Teorema

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source: Teorema

At the beginning of "Teorema", in a wordless, sepia-tinged montage, we are introduced to almost all the main characters in Pasolini's film. It's a clever device, almost Hitchcockian, and it could be the beginning of a thriller, though being a Pasolini film we know this won't be a thriller. The character who doesn't appear in this montage is played by Terence Stamp but suddenly there he is right in the middle of things and his affect on everyone is profound. Who is he and why is he here? It's never made clear, of course. Although a very physical presence his role is allegorical. Is he an angel, (there is a strong religious element in the picture), or a devil or simply a seducer since he does seem to have sex with everyone in the family, male and female, including the maid who ends up levitating and performing miracles. He certainly affords everyone a form of release, turning their lives upside down and with it their bourgeoisie pretensions. If we are going to tear down the bourgeoisie we may as well do it with sex; it's a lot more fun than beating them to death. Stamp, of course, remains the most beautiful thing on screen though Silvana Mangano as the mother gives him a run for his money. No-one really has to act; all they simply have to do is respond to Pasolini's camera and, with no real narrative structure, that's fairly easy. Sex may be Pasolin's weapon of choice but the film is quite clearly a Marxist 'fantasy' and is also very obviously the work of a gay director. I'm not so sure anymore if it's the masterpiece I thought it was all those years ago bu it stands up remarkably well and remains one of the great Italian films of its decade.

Pier Paolo Pasolinis "Teorema" put me to sleep after 20 minutes. I woke up only minutes later to find that I've missed absolutely nothing because nothing really happened. The first half of the movie is every bit as boring, pretentious and dreadful as "Ta'm e guilass" (also known as "Taste of Cherry") - and it doesn't improve much. Yes, Terence Stamp is compelling as the visitor who stirs up the bourgeois family. Yes there are some interesting thoughts about religion, marxism, homosexuality and of course bourgeois boredom - but why not make this into an interesting film? Many Buñuel films go in the same direction but are leagues ahead of "Teorema" - "Cet obscur objet du désir" or the brilliant "Belle du jour" come to mind. Is "Teorema" controversial? Perhaps if you're a stuck-up conservative. Otherwise, there's not much controversy in this movie. After the stranger leaves, the family falls apart and does all sorts of weird things - but they're neither shocking nor thoughtful nor clever. A woman starts flying, a man runs naked into a desert, a girl falls into a trance, a mother becomes a prostitute. Big deal. Try Ozons witty "Sitcom" (1998) if you want to see a family falling apart - or even Takashi Miikes sick "Visitor Q", but stay away of "Teorema". Well, Pasolini was a poet, so you might ask whether there's some poetry (visually or dialogue-wise) in the movie. Not much, I have to say. Visually, I liked the one shot of the father in the desert, holding out his arms and shouting (I was prepared to do that too if the film would have run for another minute). That shot was neat, the rest didn't move me at all. To sum things up, "Teorema" is as overrated as movies can be. I'd say it's as overrated as the oevre of Theo Angelopoulos or the aforementioned "Taste of Cherry". Boring, pretentious stuff of an egomaniac film maker. Yes, it might be deeply personal - but so are someone's photos from his/her last trip to Greece. Rating: 3/10

A neurotic bourgeois family and their weird maid are visited by a divine Terrence Stamp who lounges around with his legs spread. Pasolini gives us lots of crotch shots. Every member of this messed up brood fall in love with Terrance. Then he leaves. Miracles happen. Funny miracles. and brooding and moaning and groaning and hysteria from the family. The maid levitates. I laughed. Why does anyone take this seriously?

Impenetrable, confusing, ponderous allegory (allegory about what?) that will be praised mostly by those who are afraid that if they say anything bad about a Pasolini film, they may be perceived as viewers unable to appreciate "great art". The actors recite their lines mechanically, lifelessly, giving absolutely no hint of interaction between them, and the "heavenly" music tries to give meaning and purpose to scenes that don't have any. Anyway, if you consider the spectacle of a middle-aged man running around naked on some hills "arty", then you may like this. (*)

This is Pasolini's primary anti-bourgeoisie film and is sort of a complementary companion of Luis Bunuel's "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie." While Bunuel's film attacks the European post-war middle class (slightly different from America's middle class, though just as apathetic and selfish) with mockery, humiliation, and eventually destruction, Pasolini takes a more soulful route, revealing the hidden desires of a class stifled by social dogma and propriety. Rather than turn them into effigy, he allows them to have epiphanies, realizing their inner hollowness, and taking different paths to self-fulfillment. "Teorema" means "theorem," and in this case, the mysterious, beautiful stranger embodied by Terrence Stamp offers proof of a certain Italian bourgeois family's misgivings. Pasolini here offers a lucid statement, less political than Bunuel, but just as poetic. His execution, however, is dry and hokey, as Stamp encounters each family member almost mathematically. While the actors provide genuine emotion (particuarly in facial expressions, which Pasolini, in his entire body of work, has shown overwhelming appreciation for), the structure of the film is so tight that he almost sucks the life right out of his message. It's a curious film, though, not completely lacking in entertainment value. In a way, it plays out like a sonnet or other tightly structured poem type. Recommended is "Porcile," made by Pasolini, with similar themes, but presented more organically.

"There are only 923 words spoken in "Teorema" - but it says everything!", brags the tagline. It makes some sense, since Pasolini's film feels like a rhythmic visual poem with scattered dialogue. "Teorema" looks and feels like a haunting silent film integrated with sparse dialogue - failed attempts of communication and change among the characters. A beautiful and enigmatic visitor (a young Terence Stamp, one of the intriguing, almost androgynous cult sex figures of the 60's, along the lines of a Udo Kier and others) seduces and then leaves each member of a bourgeois family. The father (Massimo Girotti, of Visconti's "Ossessione"), the mother (Silvana Mangano, "Death in Venice"), the daughter (Anne Wiazemsky, of Bresson's "Au Hasard Balthazar" and Godard's then wife), the son (Andrés José Cruz Soublette) and even the housemaid (Laura Betti, best actress at the Venice Film Festival for this performance) are all altered by the visitor's sexual presence in their lives, and each will try to find salvation or catharsis once they're abandoned. Their ways can be seen as an allegory of the fears and misconceptions of those trapped in their own conventions, and the tragic consequences of their failed attempts to get away - after the visitor, an hedonistic angel of death, tricked them with false hopes of sexual and emotional liberation. At least, that's how I see it - which I wouldn't dare to claim as an ultimate view on it. As enigmatic and haunting the images in "Teorema" are, they ask for repeated viewings. And just the fact that they give you enough interest for a second look, it's quite a feat. An interesting, cerebral cinematic exercise, to say the least. 8.5/10.

...or so this film would have you think. Is capitalism really a dreamworld, our rôles and possessions merely shabby window dressing? What happened when it is all swept away? Like the inhabitants of Plato's cave, a well-to-do Italian family is shown that the lives they lead are inauthentic and shallow. But where to turn when you find out that the life you led has been a fraud? Religion? Sex? Art? All compelling questions, even moreso now, thirty plus years on from when this film was made. Capitalism has managed to adapt to every criticism and become more subtle, its spectacles enveloping us in a cradle to grave ocean of images and brands, all of which can give meaning and backfill those empty spaces, and all at a reasonable price. Thus, it is compelling to consider what might happen to someone who has this value-giving process shattered. Alas, compelling philosophical questions do not a good film make. Besides its mighty technical limitations (including bad camera work, terrible editing and lousy blocking) Teorema doesn't deliver. The characters are (with the exception of Stamp) absences rather than presences. That their lives are torn apart doesn't really matter to us because these people never meant anything to us anyways. Perhaps the aim was to present them as everyfolk, to say, "this could be you", but from such generalities there is little for us to hang our emotions on. Stamp is the catalyst for all of these changes, and although we have as little impression of his character, his stare and his seductive energy set him apart. Alone amongst the characters (until he awakens them) he acts upon the world. He is the best thing about this often dull movie, transforming the family members in a manner that is sexy yet not explicit (one of the few things the movie pulls off). Grainy colour. Italian w/ English subtitles. Rating: 3 out of 10. (flawed)