Pier Paolo Pasolini achieved fame and notoriety long before he entered the film industry. A published poet at 19, he had already written numerous novels and essays before his first screenplay in 1954. His first film Accattone 1961 was based on his own novel and its violent depiction of the life of a pimp in the slums of Rome caused a sensation. He was arrested in 1962 when his contribution to the portmanteau film Ro.Go.Pa.G. 1963 was considered blasphemous and given a suspended sentence. It might have been expected that his next film, Il vangelo secondo Matteo 1964 The Gospel According to St. Matthew, which presented the Biblical story in a totally realistic, strippeddown style, would cause a similar fuss but, in fact, it was rapturously acclaimed as one of the few honest portrayals of Christ on screen. Its original Italian title pointedly omitted the Saint in St. Matthew. Pasolinis film career would then alternate distinctly personal and often scandalously erotic adaptations of classic literary texts: Edipo re 1967I Oedipus Rex; Il Decameron 1971; I racconti di Canterbury 1972 The Canterbury Tales; Il fiore delle mille e una notte 1974 Arabian Nights, with his own more personal projects, expressing his controversial views on Marxism, atheism, fascism and homosexuality, notably Teorema 1968 Theorem, Pigsty and the notorious Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma 1975, a relentlessly grim fusion of Benito Mussolinis Fascist Italy with the Marquis de Sade which was banned in Italy and many other countries for several years. Pasolini was murdered in stillmysterious circumstances shortly after completing the film.

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