Pier Paolo Pasolini has directed this film, dealing - of course - with sexuality, often supressed dito and the consequences or edificatory effects of letting them loose, if this is the theme.
The action takes place in a high class or bourgeois family, being visited by a stranger, a young man who seduces them all, beginning with the bigoted maid, the sensitive son on his way to discover his sexuality, the mother being a sexually frustrated woman, the tormented father and finally (or in between) the timid daughter.
All of a sudden the young man disappears and this creates a cathartic reaction among all the family members leading them into different circumstances in life.
The mother seeks consolation with young men, the son becomes an artist after having left the home, the daughter becomes catatonic, the father gives away his factory to his workers, strips himself of everything and wanders naked into the wilderness. The maid finally becomes a 'miracle maker' in the rural town where she was born.
The obvious 'meaning' (if there is such a thing) in the film is of course to display that the bourgeois life is a false one, delusional, filled of deceit and dishonesty, not recognizing the inner needs of the different characters, just displaying a 'normative' societal family behaviour seen from the horizon of the overbridging moral structures of that very society. This seen also from the point that Pasolini - the poor errant soul - was a communist.
Into this family comes the 'redeemer' who deliver the 'true' nature of the psychological, mental structures and persona of each and every family member.
Some see it as a critic towards the consumer society this family represents and how the events in the film makes them see above and beyond this narrow way of life.
Others again look at the film from the angle of the title, referring to that it's a word derived from the greek θεώρημα, meaning 'spectacle', 'intuition' but also 'theorem' as within mathematics.
As a 'spectacle' it can be seen meaning a film, a piece of work where we are spectators.
On the same time the family are spectators when looking at and devouring the young stranger both visually and - subsequently - physically.
The intuitional part could be perceived as the release of the intuitional way of life that becomes the 'trade mark' of the future life - or lives - of this family. They follow the intuitional calling when reevaluating their lives.
A theorem in mathematics is something derived out of different axioms and when those axioms are made into one theorem or more the theorems lead up to a theory. This process can be reversed.
In this sense we can see a threefold development in the film by some caracterized as being devided into: 'Seduction', 'confession' and 'transformation'. The young man seduce (the family members are being seduced), the family members confess directly or indirectly to him their inner fealings and finally their lives are transformed. In this way one can of course find similarities to Jesus Christ or any other religious leader throughout history: 'Veni' (I come and seduce people), 'vidi' (I see and listen to them), vici' (I change their life in one way or another).
Again others point at the fact that Pasolini wanted to display himself as a film theorist building up this film - not only concerning the plot - in using a documentary opening where Pasolini asks the workers at the factory some question concerning the fact that they are given the factory by the father in the family, then moving on to the behind the curtain fictional scenes leading up to this decision, using different filmic technics (like sepia colour etc), moving on to a more 'fantastic' way of looking at the events as if their had been a miracle or maybe the opposite depending on how one see the changes taking place in front of our eyes.
Even if the family members are being inhibited in their life - not only sexually - one can ask oneself if e.g. the transformation of mental status of the young girl in the family, making her catatonic or if the son, certainly becoming a painter, but becoming obsessed with pictures of the 'redeemer' could be said being an improvement of their lives.
The mother seeking young men ressembling the young man, the maid being seen as a woman able to perform miracles but wanting to be burried alive, could their lives be seen as having been improved?
Within the family the father is perhaps the one having found his true calling but on the same time we know that the society won't accept his way of living for long, before being taken care of by psychiatry.
As a matter of fact, seen from this perspective not one single member of this family would normally be able to stay out of psychiatric treatment, as they by the civil society will be seen as 'nuts', not least the maid, the daughter, the son, the father and in the end the mother too, as her way of living will lead to a 'mental burnout' sooner or later. This might be the message from Pasolini:
The way of living within the bourgeois family is so artificial that it will lead to mental ill-health sooner or later.
On the other hand, a redemption might not be the same as an improvement of your former life, it might be the contrary and what we mean by improvement might also differ from individual to individual.
Finally the plot is so thin and the symbolic implications so superficial that I find it more likely that Pasolini rather wanted to make a film displaying - as mentioned above - himself as a film theorist.
Actors: Silvana Mangano, Terence Stamp, Massimo Girotti and Laura Betti among others.
The action takes place in a high class or bourgeois family, being visited by a stranger, a young man who seduces them all, beginning with the bigoted maid, the sensitive son on his way to discover his sexuality, the mother being a sexually frustrated woman, the tormented father and finally (or in between) the timid daughter.
All of a sudden the young man disappears and this creates a cathartic reaction among all the family members leading them into different circumstances in life.
The mother seeks consolation with young men, the son becomes an artist after having left the home, the daughter becomes catatonic, the father gives away his factory to his workers, strips himself of everything and wanders naked into the wilderness. The maid finally becomes a 'miracle maker' in the rural town where she was born.
The obvious 'meaning' (if there is such a thing) in the film is of course to display that the bourgeois life is a false one, delusional, filled of deceit and dishonesty, not recognizing the inner needs of the different characters, just displaying a 'normative' societal family behaviour seen from the horizon of the overbridging moral structures of that very society. This seen also from the point that Pasolini - the poor errant soul - was a communist.
Into this family comes the 'redeemer' who deliver the 'true' nature of the psychological, mental structures and persona of each and every family member.
Some see it as a critic towards the consumer society this family represents and how the events in the film makes them see above and beyond this narrow way of life.
Others again look at the film from the angle of the title, referring to that it's a word derived from the greek θεώρημα, meaning 'spectacle', 'intuition' but also 'theorem' as within mathematics.
As a 'spectacle' it can be seen meaning a film, a piece of work where we are spectators.
On the same time the family are spectators when looking at and devouring the young stranger both visually and - subsequently - physically.
The intuitional part could be perceived as the release of the intuitional way of life that becomes the 'trade mark' of the future life - or lives - of this family. They follow the intuitional calling when reevaluating their lives.
A theorem in mathematics is something derived out of different axioms and when those axioms are made into one theorem or more the theorems lead up to a theory. This process can be reversed.
In this sense we can see a threefold development in the film by some caracterized as being devided into: 'Seduction', 'confession' and 'transformation'. The young man seduce (the family members are being seduced), the family members confess directly or indirectly to him their inner fealings and finally their lives are transformed. In this way one can of course find similarities to Jesus Christ or any other religious leader throughout history: 'Veni' (I come and seduce people), 'vidi' (I see and listen to them), vici' (I change their life in one way or another).
Again others point at the fact that Pasolini wanted to display himself as a film theorist building up this film - not only concerning the plot - in using a documentary opening where Pasolini asks the workers at the factory some question concerning the fact that they are given the factory by the father in the family, then moving on to the behind the curtain fictional scenes leading up to this decision, using different filmic technics (like sepia colour etc), moving on to a more 'fantastic' way of looking at the events as if their had been a miracle or maybe the opposite depending on how one see the changes taking place in front of our eyes.
Even if the family members are being inhibited in their life - not only sexually - one can ask oneself if e.g. the transformation of mental status of the young girl in the family, making her catatonic or if the son, certainly becoming a painter, but becoming obsessed with pictures of the 'redeemer' could be said being an improvement of their lives.
The mother seeking young men ressembling the young man, the maid being seen as a woman able to perform miracles but wanting to be burried alive, could their lives be seen as having been improved?
Within the family the father is perhaps the one having found his true calling but on the same time we know that the society won't accept his way of living for long, before being taken care of by psychiatry.
As a matter of fact, seen from this perspective not one single member of this family would normally be able to stay out of psychiatric treatment, as they by the civil society will be seen as 'nuts', not least the maid, the daughter, the son, the father and in the end the mother too, as her way of living will lead to a 'mental burnout' sooner or later. This might be the message from Pasolini:
The way of living within the bourgeois family is so artificial that it will lead to mental ill-health sooner or later.
On the other hand, a redemption might not be the same as an improvement of your former life, it might be the contrary and what we mean by improvement might also differ from individual to individual.
Finally the plot is so thin and the symbolic implications so superficial that I find it more likely that Pasolini rather wanted to make a film displaying - as mentioned above - himself as a film theorist.
Actors: Silvana Mangano, Terence Stamp, Massimo Girotti and Laura Betti among others.
No comments:
Post a Comment