Pier Paolo Pasolini described his 1968 film with young star Terence Stamp as the story of when “a young man, maybe god, maybe the devil, that is to say, authenticity, visits this bourgeois family,” and the aftermath that follows. It’s a boldly provocative work from a gay catholic marxist that never failed to speak his mind, even when it meant defying those whom might otherwise identify with him. It’s also a work that skirts many lines: comic and tragic, flippant and earnest, indulgent and austere. We had to break down the film character by character, and get at the heart of Pasolini’s persona, to decide how we feel about the one and only Teorema!

Next week: Army of Shadows (1969) by Jean-Pierre Melville

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

What do you know about Free Cinema? Not much, Lindsay Anderson would presume, as he and his group of british outsider filmmakers put on screenings of their films in the 50’s and did not set the world on fire like they hoped. Some of his cohorts would make the biggest films of the kitchen-sink genre that followed in the 60’s: gritty, working-class portraits of modern discontentment in Britain. But while those filmmakers left for Hollywood, Anderson stayed in Britain and produced a truly scandalous takedown of the british school system, “if…”. It won the top prize at Cannes whilst being denounced by the UK’s ambassador to France, and it began the career of a young phenom, Malcolm McDowell.

We talk about how the film combines the naturalism of 60’s/70’s filmmaking with the surreal, the way real world trends informed how homosexuality is depicted in the film, and other stand-out boarding school films.

Next week: Theorem (1968) by Pier Paolo Pasolini

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy

Jacques Tati enjoyed great critical and commercial success as the director and star of comedies in the 50’s, but like Chaplin or even Fellini, he wouldn’t dare repeat himself twice. He dreamt of going above and beyond, and it would take a decade to finally realize the giant, genre-bending Playtime. The gentle, conservative satire did not capture the attention of the young radicalized french audience that was about to embark on widespread protest throughout ‘68, but Playtime’s reputation has continually risen in the decades since.

We discuss how its pastoral nostalgia is rooted in a worldview that’s less nationalistic and more radically inclusive, and how the film defies cinematic convention and forces you to watch it in a novel way that reorients how you see the wider world altogether.

Next week: if… (1968) by Lindsay Anderson

UnauthorizedPod.com for more. Hosted by Zachary Domes and J Brooks Young. Music by hetchy