THE SEQUENCE OF THE PAPER FLOWER
ItalyFrance, 1968
Original title: La sequenza del fiore di carta
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Story and screenplay: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Art Director: Giuseppe Ruzzolini. Editor: Nino Baragli. Film score: Giovanni Fusco. Music coordinator: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Soundtrack: “St Matthew Passion” by Johannes Sebastian Bach. Cast and characters: Ninetto Davoli (Riccetto), Rochelle Barbieri (girl), Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Graziella Chiarcossi, Aldo Puglisi (God’s voices). Production: Castoro Film, Roma Anouchka Film, Parigi. Length: 10’.
Third episode of the film “Amore e Rabbia” (Love and Anger) by Marco Bellocchio, Bernardo Bertolucci, Carlo Lizzani, Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Format: 35mm. Source CSC – Cineteca Nazionale under licence from Rai Com.
Original version. Subtitles: English
Riccetto, innocent and carefree, with a large red paper flower, hops in the midst of the convulsive traffic of Rome, while dramatic images of political affairs flow over the top. God’s voiceover invites him to become aware: not knowing or innocence is a fault. But Riccetto is deaf to every call.
“To me this episode has always seemed very mysterious, and there are a lot of contradictory interpretations of it. I have interpreted it like this: there are moments in history when one cannot be unaware; you have to be conscious; not being conscious is being guilty. So I put Ninetto to walk along via Nazionale, and while he walks without a thought in the world and completely innocent, a number of images of some of the most important and dangerous things that are happening in the world pass on the screen, superimposed on via Nazionale. – things he is not aware of, like the war in Vietnam, relations between East and West and so on: they are just shadows that pass over him, and of which he knows nothing.” (Pier Paolo Pasolini)
Monday 23 May 2022, h. 10:45 pm