Published: 2021-12-31

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Film ‘Notes’ in the Context of Literary and Film Poetics of Draft

Robert Birkholc
Załącznik Kulturoznawczy
Section: Artykuły
https://doi.org/10.21697/zk.2021.8.07

Abstract

The article is devoted to the form of film ‘notes’, defined by the author as nonfictional films depicting preparations for the production of fictional works. The author describes this particular subgenre of film essay in the context of other forms of self-referential non-fictional cinema, and also comparatively confronts it with self-referential literary notes, in which writers present their creative process. The subject of the analysis are three works realized by Pier Paolo Pasolini: Sopralluoghi in Palestina per il vangelo secondo Matteo (1965), Appunti per un film sull’India (1968), Appunti per un’Orestiade Africana (1970). The author draws attention to the production of these films and describes the process of shaping the ‘notes’ formula in the films of the Italian director. The article then discusses the main features of the form of ‘notes’, such as: heterogeneity, variability, polyphony and the subjectivity. As the author argues, although analogous tendencies can be found in literary notes and film ‘notes’, media contexts significantly change their form and configuration. While in literary notes the tension between the signifier and the signified seems to be the most important, in film ‘notes’ the most important is the relationship between the interpretant and the objects, which cannot be ‘subordinated’ to the concept of the film director.

Keywords:

film ‘notes’, literary notes, self-reflexivity, comparative studies, film, literature, Pier Paolo Pasolini, film essay, semiotics, Italian cinema

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Citation rules

Birkholc, R. (2021). Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Film ‘Notes’ in the Context of Literary and Film Poetics of Draft. Załącznik Kulturoznawczy, (8), 107–140. https://doi.org/10.21697/zk.2021.8.07

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