Cinema

Vintage film
The Gospel According
to St. Matthew
Il vangelo secondo Matteo
Sun 31 March, 15:00
Pasolini remains one of the most
controversial figures in post-war Italian
culture, and an artist of fascinating
contradictions. He was a Marxist
atheist who was thrown out of the
Communist party and attacked more
than once by the Catholic Church. Yet
he is also responsible for The Gospel
According to St. Matthew, which even
the Vatican has named the greatest of
all films about Christ. Shooting on
location in Southern Italy, using nonprofessional
actors and eschewing
special effects, Pasolini strips the story
down to its essentials, avoids the false
piety of Hollywood biblical epics, and
presents Christ as an angry,
revolutionary figure. But this is also a
film about 2,000 years of artistic
representations of Christ, and it is
saturated in references to religious
paintings, from Giotto to Georges
Rouault, and features a stunning score
of spiritual music, from Bach to
African-American spirituals. One of the
great achievements of Italian film.
Dir: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Italy / France 1964 / 2h17m / Digital /
PG
Italian with English subtitles
Point Blank
Sun 14 April, 16:00
It is hard to imagine that Point Blank
was dismissed by many upon its
initial release as a straightforward
crime film. The story – which was later
filmed as Payback and the upcoming
Jason Statham vehicle, Parker – is
admittedly the stuff of hardboiled pulp:
a thief is double crossed and left to die
but returns to regain his lost money.
However, the telling of the tale is
anything but conventional. Director
John Boorman presents us with a kind
of surreal dream (with hints that the
protagonist may in fact be dead),
complete with experimental use of
flashbacks, extraordinary sets and
otherworldly LA locations. And then
there is Lee Marvin’s monumental
central performance, which neither Mel
Gibson or the Stath can come within a
million miles of replicating. There’s no
doubt about it: Point Blank is a
masterpiece.
Dir: John Boorman
USA 1967 / 1h34m / 35mm / 15
Theorum
Sat 20 April, 15:30
The dark flip-side to The Gospel
According to St. Matthew, Theorum
sees Terrence Stamp on tremendous
form as a messianic (or demonic)
figure who mysteriously ingratiates
himself with a wealthy Italian family,
seduces everyone under the roof and
then leaves as quickly as he came.
Pasolini was a uniquely divisive
filmmaker and this sees him at his
most provocative. The film was
derided in some circles as
blasphemous, while others have
viewed it as a highly moral
commentary on the decadence of the
1960s. Similarly, some have seen the
film as being wilfully obscure and even
incomprehensible; yet the film, with its
often surreal imagery, was also
embraced by the hippy generation as
a prime example of expanded
consciousness cinema. However you
read it, Pasolini’s allegorical fable
remains a uniquely strange and
enigmatic experience, but it is never
less than compelling, and it will leave
you thinking about it for days.
Dir: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Italy 1968 / 1h45m / Digital / 15
English and Italian with
English subtitles
Tickets 01382 909 900 17