannot be appreciated if one is more interested in what is said than in the mystery that isn’t told.

Michel Foucault, Les Matins gris de la tolérance, “Le Monde”, 23 March 1977; tr. Eng by Danielle Kormos, “Stanford Italian Review”, vol. II, n. 2, Autumn 1982

STARRING

Lello Bersani

Ignazio Buttitta

Adele Cambria

Camilla Cederna

Graziella Chiarcossi

Peppino Di Capri

Oriana Fallaci

Alberto Moravia

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Giuseppe Ungaretti

WRITER

Pier Paolo Pasolini

DIRECTOR

Pier Paolo Pasolini

 

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Mario Bernardo

Tonino Delli Colli.

FILM EDITING

Nino Baragli

PRODUCTION

Alfredo Bini per Arco Film.

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pasolini_Comizi_d_amore_01

Pier Paolo Pasolini, (born March 5, 1922, Bologna, Italy—died Nov. 2, 1975, Ostia, near Rome), Italian motion-picture director, poet, and novelist, noted for his socially critical, stylistically unorthodox films.

FILMOGRAPHY

1961 : ACCATTONE

1962 : MAMMA ROMA

1963 : LA RABBIA

1964 : IL VANGELO SECONDO MATTEO

1967 : EDIPO RE

1968 : TEOREMA

1969 : MEDEA

1971 : IL DECAMERON

1972 : I RACCONTI DI CANTERBURY

1975 : SALÒ O LE 120 GIORNATE DI SODOMA

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