After premiering at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals back in 2014 Abel Ferrara’s movie ‘Pasolini’ has for some unknown reason has been stuck on a shelf somewhere until now.  However now Kino Lorber the distributor of  indie and art house movies has released the film to select US movie theaters.

It’s the story of the last day of in the life of Pier Paolo Pasolini (Willem Dafoe) the celebrated queer Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. He is in the middle of arguing with the Censors about his latest controversial film “Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom.” which many people want banned completely.  The film  was based  on the Marquis de Sade’s book, but set in the last days of the Fascist rump state that formed in the northern Italian town of Salo after the fall of Mussolini.

On it’s release the film was met with outrage for its graphic violence and degrading depictions of sexual violation. 

Meanwhile living at home with his elderly mother, Pasolini is writing his next movie. that’s. when he isn’t out cruising the streets of Rome in his car looking for young hustlers to pick up .

It’s hardly a  spoiler to mention that he is murdered as that is was such a cause celebre at the time. Ferrara opts for the original idea that Pasolini was killed by one of his hustler dates.,whereas in reality that was later discounted and his death was blamed on a homophobic attack or some sort of political revenge.

Ferrara assumes that everyone watching the story unfold is very familiar with the details of Pasolini’s life, and in fact if you don’t you’ll find this uneven and confluted film extremely difficult to follow.  Dafoe is excellent as the moody genius but aside from some wonderful scenes with his intellectual musings, we never get a real glimpse of of what makes the man tick.

Pasolini’s’ own films with their very shocking content are very much an acquired taste, but then so is this very odd biopic on him too.