The Gospel of Matthew is an ordinary black-and-white film made in the 1960s, but it is widely regarded as one of Pasolini's most successful, poetic, semiotic, and neorealist films. 1. It is also one of the most unique and insightful works in the history of the film to express the life of Jesus Christ and explain the Christian doctrine. It comes from the hands of a Marxist and atheist, but at the same time it has been appreciated and recognized by audiences at all levels, including Christians and Catholics. It is a very rare phenomenon in the entire history of film culture.
As the name suggests, Pasolini's film is based on the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible. If it is said that Matthew's main purpose in writing the Gospels was to prove to Jewish readers that Jesus was their Messiah (Savior), his method was based on how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament in his life and ministry. The prophecy in the book, the way he arranges the material, is made up of five important sermons; then, Pasolini's film is to convey the above theme, and at the same time show the audience the greatness of the special means of film art potential. In addition to making some changes and deletions to the information and narrative sequence provided in the original work (for example, changing the location and scene of the angel's appearance, etc.), and highlighting the "struggle" of Jesus in some places, Pasolini's grasp of the original work Still fairly accurate. Similar to the narrative style of the original work, the creator did not use dramatic exaggeration to render the life and miracles of Jesus, nor did he use any special effects to express his magic and power, but through the very poetic film language, The images of Jesus as the "Son of God" and "Son of Man" are vividly displayed, so that the audience can not only comprehend his salvation thought and devotion, but also feel the role of film art in Jesus' long-term "gospel" mission. The unique charm of a communication medium and audio-visual language in conveying abstract concepts, shaping characters, and expressing events, as well as the "semiotic" meaning of special means of expression such as film shots and sound and picture composition.
Judging from the overall effect, Pasolini endowed the whole film with a relaxed narrative rhythm and a coherent structure with his skilled film skills and rich artistic means. Its artistic effect, on the one hand, enables the audience to construct their own image of Christ (meaning the Savior) through audio-visual images on the screen (especially through the description of Jesus' shape, movement, and his mission and experience); Together with the author Matthew, follow Jesus to all parts of Judea, listen to Jesus' sermons, and feel his personality and divinity, so as to gain an immersive, immersed intimacy and a fresh feeling that you will never get tired of seeing.
In the first segment of the film, there is no sound except for the music, the angel's instructions to Joseph, and the laughter of the children. A close-up of the Virgin Mary, looking at Joseph with an expression of longing to be understood but helpless; a close-up of the face of a counter-attack Joseph, looking at Mary with an equally helpless expression of aggrieved and unwilling to humiliate her. The hearts of the audience are immediately drawn into a dramatic scene that is mysterious and beautiful, warm and implicitly contradictory. After listening to the angel's words, Joseph understood the truth and returned to Mary. The same lens structure, but different emotional colors, balanced the audience's psychology in the contrast. Mary (both in youth and old age) and Joseph never spoke in the whole film, and neither was played by professional actors, but they portrayed the screen image they assumed, especially their love and understanding of Jesus, the Son of God. Lively, kind and touching.
Among the passages showing the three magi and the crowd rushing to Bethlehem to worship the "new king", the passage of Satan tempting Jesus, the passage of Herodias' daughter dancing before the new King Herod and the beheading of John the Baptist, Judas hanging , Crucifixion and other scenes, Pasolini used poetic and contrasting shots, expressive close-ups, rich front and rear background compositions and large-scale motion shots, subjective and objective shots with constantly changing perspectives, and Quickly switch the composition of sound and picture to express specific character events and emotional atmosphere, such as flowing clouds and flowing water, hearty.
Like the performances of Maria and Joseph mentioned above, Pasolini inherited the tradition of Italian neo-realism films, not using professional actors, but choosing amateur actors with a sense of life to create a specific screen image according to the needs of modeling . Pasolini's old mother, Susanna, plays the elderly Mary, who creates a charitable and magnanimous image of the Virgin, allowing the audience to see the complex inner world of her old mother full of joys and sorrows.
The performance of the film is also very strong. The desolate and barren land on the screen (actually shot in southern Italy), people's rough and ragged clothes, unadorned faces, etc., all remind people of that special era about 2,000 years ago. As a result, the film was nominated for the 37th Academy Awards for Best Black and White Film Artistic Design and Best Black and White Film Costume Design. Jesus in Pasolini's film, as "Son of Man" and "Son of God", passionately and eagerly preaches the Gospel to those around him who are afflicted by poverty and insensitivity. He experienced spiritual pain because he thought that people's souls could not be saved, and he was tortured physically because of the persecution of the chief priests and the folk elders, and finally died on the cross. The film also shows his excitement and anger from some aspects. On the other hand, Pasolini deliberately depicts the divinity and miraculous powers of Jesus as the "Son of God", because without these depictions, Jesus Christ would not be Jesus Christ, and the film would lose the foundation of its success.
The film, nominated for the 37th Academy Award for Best Music and other awards, is also unique in its use and handling of music. Composer Luis Bakarov did not compose music specifically for the film. With his profound musical training and his unique insights into the Bible and the film, he selected works by Bach, Mozart, Weber, Prokofiev, etc. and the American hymn "Sometimes I Feel Like a Child Who Lost a Mother" , which was re-arranged and interspersed into the film. Pasolini and Bakarov let these compositions appear both as background sounds, thereby creating a sense of history and sublime, while increasing the tension of the scene through the contrast of music and silence and the coordination with the picture. For example, in the passage showing Herod's indiscriminate killing of innocents, the creator used the expression "Russia under the heavy yoke of Mongolia" composed by Prokofiev in 1938 for Eisenstein's business card "Alexander Nevsky" This passage is rendered. Another example is the "Luba Mass" and the American hymn "Sometimes I Feel Like a Child Who Lost a Mother", which appeared in the film many times, organically intertwined with the main periods in Jesus' life-birth, mission, crucifixion, etc. Together, let the audience feel the extraordinary inner world of an extraordinary person.
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