David Forgacs on Dirt and Order in Pasolini

Thanks to the King's College of London the BFI hosts a lecture on a topic/director, and so on, with different scholars and professors from all over the world. Back in March I had the pleasure to attend the talk of David Forgacs, Professor of Italian Cultural Studies at the New York University, and author of the BFI Classics on Pier Paolo Pasolini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Roberto Rossellini and Federico Fellini. The talk was lead with the help of visual examples from films' clips, which helped both in terms of textual analysis, and in understanding the changes of context.


I will give you a summary of the main points of the lecture, which will certainly increase your knowledge of Pasolini's work, or, arouse your curiosity in it.
Professor Forgacs introduced the talk by stating the recurrency of two elements in Pasolini's productions: dirt of various kind, material or not, opposed to order, representing symmetry. These two elements could be interpreted as the director's divided self. There are interrelations between the two, concerning the meaning of dirt, especially, which is influenced by the changes in the historical context.

First of all, DIRT, meaning matter out of place, is subject of shifts in meaning and value. In Pasolini's early works dirt is positive element, whereas in the later Pasolini, dirt really becomes "dirty".
There are four types of dirt which can be recognized in his works:

1. Earth and mud
2. Trash
3. Excrement
4. Contamination 

1. The first kind of dirt in strictly connected to the Roman landscape, and to the Italian language, which contains a rich vocabulary of words to define this term. In the landscape of Pasolini's Rome, that of the Borgata, mud is everywhere. In his first novel, Ragazzi di Vita (1955), he plays with the different Italian expressions for dirt. The positivity of dirt is expressed in the children playing in the borgata, their strong connection to earth, and use of mud as a playing tool. In Una vita violenta (1959) he represents the beauty of the landscape spoiled with dirt.

In Accattone (1961), the ambivalence of dirt is reflected in the ambivalence of the main character, torn between sacred and profane, angelic and diabolical, in the ambiguous gesture of self-mortification.
Another famous mud scene is the one in Teorema (1968), experimented by Emelia's character. This scene can have multiple associations. Lastly, Petrolio (published posthumous in 1992), his last and unfinished novel, portrays the capitalist corruption, the end of the borgate, and the predominance of a dirty dirt.

2. Trash, in the early period, is considered a source of vitality. It is another concept which allows the writer/director to play with the numerous Italian words: immondizia, immondezzaio, ecc. This concept is firstly represented as the redemption of rubbish, recycling to make order out of waste.
In his later work though, he talks about "sconfinato immondezzaio", he transfers the term's connotation to people. In his Trilogy of Life (Decameron, Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights) he represents an insincere eroticism, he defines young people as "immondizia umana". The ultimate level of the negative side of trash is expressed in Salò (1975), turning into aggressiveness and mysanthropy.

3. In Una vita violenta, excrements were represented as comic outcomes in the texts. This completely changes in Salò, in the dark comedy scene of eating shit. He wanted that film to be very difficult to watch. In the end, it became an allegory about consumption.

4. The contamination element started, once again, from the language, the Italian dialects, which Pasolini saw as enrichments of the language, were often used together with high literary language. There was the elevation of the poor characters etc. Ultimately, the contamination became of another kind: in films/documentaries such as Le Mura di Sana'a (1971), he represents the personal struggle against modernization. The deturpation, negative contamination.

Second, the element of ORDER divided into its two connotations:

1. Positive (frontal visual style, openness)
2. Negative (symmetrical, closure, oppression)

1. In the first case, to give some examples, he used close-ups in the middle of the frame, and short-takes. In this stylistic choices he was influenced by Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) with Maria Falconetti's close-ups.

2. In the second case, the negativity is expressed through an excessive symmetry: through architectural features (archs), for example. The term becomes negative when the films are about entrapment, giving a claustrophobic feeling.
In Salò, for example, there is an opposition between open and close spaces. It is an allegory about the control of body and behavior.

In conclusion, Professor Forgacs stated some general points while answering the audience's questions. Pasolini was very perceptive in his writing about Italy. His advice is to use Pasolini without thinking through Pasolini in relation to everything. He was a conservationist with radical beliefs, he did not follow a linear trajectory. The Libertines in Salò are Pasolini, the projection of his anger.



Thanks to David Forgacs, for an insightful talk and making we Italians in the audience proud of our culture, richness of language, and epic figures such as Pasolini.

If you are interested have a look at:
http://artbookscinema.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/london-gay-and-lesbian-film-festival.html