end up on the Vatican\u2019s list of recommended films<\/a>. But director Pier Paolo Pasolini\u2019s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) is a beautiful and faithful retelling of the Greatest Story Ever Told.<\/p>\nPasolini made the film after accepting Pope John XXIII\u2019s invitation to a dialog between the Church and secular non-believers. As a part of that, he read the Gospels straight through and decided that Matthew was the best suited for adaptation for the screen. (He also dedicated the film to the late John XXIII.)<\/p>\n
The Gospel According to St. Matthew is shot in the best Italian neorealist tradition. It\u2019s a low-budget film with a documentary look to it all. None of the actors on screen were professionals. Jesus is played by Enrique Irazoqui, who was just a Spanish college student who had come to ask Pasolini about his previous films. He never acted on film again. Most of the rest of the cast were just locals from the impoverished areas of southern Italy where the film was shot. Mary at the time of the crucifixion was played by Pasolini\u2019s own mother.<\/p>\n
Pasolini gave himself writing credit, but every word in the film actually comes from Matthew. As such, it sticks faithfully to the Gospel, omitting only that which is necessary to keep the film just over two hours long. But despite not adding any dialog of his own, Pasolini certainly puts his own spin to the tale. Unlike the biblical epics coming out of Hollywood at this time, this is a small film that underplays the miracles. The miracles of the loaves and fishes, healing the lame and lepers, and the walking on the water are all here, but the film very much underplays them. There aren\u2019t hosannahs and trumpets in this film announcing these Miracles of Jesus, rather just the humble actions of a humble Messiah.<\/p>\n
In fact, Pasolini shifts the primary focus of story from Jesus to effect that he has on his followers. Yes, there\u2019s plenty of Jesus here, but nearly every word is punctuated by a reaction shot of someone listening to his words. Many of the scenes are shot at a great distance while Jesus speaks. In these scenes, Jesus looks small and the crowd surrounding him looks huge. The crucifixion is here, of course, but Pasolini mostly focuses on the crowd watching it happen than the sufferings of Jesus. In any case, Pasolini gets through it and on to the resurrection quickly.Pasolini especially likes to highlight the children, who smile and laugh when Jesus defies those in power. I would argue that Pasolini isn\u2019t really all that interested in Jesus Himself. His message interests him and the way that message changed the lives of those who heard it.<\/p>\n
This casting of non-actors has some weird and effective results. When an angel speaks to Joseph about the Holy Spirit impregnating Mary, the camera cuts to a close-up of Joseph\u2019s face with a look of \u201cWhat am I doing here?\u201d on his face. Now that may just be the actor not knowing what to do, but that\u2019s actually a very appropriate response by Joseph to the situation! When Jesus rejects the Devil\u2019s temptations, most would expect a look of anger on the reaction shot. Instead, we get a \u201cHuh. Wasn\u2019t expecting that,\u201d look. Who knows if that was acting or some poor southern Italian farmer wondering why he was in a movie?<\/p>\n
Irazoqui\u2019s Jesus, on the other hand, is an angry revolutionary. There are times Jesus behaves in a calm and comforting manner, especially in his interactions with children or the infirmed, but most of the time he\u2019s angry at the way those in power do not follow the way of the Lord. This is not a Jesus that questions his own divinity. Every line is read with a firm conviction.<\/p>\n
His unibrow notwithstanding, Irazoqui was an attractive young man, but he\u2019s also hardly the long-haired, muscular action-hero hippie Jesus that was common in religious films of the era. Most of the apostles look like they could knock Jesus out in a fistfight. But Irazoqui, with the help of some camera tricks by Pasolini and cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli, give Jesus just a tiny bit of glow that no one else on the screen has. It\u2019s a Jesus that looks like a poor peasant, yet somehow stands out from the other poor peasants. (More makeup, I\u2019d guess. Or maybe just some makeup.)<\/p>\n
Despite the slight budget and the documentary feel of The Gospel According to St. Matthew, Pasolini and Delli Colli give the film a stark, quiet beauty. The camera will linger on the branches of a tree, the Italian countryside, a mountain or the sky. The black-and-white cinematography (and cheap costumes, honestly) emphasize the humble origins of Jesus.<\/p>\n
This film was protested by both those on the far-left and the far-right, but the Vatican praised it, despite the notoriety of the director. It was awarded first prize from the International Catholic Office of Cinema and got a special screening inside Notre Dame in Paris. There are certainly things to criticize. The non-professional actors are definitely non-professional, although often that works. There are times the scenes look like a Passion Play from your local church on Easter. The laying the blame for the crucifixion on the Jewish council remains unchanged from Matthew, although you get the sense that Pasolini blames anyone with any authority rather than the Jewish leaders in particular. But no film really strips away the pageant and miracles of the Passion and emphasized the message of Jesus any better than The Gospel According to St. Matthew.<\/p>\n
Beyond the religious message of the picture, however, is just a solid piece of Italian neorealism filmmaking. Even with the Greatest Story Ever Told, it\u2019s how the story is told that makes a difference.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the trailer for the restoration of The Gospel According to Matthew. It gives a good sense of the feel of the film.<\/p>\n
The Gospel According to Matthew is available in a lot of places. There appears to be a complete copy on YouTube. You can watch it for free without ads on Kanopy if you have a library card. It\u2019s on the Criterion Channel. Tubi, Prime and some other services have it with ads.<\/p>\n
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.<\/p>\n
The Cubs aren\u2019t off to a great start to the season at 4-6. That\u2019s not a catastrophic start and it\u2019s not a reason to start panicking or selling off yet. But let\u2019s admit that it\u2019s not nearly as good of a start as we were expecting.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to overreact to a bad start. After all, if the Cubs were 6-4 instead of 4-6 at this point, I think the majority of us would be saying \u201cYeah, that\u2019s a decent start.\u201d So the Cubs are just two wins behind where they maybe should be.<\/p>\n
But while panicking at this point is unwarranted, it\u2019s OK to be concerned. And tonight I\u2019m asking what concerns you most about the start to the season?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be clear, other than Edward Cabrera and Nico Hoerner, not much has gone right for the Cubs so far. The team isn\u2019t hitting. Or rather they are hitting, they just aren\u2019t getting any hits. What do I mean by that? If you look at the Statcast leaderboards, only the Rangers have a higher team hard-hit rate than the Cubs. They\u2019re fourth in the league in walk percentage. The strikeouts are a bit above-average (the Cubs have the 12th-highest strikeout rate in the majors) but that\u2019s hardly a big red flag. But they\u2019re 27th in batting average in balls in play and that\u2019s not leading to a lot of runs.<\/p>\n
Then there is the starting pitching, which has already run arguably the two best pitchers off the road. Matthew Boyd hit the injured list today, although the Cubs are saying it should be for the 15-day minimum. Cade Horton is also on the injured list and that\u2019s going to be more than 15 days, although we still don\u2019t have a time estimate on that. Sure, Cabrera\u2019s been great, but even he\u2019s walking more than he should be.<\/p>\n
Finally there\u2019s the bullpen. Daniel Palencia\u2019s been great, but he\u2019s also only had one save opportunity. Most of the rest of the re-built bullpen has struggled. Jacob Webb, Hunter Harvey and Phil Maton all have ERAs over seven. I guess Caleb Thielbar has been good and Hoby Milner has been fine. But the Cubs are struggling to keep the game close between when the starter exits and it\u2019s Gasolina time.<\/p>\n
So what is worrying you the most this young season?<\/p>\n
Thanks for stopping by. We need to stick together at times like this. Please get home safely. Don\u2019t forget any of your personal belongings. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow evening for more BCB After Dark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s another Monday night here at BCB After Dark: the coolest nightclub for night owls, early risers, new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,4938,138,24,81725,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-667736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bcb-after-dark","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-cubs","12":"tag-chicago-cubs-discussion","13":"tag-chicagocubs","14":"tag-cubs","15":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116361760792124015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}