“This film is essential to have seen but impossible to watch: a viewer may find life itself defiled beyond redemption by the simple fact that such things can be shown or even imagined.” - Richard Brody, New Yorker
“An essential work.” - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
October 12, 7:30pm | Notorious for its reception as much as its imagery, Pasolini’s final film has been called depraved, pornographic - and brilliant. Beyond the controversy around his adaptation of the Marquis de Sade’s unfinished work of degradation is an unflinching look at the hypocrisy of the social and sexual mores by which we live.
Pier Palo Pasolini - Poetry, Passion & Provocation: One hundred years after his birth and nearly fifty years after his death, the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini continue to shock and provoke audiences, a filmography defined by powerful imagery and thematic juxtapositions: the sacred and the profane, the pious and the perverse, the personal and the political. One of the most distinctive filmmakers of the 60s and 70s, and one of cinema’s most venerated auteurs, Pasolini challenged the boundaries of filmmaking, self expression, and censorship, leaving him with a legacy of distinctive and singular work. Content consideration: films in this series contain sexual themes and imagery. View full series here.
This series is made possible by, and presented with generous support from, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Chicago. 
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