'Udiste che fu detto..., ma io dico che...': Pasolini as interpreter of the Gospel of Matthew

Pier Paolo Pasolini's Il Vangelo secondo Matteo ( The Gospel according to St. Matthew, 1964) is probably the best regarded cinematic depiction of Jesus it is also the least understood. This study argues that, contrary to some past and contemporary critical reaction, Il Vangelo is not a faithful adaptation of the Gospel of Matthew. Rather, it is a critical interpretation of the First Gospel that sets the spectator/reader at the intersection of an array of visual, aural, textual, and historical discourses in dialogue with one another. Among the issues that arise from a more critical assessment of these discourses is the history of Christianity's relationship with the Jews and the anti-Jewish potential that resides in the text of the First Gospel.There are some scholars who argue that Il Vangelo functions as an interpretation of the First Gospel. However, these scholars fall short when they attempt to describe how the film operates in this fashion. With the aid of Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of dialogism, the chronotope, and the carnivalesque, I argue that Il Vangelo invites the reader of the Gospel of Matthew to give greater attention to discursive relationships within the text as well as the reader's relationship with the text. This examination leads to a reconsideration of theories about the cinematic spectator and the reader of the First Gospel.