42
Ferrara is openly inviting comparison with Pasolini’s work in this ambitious but messy and flawed piece, where reality bends and stretches and sensation rules.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
50
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
It was a given that this meeting of two iconoclastic directors would yield something far more unfettered and instinctive than conventional bio-drama. But the result borders on incoherence, providing few startling insights for aficionados and minimal illumination for the uninitiated.
88
Biopics ascribe titanic importance to a subject's every gesture, but Ferrara stresses the reality of creation, of its ordinary activities that nonetheless give an artist a sense of fulfillment.
67
Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini is a frustrating film, despite vast stretches of compelling storytelling.
60
One feels its subject would have admired the boldness of its conception, if perhaps not its overly slick execution.
50
Ferrara finds himself imitating rather than innovating.
80
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
Ferrara has come up with something pretty special here: a subtle, seductive, lamp-lit hymn to one artist’s talents from another in the process of rediscovering his own.
80
It’s a work of startling maturity from this incorrigible tearaway, a minor-key dream that finally turns towards darkness.