Movie Review: The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)

The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini

Director Pier Paolo Pasolini uses Italian Neo-Realism to present Matthew's Gospel in a faithful, if subdued, way. The actors are unknown. As Jesus, Enrique Irazoqui has a very placid face and a deliberate gaze. He's very meditative and sanguine for most of the film. The locations look rundown and oppressed. Pasolini depicts miracles without special effects or fancy visuals. The multiplication of loaves and fishes is not shown as five unending loaves but the sudden appearance of baskets and baskets of bread. At first, I thought the movie jumped to the end of the miracle, where the apostles gathered twelve baskets worth of leftovers, but the apostles started distributing from the new baskets. The crucifixion is fairly bloodless and less convincing than it could have been. A lot of the film involves close-ups of meaningful glances between people, so familiarity with the gospel is valuable to know what's going on in certain scenes.

The movie is interesting in its simplicity and straightforwardness. At times it feels a little slow and occasional shots seem like less than they should be, e.g. moments where Jesus only has four or six of His disciples with Him when you'd expect all twelve. Pasolini's socialism does not show through in the film. He makes no attempt to interpret the events of Jesus's life with any agenda. The focus is more on Jesus's preaching than his miracles, though the miracles are shown without embellishment or downplaying. I'm glad I watched it but probably won't watch it again.

Recommended.