Il_Paolo

Mauro... I’m already back from vacation. I believe that in a few days two of my modest writings will be published, more in line with my mission of this Bergman.

Thank you Supersoul, finally someone who reads my reviews and understands them "between the lines." I agree with your analysis, but be careful: the nostalgic PPP is not that of the Decameron; here the historical reference is solely functional to the present. The nostalgic PPP is that of the poems in Casarsa, etc.

You know Velluto, I don't like thrillers, and moreover, regarding my mission, I've decided not to deal with them since you handle that genre, even the lesser ones, very well. I saw this film years ago: you are right to say that there’s something off about the plot, as the killer acts like the Etruscan without knowing almost anything about the mythological god. Maybe he was really possessed! Cool, in any case. Alida Valli's son is in it, too.

Thank you, Lavalin, for your polite and insightful observations. Framed this way, you hit the nail on the head and convince me. Also, moving from Rick Astley to PPP means you've understood a lot about life!

Alright Iride, it's not like I hold grudges. The point of my review was more complex, in the sense that the film has an ambiguous message. I'm sorry that by shifting the controversy onto the person, we didn't discuss that. I'll return to dedicating myself to "minor" cinema.

Dear Vortex, there's a difference between being gay and living your life as you wish: take Arbasino or Walter Siti, for example. It's another thing to defend the downtrodden like PPP did, and then use the residents of the outskirts as commodities to satisfy your sexual appetites. Whether he finds a boyfriend or some hook-up friends. I'm older than you think, and I don't see much difference between those who went whoring in the Roman suburbs and those who do it today in Thailand, for the same purposes after all.

In Polè, you’re just messing around and at the same time dancing around the problem. Pasolini went to the suburbs, promised boys and young men small parts in his films in exchange for sexual favors, or sometimes he even paid them. Up to this point, we could endlessly discuss the moral correctness of his conduct, and the smartest thing is to refrain from judgment. But the point is different: first, PPP decries the lives of the marginalized, praises the good old days, and positions himself as a guide and philosopher; then what does he do? He takes the stylish Alfetta and exploits their poverty to satisfy his cravings. Obviously, I couldn’t care less about the sexual act itself: but I emphasize the contradiction of the character, who in words was a champion of the weak, but in reality exploited them. Unless you believe that by paying the prostitutes he was facilitating their advancement: but as Iride would say, in relation to the prostitutes he ensured development, certainly not progress. For once, answer my objections instead of making what lawyers call counterclaims that have nothing to do with the topic at hand.

A' Pedra (as the streetwise kids would say) there was no mystery about PPP's sexual habits; he talked about it, and so did his friends, including Laura Betti. I'm not a moralist; to me, PPP wanted to do what he wanted: I saw some of his interviews on TV, and I'll tell you, I felt a lot of pity for him. He was probably a lonely and sensitive person, certainly isolated for being an openly gay man in a fussy country like Italy. Furthermore, he met a terrible and merciless death, regardless of the theories that have been circulated about that event. But that doesn't change one fact: he went with prostitutes – boys like Pelosi – in his Alfa Romeo, all the while moralizing and aligning himself with the common people of whom he was the executioner. I would love to hear the side of those prostitutes, but they're probably "losers" too; they don't have writer, director, or journalist friends to sing the praises of the deceased. Respectfully, your Er_Paolo

@lavalin: thank you for the appreciation, you deserve to know that this summer - according to Wikipedia - he was spotted in Puglia.

@Iride: "because this is life: that is, to play the role of a modern Rousseau and try to get laid, to satisfy the spirit and the dick, and the two things are never in contrast, indeed they are part of each other." You see, there's a difference between a healthy hookup and going to the suburbs to pay boys to take it up the ass, taking advantage of their state of poverty. If he had lived until the '90s, what would PPP have done? Would he have gone from Ostia to Thailand? Free to do so - within the limits of legal permissibility - as long as he didn't start playing the moralizer and pointing fingers, with all his "I know..." @Poletti: sometimes you trivialize things and see only what you want to see. PPP could have enjoyed all his wealth and remained left-leaning, perhaps avoiding to praise the (bitter) life of the suburbs, carefully steering clear of living that life. This is called preaching well and practicing badly, in other words, hypocrisy.