L’Ordine della Morte: Potere e Pianto Rituale nel Cinema di Francesco Rosi, Gillo Pontecorvo e Pier Paolo Pasolini By Monica Facchini B.A., Università di Lecce, 2003 M.A., Brown University, 2011 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Italian Studies at Brown University Providence, Rhode Island May, 2012 © 2012 by Monica Facchini This dissertation by Monica Facchini is accepted in its present form by the Department of Italian Studies as satisfying the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date _______________ __________________________________ Massimo Riva, Advisor Recommended to the Graduate Council Date _______________ __________________________________ Evelyn Lincoln, Reader Date _______________ __________________________________ David Kertzer, Reader Approved by the Graduate Council Date _______________ _________________________________ Peter M. Weber, Dean of the Graduate School iii CURRICULUM VITAE Monica Facchini was born on February 6, 1977 in Naples, Italy. She holds a laurea cum laude from the University of Lecce (now University of Salento) and an A.M. in Italian Studies from Brown University. Her research interests include film studies, Italian literature, visual arts, cultural anthropology and political theories of culture and subalternity. She published an article titled “Lamento, ordine, e subalternità in Salvatore Giuliano,” in the Californian Italian Studies Journal. In this article, she discusses the political implications of representations of death and mourning rituals in Francesco Rosi’s Salvatore Giuliano. In 2009 she was nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching at Brown. Her pedagogical training includes a graduate seminar on teaching methodologies, graduate student seminars and four certificate programs through the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education at Brown University. In 2008-2009, she served as the graduate student representative in the Department of Italian Studies and as a graduate student liaison between the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning and the Department of Italian. She also served as a teaching consultant for the Sheridan Center to help graduate students implement their teaching methodologies. In 2010, she was the main organizer of “Chiasmi,” the annual joint Brown-Harvard Graduate Student Conference in Italian Studies. Monica recently accepted a job offer for a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Italian and Film Studies at Colgate University. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Prof. Massimo Riva, for his suggestions and guidance these years and believing in my research project. His course of Italian cinema was inspiring for me and his mentoring crucial for my growth as a scholar. I thank the members of my committee, Prof. Evelyn Lincoln for her generosity and mentoring and Prof. David I. Kertzer, not only for his suggestions to my research, but also for giving me the opportunity to learn greatly as his research assistant. I would like to thank Prof. Ronald L. Martinez, Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, and Prof. Giacomo Manzoli (University of Bologna) for reading and discussing with me some of the topics of my work. I also thank all the professors (and future colleagues) of the department of Romance Languages and Literatures and Film Studies at Colgate University for their insightful questions and comments during my job talk. A special thank you goes to Prof. Caroline Castiglione, who was always there for me, professionally and personally. I owe much gratitude to Cristina Abbona-Sneider, not only for being an invaluable Language Coordinator, but also for always being supportive and present during my graduate years at Brown. I thank Laura E. Hess, Kathy Takayama, Meredith Chase Paine, and all the people at the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning for helping me improve as a teacher and prepare for the academic job market. I am also very grateful to all the staff at the Rockefeller Library at Brown, and especially Roland Harper, Senior Library Specialist, who made my years of study and research work there easier and more enjoyable. I would like to thank my colleagues, who shared with me this challenging experience, called PhD. I thank Mona Delgado who helped me with all the administrative v duties, besides being an understanding friend. I am grateful to Alice, who has kept our department pleasant and always cherished me up during my nights spent working in the Department. A very special thanks goes to Nancy Dunbar, who has been more than a friend to me in these years. I thank Ron, Mary-Therese, Liliana, Marina, and Cecilia Martinez for giving Stefano and me the chance to know their wonderful family. I also want to thankfully remember Blossom S. Kirschenbaum – I will never forget her unmistakable laughter and contagious joie de vivre. I am grateful to Viviana Novelli, for her help, her sincere friendship and for being always present even from a different continent. Finally, I thank my family who could never really come to terms with me living so far away from home, but always supported me and respected my choice. My wholehearted love and gratitude go to them. To Stefano, who always held my hand in this journey and helped me see, beyond the clouds, the sun and the other stars of life, I dedicate this dissertation with all my unconditional love and gratefulness. vi TABLE OF CONTENT INTRODUCTION 1 1. LAMENTO ORDINE E SUBALTERNITÀ 17 IN SALVATORE GIULIANO DI FRANCESCO ROSI 1.1. Il pianto di (donna) Maria 22 1.2. La lamentazione in rivolta 42 2. RITUALI IN RIVOLTA NE LA BATTAGLIA D’ALGERI 51 DI GILLO PONTECORVO 2.1. Un matrimonio per organizzare la battaglia 57 2.2. Un lutto silenzioso 65 2.3. La riappropriazione dei gesti rituali nella rivolta 72 3. SACRALITÀ E TECNICA DEL CORDOGLIO IN 81 ACCATTONE E MAMMA ROMA DI PIER PAOLO PASOLINI 3.1. La (il)lacrimata passione di Accattone 90 3.2. “Un grave estetismo di morte.” Il pianto di Mamma Roma 110 4. UNA PASSIONE MARXISTA. LA RICOTTA E 126 IL VANGELO SECONDO MATTEO DI PIER PAOLO PASOLINI 4.1. La morte rivoluzionario di un sottoproletario ne La ricotta 128 4.2. Matteo e Il Vangelo secondo Pasolini 153 BIBLIOGRAPHY 170 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figura 3. Andrea Mantegna, Lamento sul Cristo morto (1480-1490ca) 29 Figura 5. Giotto di Bondone, Compianto su Cristo morto 31 (dettaglio) (1304-1306) Figura 7. Michelangelo da Merisi di Caravaggio, Deposizione (1602-1604) 36 Figura 13. Michelangelo Buonarroti, La Pietà (1498-1500) 69 Figura 18. Masaccio, Crocifissione (1426) 122 Figura 19. Jacopo da Pontormo, Deposizione (1525-1528) 134 Figura 21. Rosso Fiorentino, Deposizione dalla croce (1521) 136 FILM STILLS From Francesco Rosi, Salvatore Giuliano (1962) Figura 1. Rinvenimento del cadavere di Giuliano 24 Figura 2. Ripresa del cadavere di Giuliano nell’obitorio 29 Figura 4. Donna Maria e il volto di Giuliano 31 Figura 6. Lamento di Maria 35 Figura 8. Donne di Montelepre in rivolta 46 From Gillo Pontecorvo, La Battaglia di Algeri (1966) Figura 9. Rito dell’henné 62 Figura 10. Lutto delle donne dalle terrazze della Casbah 66 Figura 11. Lutto delle donne tra le macerie 68 Figura 12. “Pietà” nella Casbah 68 Figura 14. Le truppe francesi conquistano le terrazze della Casbah 77 Figura 15. Ju-ju delle donne “ripreso” dalle terrazze della Casbah 78 viii From Pier Paolo Pasolini, Mamma Roma (1962) Figura 16. Ettore sul letto di contenzione “come un piccolo crocifisso” 118 Figura 17. Soggettiva libera indiretta di Mamma Roma 121 From Pier Paolo Pasolini, La ricotta (1964) Figura 20. Tableau vivant della Deposizione di Pontormo 135 Figura 22. Tableau vivant della Deposizione di Fiorentino 136 Figura 23. La morte di Stracci 151 Figura 24. Il regista-Welles 151 ix INTRODUZIONE - Che cosa pensa della morte? - Come marxista, è un fatto che io non prendo in considerazione.1 Così il regista marxista de La ricotta di Pier Paolo Pasolini, interpretato da Orson Welles, esprime quello che per Pasolini è uno dei più grandi limiti del marxismo: l’indifferenza verso il problema della morte. Pasolini attribuisce, infatti, al marxismo la grave mancanza di non essersi occupata di un tema che, come quello della morte, si sottrae a soluzioni razionali e che, d’altro canto, è stato da sempre dominio delle religioni e in Italia, in particolare, del cristianesimo.2 L’assunto pasoliniano trova conferme testuali nelle opere di diversi intellettuali marxisti. Fra questi, Ernst Bloch, secondo il quale, “death depicts the hardest counter-utopia … [which] also depreciates the before.”3 Anche Theodor Adorno, d’accordo con Bloch, afferma l’impossibilità di un’utopia senza l’eliminazione della morte.4 Ancora più radicale sarà Jean-Paul Sartre, che invita a ignorare la morte come problema argomentando che: la morte non è mai quello che dà il suo senso alla vita; è invece ciò che le toglie ogni significato. Se dobbiamo morire la nostra vita non ha senso perché i suoi problemi non ottengono alcuna soluzione e perché il significato stesso dei problemi resta indeterminato.5 Affermazioni del genere sono ancora più ricche di significato se messe in contrasto con l’idea pasoliniana della morte quale unica forza interna alla vita capace di 1 Pier Paolo Pasolini. La ricotta. In Id. Mamma Roma (Irvington, N.Y.: Criterion Collection, 2004), DVD 2. 2 Per una discussione accurata sull’approccio alla morte da parte di Marx e degli intellettuali marxisti, si veda Fabio Giovannini, La morte rossa: i marxisti e la morte (Bari: Dedalo, 1984). 3 Ernst Bloch, Theodor W. Adorno. “Something’s Missing: A Discussion between Ernst Bloch and Theodor W. Adorno on the Contradictions of Utopian Longing” (1964). In Ernst Bloch. The Utopian Function of Art and Literature. Selected Essays. Tr. by Jack Zipes and Frank Mecklenburg. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988), 9.