Despite an onscreen directorial statement from Pier Paolo Pasolini claiming that he believes the story of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion is “the greatest event that has ever happened,” La Ricotta resulted in a four-month prison sentence for Pasolini for disparaging Italy’s state religion. Part of the anthology film Ro.Go.Pa.G. (which also includes shorts by Jean-Luc Godard, Ugo Gregoretti, and Roberto Rossellini), La Ricotta maps Pasolini’s class concerns onto the story of Jesus’ death (much as Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew would do, a year later, with Christ’s entire life). Here, none less than Orson Welles stands in as Pasolini’s alter ego, a director trying to make a film about the crucifixion. Welles’ scenes—including an amusing interview with an Italian reporter, in which he says he hopes the film will express his “intimate, profound, archaic Catholicism”—are shot in black and white, while the tableaus of Christ on the cross are in vivid color (and comically punctuated by the actors repeatedly breaking character by giggling or picking their noses). Meanwhile, one of the extras on the film, Stracci (Mario Cipriani), scampers around the set trying to scrounge enough food to feed his family. (Pasolini offers stunning, ennobling portrait shots of Stracci’s family members.) If Stracci is portrayed as a clown—some of his scampering is filmed in comic fast-motion—it’s worth noting that he plays one of the thieves crucified alongside Jesus and is given the line, “Lord, remember me, when thou comest to thy Kingdom.” After uttering it, Stracci literally dies. Despite its initial reception by the Catholic church, La Ricotta seems to be about modernity’s failure and inability to take the crucifixion seriously—to say nothing of Jesus’ words about caring for the poor. Reverent, however, it is not.
(10/3/2025)
