Film
Pasolini
A portrait of Pier Paolo Pasolini's final hours, braiding together his conversations with loved ones, creative work, and nocturnal cruising into a meditation on art, desire, and mortality. Director Abel Ferrara treats the Italian filmmaker-poet with unflinching honesty: no hagiography, no distance, just the man as he was—brilliant, hungry, contradictory. For those who can sit with ambiguity and moral complexity.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy portraits that wander through conversations, meals and night drives, letting an artist's life and his art bleed into one another, with Dafoe carrying the whole thing.
Skip it if you want a conventional biopic with a clear timeline and tidy arc, since this is fragmentary, slow and more interested in mood than in telling a life story straight.
What it asks of you: Eighty-seven minutes of loose, fragmented scenes that loop back on themselves, rewarding close attention more than any plot you can follow.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Last Days of Disco1998
Whit Stillman's dissection of a specific time and place through character conversation, blending intellectual rigor with genuine affection for his subjects. Captures the texture of a world ending.
But Shifts between past and present in ways that can feel mannered. Demands patience with lengthy dialogue scenes.

My Own Private Idaho1991
Gus Van Sant's fever dream about hustlers and desire, treating its subjects with radical compassion while never looking away from harm. A film that trusts poetry over explanation.
But Non-linear, dreamlike structure alienates viewers wanting narrative clarity. Some found it exploitative on release.

A Ghost Story2017
David Lowery meditates on time, loss, and what lingers after death through a deceptively simple image. Quiet and devastating without sentimentality.
But Deliberately paced to the point of stasis. The central conceit may feel gimmicky rather than moving.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Pasolini
More like this (6)
The Passenger1975
Michelangelo Antonioni's exploration of identity, reinvention, and the impossibility of escape. Visual mastery married to existential dread. Jack Nicholson at his most enigmatic.
But Moves like an interrogation, not a story. Long takes and philosophical abstraction wear on some viewers.

Contempt1963
Godard's portrait of creation under pressure, marriage under strain, and the collision between art and commerce. Brigitte Bardot has never been better. Visually intoxicating.
But Meta-fictional games with cinema itself can feel more clever than moving. Pacing is deliberately artificial.

The Death of Louis XIV2016
Albert Serra's radical decision to spend 90 minutes watching a king die—attending to body, breath, ritual, the mundane horror of physical decline. Hypnotic and strange.
But Almost nothing 'happens.' Extreme close-ups and repetition will feel like punishment to impatient viewers.

Shadows1960
John Cassavetes' improvised, grainy portrait of three mixed-race siblings in New York. Feels documentary-real yet deeply emotional. A masterpiece of American independence.
But The roughness of the film stock and sound is genuine; some find it hard to watch. Plot is secondary to mood and character.

Late Spring1949
Yasujirō Ozu's tender, devastating film about a father and daughter and the approach of necessary separation. Composed with mathematical perfection; humanist to its core.
But Ozu's patient compositional style bores viewers accustomed to cutting and movement. The 'plot' is minimal.

F for Fake1973
Orson Welles' essay-film on truth, fakery, and authorship, cut with kinetic energy and doubt. Formally inventive and endlessly rewatchable; a love letter to cinema's possibilities.
But Deliberately fractured and contradictory; if you want coherent argument, look elsewhere. The structure itself is the point.

People
Cast
Willem DafoePier Paolo Pasolini
Ninetto DavoliEpifanio
Riccardo ScamarcioNinetto Davoli
Valerio MastandreaNico Naldini- Roberto ZibettiCarlo
Andrea BoscaAndrea Fago
Giada ColagrandeGraziella Chiarcossi- Damiano TamiliaPino Pelosi
Francesco SicilianoFurio Colombo
Luca LionelloNarrator (voice)
Salvatore RuoccoPolitician
Adriana AstiSusanna Pasolini
Directing
- Giulio DonatoAssistant Director
- Luca CennameAssistant Director
- Marco Matteo Donat-CattinAssistant Director
- Valentina de CassanAssistant Director
- Abel FerraraDirector
- Davide SacchettiFirst Assistant Director
- Paolo TrottaFirst Assistant Director
- Lara RastelliScript Supervisor
- Andrea PaganiSecond Assistant Director
- Francesco CivitaThird Assistant Director
Writing
- Abel FerraraIdea
- Nicola TranquillinoIdea
- Maurizio BraucciScreenplay
Production
- Alessandro PantanoAdditional Production Assistant
- Fabio MicolanoAdditional Production Assistant
- Noël MagisAssistant Production Manager
- Augusto CaminitoAssociate Producer
- Sante CasiniAssociate Producer
- Gabriella GiannattasioCasting
- Irene TommasiCasting Assistant
- Marco Matteo Donat-CattinCasting Assistant
- David HurstCo-Producer
- Olivier PèreCo-Producer
- Valérie BournonvilleCo-Producer
- Camille ChandellierExecutive Producer
- Costanza ColdagelliExecutive Producer
- Francesco TatòLine Producer
- Fabio FerranteLocation Manager
- Valeria CorrealeLocation Manager
- Irma MisantoniPost Production Coordinator
- Conchita AiroldiProducer
- Fabio Massimo CacciatoriProducer
- Joseph RouschopProducer
- Thierry LounasProducer
- Enrico De GasperisProduction Assistant
- Filippo ColliProduction Assistant
- Giacomo MittigaProduction Assistant
- Maurizio RuffoProduction Assistant
- Stefania AntoniniProduction Coordinator
- Francesco TatòProduction Manager
- Michele OttaggioUnit Manager
- Alessandro ManniUnit Production Manager
- Enrico LatellaUnit Production Manager
Recommended by
Julia, Quo Vadis, The Wonders, Jesus of Nazareth, Khuda Gawah, The Given Word, Kara Sevda, Major Barbara, Sri Siddhartha Gautama, Bazar