Anniversary of Pasolini's film debut
On August 31, 1961, 60 years ago, the premiere of the film "Accattone" took place at the Venice International Film Festival, as part of an out-of-competition screening. The director of the film, known by that time as the writer, Pier Paolo Pasolini. The film was staged according to his own script, describing the life and customs of Italian thieves, pimps and prostitutes, which Pasolini is well familiar with.
The film "Accattone" was the directorial debut of Pier Paolo Pasolini, a communist and homosexual who remained loyal to communist beliefs until the end of his life, for which he was brutally killed by the fascists.
Since Pasolini, at the time of starting work on the film, had sufficient experience as a screenwriter, but had no directorial experience, at first his friend Federico Fellini worked with him on the film. But very soon they diverged in their creative views, and Fellini left the project. But the assistant director on this film was the future luminary of world cinema - Bernardo Bertolucci, for whom "Accattone" also became the first full-length film.
On June 21, 1962, the film "Accattone" by Pier Paolo Pasolini was presented to the guests and participants of the International Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, where it was nominated for the highest award - the Crystal Globe. Pasolini's film did not receive the highest prize, the jury awarded it to the Soviet film "Nine Days of one Year" by Mikhail Romm. But "Accattone" was awarded the so-called Main Prize.
The film "Accattone" did not receive any other significant film awards. Reviews of the most authoritative film critics are also unknown to me. But less well-known film critics in their reviews spoke very highly about this film.
For example, John Farr called the film "Accattone" "a bracing drama of gritty realism, mixing irreverent humor and quietly heartbreaking observations of poverty."
Bill Thompson noted that in Pasolini's film "Accattone" "the viewer is given an ugly and disgusting Rome, a Rome far different from the Rome that America knew from movies like Roman Holiday. There’s no charming scooter rides in Pasolini’s Rome, just pimps, prostitutes, daily beatings, deadbeat fathers, whores doubling as mothers, and no redemption in sight."
Singapore film critic Eternality Tan has summarized the opinions of many film critics: "While it may be one of the more unappealing films in the director’s body of work, and not particularly engaging, it does enough to present itself as quite a strong enough debut feature for Pasolini to leverage on as a poet-turned-filmmaker. It would set him up as a highly-charged and political filmmaker who would spare no compromise in his pursuit of truth in art."
The ratings of modern moviegoers of the film "Accattone" are also quite high. 63% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this film a rating from 8 to 10. Taking into account this indicator and the above, the rating of the film "Accattone" by Pier Paolo Pasolini according to FilmGourmand was 8,198, which allowed it to take 469th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
