Rent The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)

Neorealism Meets the New Testament - The Gospel According to St. Matthew review by griggs

I got a kick out of the fact that a Marxist, atheist, openly queer filmmaker made one of the most convincing Gospel films on screen. Pasolini doesn’t try to spruce Matthew up or “modernise” it. He just puts it there, straight, and somehow it feels more radical because of that. Same story, different temperature.

The words stay close to scripture, but they’re spoken by real, dusty faces in poor crowds. You can feel the suspicion of institutions, and the tenderness for people living on the edge of the frame. The politics come through as urgency, not slogans; the lack of belief as a serious respect for the sacred, minus the treacle.

Tonino Delli Colli’s stark black-and-white makes it look like neorealism has wandered into the New Testament, and Enrique Irazoqui’s intense, unsmiling Jesus keeps it taut. The middle softens a bit, but the ending lands with proper weight.

Biblical Neorealism. - The Gospel According to St. Matthew review by Steve

As Pier Paolo Pasolini was a Marxist, who better to tell the life story of history’s most prominent anti-capitalist? The writer/director was also an atheist so he emphasises the political role of Jesus of Nazareth. There is an impression of how subversive is Matthew's gospel and its philosophy.

But we still see the miracles. This isn’t an attempt to explain the New Testament in purely naturalistic terms. The Vatican has this listed among the best ever religious films. It’s presented as neorealism, and the dialogue is all taken from the text, as are the events. There is a non professional cast, led by a university professor (Enrique Irazoqui) as Jesus.

It’s a challenge to watch in several ways. Irazoqui rigidly declaims the famous lines without nuance or feeling. The constant use of metaphor and allegory grows laborious…The b&w photography is deliberately stark like newsreel footage, which gets wearisome. There is no craft. The budget is ostentatiously minuscule.

Though, of course, that’s the point. This is an attempt to present the life of Jesus plausibly, simply and without awe. And imply how like Marxism the revolutionary lessons of the gospels are. And on those terms this is exceptional. And yes, the greatest version of this story ever told on the big screen.