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Iconography in Pier Paolo Pasolinis films An Analysis in the Context of the Hungarian Cinematography

I.

Painting and Film

Similarly to several other artists, Pier Paolo Pasolini occupied with film, painting and graphics simultaneously. Consequently it is interesting to compare how the elements of film and fine arts combine in his works. The combination of film and painting is a remarkably exciting topic. Considering Lessings concept which states that each field of art represents its object with its own means of expression, it is suggested that film can represent movement in a direct and implicit way. Therefore, the possibility of a painting in movement is suggested as opposed to a still, and thus there could be differences between a film scene and a painting. When analysing the topic, the most important questions regard the change in the painting technique and in its application after the appearance of the film and the doubt if the problems of the avant-garde painters are answered by the film Apart from Pasolini, there are several other artists who occupied with film, painting and graphics at the same time, for instance Eisenstein, Paradzhanov, Henri Lger, Moholy-Nagy, Richter, Greenaway, Dal or the Hungarian Zoltn Huszrik, Zoltn Fbry, Mikls Erdly, Gyrgy Kovsznai, Tihamr Gyarmathy and Andrs Jeles. There are also those whose art is so much influenced by painting that their works are not interpretable without understanding the context and some elements of the history of art: for example, the German expressionists, Buuel, Tarkovsky or Godard. Moreover, there are also those photographers or painters whose art cannot be explained in depth without knowing some filmic counter-information: let us just think of Duchamp, Max Ernst, Francis Bacon or Cindy Sherman.1 II. Pasolini and the Painting

The analysis departs from the presumption that a chain of visual metonyms constitutes the basis of Pasolinis poetic cinema in which chain the elements of the Christian iconography occupy a central position.
1 Editors Introduction. Festszet s film, Metropolis, Nr. 3, 1997.

Pasolini declares in his work Heretical Empiricism that the film is considered the written language of reality.2 Therefore, Pasolinis cinematography concentrates on the presentation of reality. According to Pasolinis firm belief, the reality should be presented with real signs. Thus, Pasolinis filmic language is metonymical and exempt from symbols. Pasolinis films tend to create the impression of dj vu, dj entendu. As for the scene settings, it means that the film director inserts a painting into his work and transforms it a part of his directed world, creating thereby the so-called painted effect.3 The directors interest towards the history of art was deepening during the university years in Bologna, while attending Roberto Longhis lectures. Longhis special field of interest was constituted by the painting of the 13th and 14th century, Caravaggio, Masolino, Masaccio and Piero della Francesca. In 1942-1943 he held a lecture on the art of Masolino and Masaccio, which was followed by Pasolini highly enthusiastically. The visual world of Pasolinis films was mostly influenced by Masaccios painting. The black and white representation of the pain, the simple characters, their standstill and their realistic representation are the motifs that the director cites from Masaccio. The typical light-shadow painting technique and the representation of emotions and gestures are also elements that are inspired by Masaccios pictures. In the 1960s Pasolinis attention focuses on the Mannerist painting. This is the period when the first debates arise between him and the artistic group named Gruppo 63 which unites the Italian neo-avantgarde movements. Pasolini feels that he can react to those aggressions that he experiences around himself thorough a provoking style.4 Mannerism means a conscious break with the classical in the climate of incredulity and demonism. In the short film entitled Ricotta Orson Welles shoots a Biblical-based film in which the characters evoke the passion of the Christ, and the always starving and penniless Stracci interprets the role of the Good Thief, he goes through his own passion and when being crucified he dies on the cross. The film draws the attention on the decadence of the basic values of the Christian religion. It pinpoints that in a milieu in which the crew evokes the most profound passion of the history of humanity, how insensitive everybody became to the on-going and real passion, that of Stracci. This insensitivity is emphasized by the colourful tableaux vivants, which are inspired by Jacopo Pontormos and Rosso Fiorentinos pictures entitled The Deposition from the Cross (1521).
2 P. P. Pasolini, Empirismo eretico, Garzanti, Milano, 2005, 243. 3 A. Costa, Effetto dipinto, Cinema e cinema, Nr. 54-5, January-August, 1989, 37-48. 4 F. Galluzzi, Pasolini e la pittura, (Studi e testi. Serie di filologia e letteratura, 7), Bulzoni, Roma 1994., 29.

What Pasolini cites from their visual world is Pontormos incredulity and religious aberration and Rosso Fiorentinos demonism. Apart from Mannerism, Leonardo da Vincis effect is of also great importance. For instance, in the opening scene of Mamma Roma, at Carmines wedding the setting evokes the image of The Last Supper. Pasolini shows a vivid interest towards Caravaggios art as well. For instance, Ettore Garofalo, a character in Mamma Roma, reminds of Caravaggios teenager characters. The films scenario underlines that Ettore was working in a restaurant in Trastevere when the director found him. Ettore was standing with a fruit bowl in his hand when Pasolini glimpsed him: the director himself describes the scene as if the boy stepped out of a Caravaggio painting.5 The illumination of the characters also reminds of Caravaggios typical light-shadow painting technique. Ettores death, for example, evokes the death of Christ as displayed by Caravaggios illumination and Mantegnas vision. Moreover, at the wedding scene one can discover the traits of Caravaggios late and Sicilian period: namely in the fact that he minimizes the people who are surrounded by huge walls. The modern art, namely the works of Morandi, Carlo Carr and De Pisis also made a great impact on Pasolinis films. These effects are mostly notable in the films Sal, Teorema and The Anger. Concerning Accattone, Pasolini declared that in the abjection of his characters living in misery there is something saint or religious.6 The director endeavoured to convey this saint abjection through music in Accattone and through the settings in some other films. For instance, when Ettore dies in a prison hospital, Pasolini cites Mantegnas Lamentation over the Dead Christ. In this scene Ettore, who is stripped down to a shirt and underpants and whose body is tied to the bed, is lying on a wooden bed. The light coming from the ceiling emphasizes Ettores pale skin. The camera shoots his body from Ettores feet, similarly to Mantegnas painting. In the Trilogy of Life Pasolini often inserted paintings as citations: for instance, the Decamerons (1971) famous dream scene recreates Giottos Last Judgement, or The Tales of Canterbury (1972) shows the effects of Bosch and Bruegel. The Gospel According to Saint Matthew is rich in picture citations: it is a reminiscent of the
5 Schwartz B. D., Pasolini-rekviem (Csantavri Jlia fordtsa), Filmvilg, March 2000, 45. 6 http://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamma_Rma

works of Piero della Francesca, Duccio, Botticelli, Giotto, El Greco, Carlo Levi and Rouault. Considering all the effects in the Gospel According to Saint Matthew, that of Piero della Francesca is the most significant because the film recreates the painters Madonna del Parto and the characters of his Arezzo frescoes. In general it can be concluded that Pasolini describes a traditional myths with the documentaries tools and by turning upside down the traditional iconography.

III.

On the Path of the Icons

When analysing the Pasolini cinematographys iconography, it is remarkably interesting to point out in which other works the icons used by Pasolini appear and what their allusive functions are. The icons used by Pasolini have several known applications both in literature and in film. For instance, the icon of the Dead Christ appears in Pasolinis Mamma Roma, as well as Dostoevskys Idiot, or the motif of the Pregnant Madonna emerges in Pasolinis Gospel According to Saint Matthew, as well as in Tarkovskys Nostalgy. In Pasolini the image of the Dead Christ inspired by Mantegna appears at the end of Mamma Roma, evoking Ettores death. In Dostoevsky, on the other hand, the description of Holbeins The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb appears twice in the narration of The Idiot. First it appears right at the beginning of the novel, when Prince Myshkin endeavours to talk about the picture that he had seen in Bazel. The other occurrence is when being at Rogozins house, the Prince and Rogozin come together under Holbeins picture; Myschkin himself discovers the copy of Holbeins picture and cries out in his amazement: A man could even loose his faith from that painting! Ippolit in a long explanation of life also refers to the painting. An extended quote is required:

painters are usually in the habit of portraying Christ.still having a shade of extraordinary beauty in his face; they seek to preserve this beauty for him even in his most horrible suffering. But in Rogozhins picture there is not a word of beauty,

this is in the fullest sense the corpse of a man who has endured infinite suffering before the cross, wounds, torture, beatings by the guardsIn the picture the face is horribly hurt by blows.. how could [his apostles] believe, looking at such a corpse, that this sufferer could resurrect? Here the notion involuntarily occurs to you that if death is so terrible and the laws of nature are so powerful, how can they be overcome. How overcome them, if they were not even defeated now by the one who defeated nature while He lived, whom nature obeyed who exclaimed talitha cumi and the girl arose, Lazarus come forth and the dead man came out? Nature appears to the viewer of this painting in the shape of some enormous, implacable, and dumb beast.. a dark, insolent, and senselessly eternal power, to which everything is subjected, and it is conveyed to you involuntarily.

In Dostoevsky the significance of the painting is seized in the fact that it can be inserted in the plot, given that it reflects Myshkins world of thoughts and his attitude towards the heroes. In Pasolini the pictures significance is underlined by the fact that it refers to the parallels between the fate of the proletarian Ettore and that of Jesus Christ. Piero della Francescas picture, The Pregnant Madonna is cited in Pasolinis The Gospel According to Saint Matthew and in Tarkovskys Nostalgy, which is set in Italy and starts with Eugenias and Gorchakovs pilgrimage to the painting found in Monterchi. In this film the pictures significance can be seized in the fact that it mirrors Eugenias personality. Simultaneously, it is a symbol of the desperate search for a mother, which is another common motif with Pasolini. In fact, Tarkovsky, who dedicates his film to his mother, seeks and finally finds the figure of the mother in the Madonna painted in 1460 by Piero della Francesca, who, interestingly enough, also dedicated his work to his mother in Monterchi, which is the village of birth of his mother.

IV.

Pasolini in the Context of the Hungarian Film

Inserting Pasolinis works in the context of the Hungarian Film History, strong connections can be discovered between Pasolinis cinematography and that of Andrs Jeles. Accidentally or not may it be, several elements are linked: the Pasolini-oeuvre with the Jeles-oeuvre, the Pasolinivisuality with that of Dostoyevsky, and finally the Dostoyevsky-mentality with that of Jeles. In terms of the Pasolini-Jeles parallels, Jeles himself admitted his attractions towards the

Pasolini-world in the interview made by Andrs Forgch. Concerning Jeless films Forgch highlights that Jeles displays his own perception of the world, and the divergences of the related narration create a new meaning. This is what happens both in Andrs Jeless Dream Brigade and in Pasolinis Arabian Nights (1974):

Yes, there is something similar going on. It is an interesting remark because someone else has also noticed it. In Pasolini, for instance in the Arabian Nights or in the Boccaccio-tales the costumes and the text do knock. Thus they are absolutely raw and they knock like a tin suit, warning all the time that it is about the fixing of things. This feature is absolutely admitted and this is what provides the films elegance, amiability and stylishness. One can always have the sensation regarding the scenes that the characters have a destiny and a past, and this is what works off the story, the clothes and the laughters!7

Pasolinis and Jeless mentality is linked by the fact that both of them apparently believe that the language itself is not enough for expressing certain contents, whereas other forms of expression (such as the theatre, the film or the music) are capable of that. The language itself is never enough for these two film directors. This is why Pasolini operates with so many pictorial citations, or this is why he inserts so many music pieces which aim at reassuring the tragedy. Andrs Jeles also operates with some settings which evoke paintings (especially those of the Romanticism). Moreover, he inserts shadow puppetry, an immensely rich musical material and some solutions of communication which aim at incomprehensibility. For instance, in Annunciation (Angyali dvzlet) the communicative method stands in the fact that the vowels and the consonants of the same sentence are pronounced by two different characters. The pictorial citations of his films also intend to create a form of expression which is more exact and precise that the language itself. From this point of view the Romanticism acts as the most significant source of inspiration for Jeles. This is the point where his art can be connected with that of Dostoyevsky, since some settings were inspired by Dostoyevskys provocations. Moreover, two other connections can be pointed out with Romanticism given that Jeles worked out the film adaptation of Imre Madachs The Tragedy of Man and Victor Hugos Laughing Man. Some settings of No Mans Land evoke Caspar David Friedrichs paintings and Schuberts
7 Forgch A., Azt a berbereknek kell megcsinlni (Jeles-interj), Filmvilg, Nr. 9, 2001.

music pieces.8 In Joseph and his Brothers it is the shadow puppetry that is meant to represent that form of expression which is more exact and essential than the language itself. In other words, Jeles elaborates diverse techniques so that the viewers do not concentrate on the text. Furthermore, even if not as radically as in Jeless case but even in Pasolinis cinematography it is very often noticed that the imagery and the music are meant to convey much deeper content than the text itself. In Jeless cinematography the pictures are often the images of estrangement, having the effects of alienation, which is linked with the fact that he deals with the point of view of the one who is deprived of his own history. In No Mans Land this alienation refers to the isolation of the Jews. The Annunciation by Andrs Jeles is primarily significant inasmuch as it is also inspired by fine arts. In fact, it is an adaptation of Imre Madchs The Tragedy of the Man, interpreted by children and in the way Lucifer must have dreamt it. Jeles, when being interviewed, assures that the nature of the literary work and other reasons drove him to search for such a location which is simple and whose elements are well-proportioned and perspicuous. This space should be uniform because its elements are elaborated to the same extent. In addition, it should be metaphorical regarding that its elements utter messages, of the modifications of which they are highly capable.

The stage is such a space, however, being absolutely artificial it excludes the presence of Nature which I did not mean to eliminate originally. I was searching for such a location and my mission seemed impossible until I found Peter Brueghels Childrens Games, and until I had the idea of reconstructing this scene, realising it in reality. Brueghels mysterious picture and the consequences of scene setting offer an unexpected possibility of composition: such a procedure that fits with the Tragedys description of history, authentic simultaneously and creates such a film form which is exactly valid for this space. If I set the various historical scenes of The Tragedy in the space handled as Stage, similarly to the painter who linked the originally isolated groups, one will be able to see everything simultaneously on the Stage, and thereby the different Ages step out of the empire of time.9

As compared to the adaptation of the Tragedy of the Man, the No Mans Land concentrates on
8 Nnay B., Avantgrd s romantika , Metropolis, Nr. 4, 2004.
9 Kvesdi R., Elvek s tervek, Filmvilg, July 1982, 23.

the topic of Holocaust. It also utilizes the motif of children, which is not exclusively in the Annunciation but a generally reoccurring motif in Jeless films. The main character is the 13year-old Eve whose diary promotes the understanding of the events of 1944. First she is unable to conceive what happens around her, however, later on, after understanding more and more, she is almost wrecked. Dreams have a crucial role in the film, similarly to Pasolinis works. The nearly idyllic scenes (on the beach, under the waterfall) keep interrupting Eves familys calvary. The girl finds her soul mate in the character of David Copperfield; however, the idyll of this self-identification is always broken by a reference which evokes the threats of the reality: there appears either a wounded soldier or Martas (Eves slandered friend) bicycle. The illusory of creating human contacts is emphasized by the setting which evokes Caspar David Friedrichs Two Men by the Sea at Moonrise, in which Eve and David are standing on stones, holding their hands to each other. Parallelly with the chain of images, Schuberts song inspired by Goethes Elf King can be heard, and as a sequence belonging to the poem, there emerges the figure of a man with beard and in black coat who is searching for something in the landscape either on a horse or on foot. The way the film starts is already a citation of a painting: a little girl blows up the details of a picture and this is how the viewer becomes more familiar with the image of a dead cow. Right after that there is an image of a pig sticking, another picture with Romanticist illumination. Then the characters and the details of the pig sticking are blown up and the girl says in her monologue that once she grows up, she will experience the features of her species this is what she was told. This is how the massacre of the children is introduced and becomes a focal point of Jeless work. The little girl, Eve remembers back the time when her cousin, Mrta Mnczer was taken away, while they were riding bicycles. The bicycle is a recurring element, reminding of Marta and globally, of the slaughter of the children. Another recurring motif is the figure of the man in black coat that runs on the beach, evoking Caspar David Friedrichs Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog while the tunes of a Schubert-song can be heard. The paintings create the illusion of being dreams, with the man in black coat being the symbol of fear and threat. While he emerges from nothing, the children are talking about their fears of the sea under the clouds foreshadowing storm and thunder. The man in black coat acts as a linking motif between Eves and David Copperfields stories. He is the one who is present in both stories as the symbol of fear and horror. In David Copperfields story he is the one who beats David with his stick. In Eves story he is Uncle Bla, representing the fear of death, which is another element of the Romanticist painting.

Jeless another work, Joseph and his Brothers is a story hidden in the iconography of the Hungarian peasant world and the lower world: on the one hand, it is a theatrical piece, while on the other hand it is a pseudo-documentarist work. When the different narrators start to tell their stories, newer and newer stories develop from theirs. The plot has at least two lines: one is Josephs story, involving that of Jacob, Rachel, Judah, Tamar, Isaac ad Abraham; the other story is that of a prostitute from the present. The two lines can be followed alternately, owing to the voice montage. In the case of Josephs story there appears a shadow puppetry, narrated by Dezs Mszlys old and archaic voice. He speaks in a dialect, using gross humour. Whereas the other narrator, Peter Haumann is more reserved, however, he involves the audience much more, communicating or joking with them. In addition, there is also a third voice, a hoarse and feminine one, which repeats the dialogues between the woman and her pimp. This thread is of documentarist quality, which is due to the fact that the underlying scenes were shot by an infrared camera. Therefore, the imagery of Joseph and His Brothers is characterized by an infernal quality and horrors. For instance, there appears the scene in which a carriage arrives at the woods, at the empire of never-return and once can hear the hoof beats of Josephs donkey. The imagery of the film is affected by a time game, which is an organizational principle of the film. For example, beyond the story of Joseph, the archive records emerge as Eves visions, creating the illusion of mingling present and past. The prostitutes story seems to run parallelly with Josephs story. The prostitute is seduced and sold, on the one hand, and Joseph is impelled to go to Dotan, where his siblings throw him in a well, and finally they sell him. The most striking resemblance between the two threads become evident when Bori Rutkay, interpreter of Joseph, swaps role with the prostitute-interpreter Zita Debreczeni. The swaps of images and the close-ups about the girls underline the similarities between the two passions. At this point one can see the connection with Pasolinis iconography insofar as in Mamma Roma Pasolini links the passion of Ettore Garofalo with that of Jesus. The story has always got the form of a shadow puppetry, displaying exclusively human figures, the significance of which can be grabbed in the fact that it focuses on the human existence. Since there are no differences between shadows and shadows, their representation only concentrates on mere existence. At this point one can observe another parallel with Italian literature, owing to the fact that this shadow puppetry refers to Giambattista Vico inasmuch as Jeles confesses his attraction towards the shadow puppetry in connection with Vico in one of

his notes.

According to Vico the first pagans expressed themselves with their gestures or objects, and they pronounced the vowels singing. Here I have found everything that I should make my actors do.10

Even in this film the photography is so much characterized by the effects of painting and poetry that it could be called visual film poetry. For instance, there is the scene in which Rachel and Lea can be seen in the same picture, where the axis of the image is indicated by a tree, on one side Lea appears in the foreground, and on another side there is Rachel in the background, washing Jacobs feet. This tableau-like visuality functions as a particularity of Jeless visual film poetry, which relies on the Leonardoean principles. The iconography of Joseph and His Brothers is a typically Hungarian iconography, incorporating the elements of the Hungarian peasant life. It contains a gross and vulgar type of humour and the elements of Hungarian folk songs; however, they appear as ironic comments. The story of Joseph and His Brothers is linked through several threads with Pasolinis Trilogy of Life. Both Pasolini and Jeles present things as they are, in their natural and real quality, without any artificial features. Originally Jeles intended to shoot his film in Transylvania with the local people, which is another common point with Pasolini, who often used the local people of his scenery as amateur actors. He also wished to shoot his film in Marocco, where Pasolini often worked, for example Oidipus Rex was shot there. Another common feature between Jeless and Pasolinis cinematography can be grabbed in the fact that they both provide the viewers with their own particular understanding of the Christian iconography. In Jeless Joseph and His Brothers the most spectacular appearance of this motif can be discovered in the representation of the angels. Such angel are used as the one with beard, or the suckedheaded, or the guy from the suburbs in loden coat, Herr Svarc, who arrives in a helmet to pick Joseph up to accompany him to death.

V.

Conclusion

10 Jeles A., Kzdelem. A Latin tredkek cm filmtervvel kapcsolatos napljegyzetek., Filmvilg, January 1992, 4-7.

11

The present paper concentrated on the visuality of Pier Paolo Pasolinis cinematography, with a special attention to the elements of the iconography. The analysis departed from the presumption that a chain of visual metonyms constitutes the basis of Pasolinis poetic cinema in which chain the elements of the Christian iconography occupy a central position. A special focus was dedicated to the connection between the Pasolini-oeuvre and the Hungarian cinema. Several similarities were pointed out between the cinematography of Pasolini and that of Andrs Jeles. Pasolinis and Jeless concepts of the cinema are linked by the fact that both of them consider the language not enough for expressing certain contents, whereas other forms of expression (such as the theatre, the film or the music) are capable of that. In conclusion, it is claimed that both Jeles and Pasolini operate with such an iconography which turns the traditional Christian icons upside down.

References

Duflot J., Il sogno del centauro, Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1982. Forgch A., Azt a berbereknek kell megcsinlni (Jeles-interj), Filmvilg, Nr. 9, 2001. Galluzzi F., Pasolini e la pittura, (Studi e testi. Serie di filologia e letteratura, 7), Bulzoni, Roma, 1994. Gerard F. S., Ricordi figurativi di Pasolini, Prospettiva, Nr. 32, January 1983. Jeles A., Kzdelem. A Latin tredkek cm filmtervvel kapcsolatos napljegyzetek., Filmvilg, January 1992, 4-7. Kvesdi R., Elvek s tervek, Filmvilg, July 1982, 22-25. Longhi R., Piero della Francesca, 1927. Marchesini A., Citazioni pittoriche nel cinema di Pasolini: da Accattone al Decameron, (Pubblicazioni della Facolt di Lettere e Filosofia dellUniversit di Pavia), La Nuova Italia, Firenze,1994. Nnay B., Avantgrd s romantika , Metropolis, Nr. 4, 2004.

Pasolini P. P., Empirismo eretico, Garzanti Libri s.p.a., Milano, 2005. Pasolini P. P., Vangelo secondo Matteo, Milano, Garzanti, 1964. Pasolini P. P., Mamma Roma, Milano, Garzanti, 1964. Schwartz B. D., Pasolini-rekviem (Csantavri Jlia fordtsa), Filmvilg, March 2000, 45.