The Earth Seen from the Moon and more

The Earth Seen from the Moon

1966. Italy. Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. From the anthology film Le streghe. With Totò, Ninetto Davoli, Silvana Mangano, Laura Betti. “[In a segment reminiscent] in style to Don Quixote, a recently widowed father and his son travel around the country in search of a new wife and mother, and after a long period, they discover the literally speechless Mangano. She brings joy into their lives, but they are poor, and in order to find a better life for themselves, they concoct a scheme to try to make some quick cash. (…) The outlandish performances, artwork, and costumes does evoke great charm and likeability” (Vince Leo, 2004). In Italian; English subtitles. 30 min.

What Are the Clouds?

1967. Italy. Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. From the anthology film Capriccio all’italiana. With Totò, Ninetto Davoli, Laura Betti. “The poster announces the presentation of the film in which the poster is reproduced: Che cosa sono le nuvole? The painting is Las meninas. It depicts the artist Velázquez painting the painting that you see. In the painting the king and the queen who are absent from the painting appear in the mirror at the background of the painting. They are present only as a reflection. The mirror is reduplicated in the film. The painting becomes the subject of a shot in a film which the shots point to. Like the painting, the film is mirrored in the film. It is in the same relation to the mirror as was the painting mirrored in Las meninas. The structure of the Pasolini film is analogous to the Velázquez painting” (Sam Rohdie, The Passion of Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1995). In Italian; English subtitles. 22 min.

The Paper Flower Sequence

1968. Italy. Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Ninetto Davoli. From the anthology film Amore e rabbia. “[Pasolini’s film] is a reference to the Gospel parable usually called in English ‘The Barren Fig Tree,’ where Christ strikes down a fig tree because it isn’t bearing fruit in March, although it could hardly have known better. In the episode, [Davoli] is shown happily down the via Nazionale in Rome, while in super-imposition there are images of various things going on in the world, such as the bombing of Vietnam, of which Ninetto remains blissfully ignorant and unaware” (G. Nowell-Smith, “Pasolini’s Originality,” in Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1977). In Italian; English subtitles. 12 min.