The Gospel According to St. Matthew · reception & legacy
1965 · Pier Paolo Pasolini
How The Gospel According to St. Matthew has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Whistled at by right-wing protesters at its 1964 Venice premiere — a gay Marxist atheist filming the life of Christ was a scandal on paper — yet it won the Special Jury Prize, and the Church came around so completely that the Vatican's own newspaper has since called it the best film about Jesus ever made.
What's debated
The evergreen debate: how did an avowed atheist make the most genuinely devout Jesus film — and does it belong to the believers or the Marxists?
Its footprint
It's the yardstick every screen Jesus gets measured against, and its needle-drop soundtrack — Bach and Mozart rubbing shoulders with the Missa Luba and American blues and spirituals — is a touchstone for anachronistic music in period film. It also made the Vatican's 1995 list of great films.
Where it stands
A world-cinema canon staple and many cinephiles' pick for Pasolini's most approachable masterpiece — the 'start here' entry before the thornier stuff.
Named by the director
Influences Pier Paolo Pasolini has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.
- Carl Theodor Dreyer — Pasolini said he began shooting in the solemn, hieratic 'sacred' style he associated with Dreyer, then abandoned it after a few days for a looser, documentary-like approach.