The Gospel According to St. Matthew (
Il Vangelo secondo Matteo;
1964), one of
Italian director
Pier Paolo Pasolini's most popular films, depicts the life of
Jesus Christ through the
Marxist-
Catholic perspective of the director. It is one of the first films to tell the story of Jesus directly from the text because, as Pasolini explained: "words and images could never reach the poetic heights of the text." He explained his decision to choose
Matthew as the basis for his narrative because "
John was too mystical,
Mark too vulgar, and
Luke too sentimental." Pasolini also had plans to film the life of
Paul, but these were eventually abandoned.
The film was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1966: Art Direction, Costume Design, and Score.
All Wikipedia text
is available under the
terms of the GNU Free Documentation License