Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian director (controversial to say the least due to his brash and straightforward style of delivering the anti-capitalist message in his works (most prominently and infamously in his final film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom) and a vocal supporter of communism. The Gospel According to St. Matthew is one of his most famous works (as the title suggests being an adaptation of the Gospels in the Bible and a portrayal of the life of Jesus through a revolutionary perspective). He was an unlikely person to do such a sincere portrayal (being a communist, an atheist, and gay), but it has been highly regarded both in its day and today. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1964 Venice Film Festival (second place behind the Golden Lion, a crowd that was there to boo him actually cheered after the film was screened), was nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Art-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Score), and was named by L’Osservatore Romano (the daily newspaper of the Vatican) as the best film on Christ ever made.
The who-what-where now?
Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian director (controversial to say the least due to his brash and straightforward style of delivering the anti-capitalist message in his works (most prominently and infamously in his final film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom) and a vocal supporter of communism. The Gospel According to St. Matthew is one of his most famous works (as the title suggests being an adaptation of the Gospels in the Bible and a portrayal of the life of Jesus through a revolutionary perspective). He was an unlikely person to do such a sincere portrayal (being a communist, an atheist, and gay), but it has been highly regarded both in its day and today. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1964 Venice Film Festival (second place behind the Golden Lion, a crowd that was there to boo him actually cheered after the film was screened), was nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Art-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Score), and was named by L’Osservatore Romano (the daily newspaper of the Vatican) as the best film on Christ ever made.