Theorem

Theorem

1968. Italy. Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti, Terence Stamp, Anne Wiazemsky. “His film is a parable, seductively ambiguous and yet set forth with the calm certitude of a geometrical theorem: if five members of a wealthy industrialist’s household encounter God, five specific things will happen to them in consequence of their encounter. The Deity appears as a mysterious houseguest who offers himself freely, ambisexually, to anyone who wants him. And everyone wants him: the industrialist, his wife, daughter, son and maid. Once the guest has gone, the maid becomes a saint, the daughter a catatonic, the mother a nymphomaniac, the son an Abstract Expressionist, and the father a spiritual wanderer across mountains of volcanic ash that Pasolini has thrown in to portray the aridity of modern life” (Joseph Morgenstern, Newsweek, May 5, 1969). In Italian; English subtitles. 105 min.