1013 Teorema

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swo17
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1013 Teorema

#1 Post by swo17 » Fri Nov 15, 2019 2:42 pm

Teorema

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One of the iconoclastic Pier Paolo Pasolini's most radical provocations, Teorema finds the auteur moving beyond the poetic, proletarian earthiness that first won him renown and notoriety with a coolly cryptic exploration of bourgeois spiritual emptiness. Terence Stamp stars as the mysterious stranger—perhaps an angel, perhaps a devil—who, one by one, seduces the members of a wealthy Milanese family (including European cinema icons Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti, Laura Betti, and Anne Wiazemsky), precipitating an existential crisis in each of their lives. Unfolding nearly wordlessly in a procession of sacred and profane images, this tantalizing metaphysical riddle—blocked from exhibition by the Catholic Church for degeneracy—is at once a blistering Marxist treatise on sex, religion, and art and a primal scream into the void.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack, featuring the voice of actor Terence Stamp and others
• Audio commentary from 2007 featuring Robert S. C. Gordon, author of Pasolini: Forms of Subjectivity
• Introduction by director Pier Paolo Pasolini from 1969
• Interview from 2007 with Stamp
• New interview with John David Rhodes, author of Stupendous, Miserable City: Pasolini's Rome
• New English subtitle translation
• More!
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar James Quandt

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jsteffe
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#2 Post by jsteffe » Fri Nov 15, 2019 3:15 pm

The online clip must come from the 4K restoration - it looks nice!

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Toby Dammit
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#3 Post by Toby Dammit » Fri Nov 15, 2019 3:27 pm

The special features duplicate the BFI DVD/Bluray with the Robert Gordon commentary and the Terence Stamp interview.
Last edited by Toby Dammit on Fri Nov 15, 2019 3:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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hearthesilence
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#4 Post by hearthesilence » Fri Nov 15, 2019 3:29 pm

The BFI Blu-Ray already looked stunning, so it'll be interesting to see how this improves on that older transfer. It's possibly my favorite Pasolini film, and I wonder if the "introduction by director Pier Paolo Pasolini from 1969" is actually the same clip I saw at MoMA when they screened this for their Pasolini retrospective in 2012. There's a moment that had everyone in stitches when Pasolini grinned after comparing one character to "Bacon" (as in Francis Bacon).

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chatterjees
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#5 Post by chatterjees » Fri Nov 15, 2019 9:01 pm

I am glad Criterion finally got time to remember Pasolini, but honestly speaking I am not excited as I already have the wonderful BFI release. I have been really hoping for a Mamma Roma upgrade. I guess I will have to wait for at least 2 more years for that to happen. They may very well prefer to release Accatone, Oedipus Rex or The Gospel, you know the ones which we already imported long long time ago.

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Toby Dammit
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#6 Post by Toby Dammit » Sat Nov 16, 2019 8:08 am

swo17 wrote:
Fri Nov 15, 2019 2:42 pm

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack, featuring the voice of actor Terence Stamp and others
• Audio commentary from 2007 featuring Robert S. C. Gordon, author of Pasolini: Forms of Subjectivity
• Introduction by director Pier Paolo Pasolini from 1969
• Interview from 2007 with Stamp
• New interview with John David Rhodes, author of Stupendous, Miserable City: Pasolini's Rome
• New English subtitle translation

• More!
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar James Quandt
This movie really deserves a :kogonada essay
Are there any information of being included?

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domino harvey
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#7 Post by domino harvey » Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:11 pm

Toby Dammit wrote:
Sat Nov 16, 2019 8:08 am
This movie really deserves a :kogonada essay
Wow, I don’t like the movie either, but no need to be this harsh

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jsteffe
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#8 Post by jsteffe » Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:39 pm

hearthesilence wrote:
Fri Nov 15, 2019 3:29 pm
The BFI Blu-Ray already looked stunning, so it'll be interesting to see how this improves on that older transfer.
I have the BFI Blu-ray as well, and it's quite good. I did notice some crush in the blacks, whereas the clip on the Criterion website has lighter blacks and looks brighter overall. If that is what the new Blu-ray looks like, I might end up preferring it.

phoenix474
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#9 Post by phoenix474 » Sun Jan 19, 2020 9:04 pm


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Toby Dammit
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#10 Post by Toby Dammit » Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:28 am

No more content than originally announced?

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tenia
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#11 Post by tenia » Thu Jan 23, 2020 10:17 am

Clearly no, despite Criterion's webpage still claiming "More !".

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Ashirg
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#12 Post by Ashirg » Tue Jan 28, 2020 6:02 pm


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agnamaracs
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#13 Post by agnamaracs » Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:45 am

The packaging notes that the film was licensed from "Mondo TV - The Dream Factory," which is the Italian animation company that made the infamous Legend of the Titanic and its sequel In Search of the Titanic.

How in God's name did they wind up with the rights to a Pasolini film?!

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tachyonEvan
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#14 Post by tachyonEvan » Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:01 pm

How is this as a place to start with Pasolini?

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therewillbeblus
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#15 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:25 pm

tachyonEvan wrote:
Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:01 pm
How is this as a place to start with Pasolini?
I wouldn't recommend it. I really don't like this one much at all, and while I "get" the exercise its energy doesn't sustain the ideas for me, but he's a good filmmaker with some great works. Accattone or Mamma Roma are more standardly accessible entry points, but Porcile is probably his best as a kind of bizarre take on attempting an absurdist exercise by way of the French New Wave. I'd also recommend just jumping in the deep end with Salo ('twas my path, for better or worse) or The Canterbury Tales to get the taste of his unapologetic political and erotic expressions and how they intermingle and separate according to his own hazy rules. I know this film has its defenders here though so I'm sure there's a solid reason for a 'yes' as well.

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swo17
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#16 Post by swo17 » Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:46 pm

This is my 2nd favorite Pasolini after Porcile, but that would be a terrible starting point. I think this is more accessible than twbb suggests though I'd recommend just progressing through his filmography chronologically

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therewillbeblus
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#17 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri Feb 14, 2020 12:31 am

Don't get me wrong, I think it's very accessible, but to flesh out what I mean: the earlier films are classically easy to digest according to already established comprehensions of narrative rules, while this demands a kind of patience and attention that are easier to implement when knowing his interests and off-kilter expressive paths to get there. I actually thought Porcile was one of the most digestible works but I also felt it was an outlier in his work in style, momentum, and though he plays with it loosely enough to render this a pretty useless proclamation, structure too. It's definitely not representative of Pasolini's mood to be recommended as an entry point though.

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tachyonEvan
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Re: 1013 Teorema

#18 Post by tachyonEvan » Fri Feb 14, 2020 6:08 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:25 pm
tachyonEvan wrote:
Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:01 pm
How is this as a place to start with Pasolini?
I wouldn't recommend it. I really don't like this one much at all, and while I "get" the exercise its energy doesn't sustain the ideas for me, but he's a good filmmaker with some great works. Accattone or Mamma Roma are more standardly accessible entry points, but Porcile is probably his best as a kind of bizarre take on attempting an absurdist exercise by way of the French New Wave. I'd also recommend just jumping in the deep end with Salo ('twas my path, for better or worse) or The Canterbury Tales to get the taste of his unapologetic political and erotic expressions and how they intermingle and separate according to his own hazy rules. I know this film has its defenders here though so I'm sure there's a solid reason for a 'yes' as well.
Thanks. I might check out one of the earlier works first, then, since they're on the Channel. I'm... pretty resistant to jumping into Salo, given my past reaction to things like the New French Extremity. I can respect it as an intellectual exercise but have many misgivings about actually sitting through it.

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