Synopsis
“For his contribution to the omnibus film
RoGoPaG – comprised of episodes by himself, Rossellini,
Godard and
Ugo Gregoretti – Pasolini fashioned an ingenious fable that is both a satire on filmmaking and a tribute to Italian Mannerist painting. Although
Orson Welles stars as a director filming the crucifixion, the real protagonist is an unassuming middle-aged man working as an extra to feed his family. The extraordinary meeting of three worlds – high art, moviemaking and all-too-real poverty – leads to a collision with tragicomic consequences, a “collage,” as Pasolini called it, that allows him to effectively critique the distance between ethics and aesthetics.” – Harvard Film Archive