Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo (1964)

I was really taken with Pasolini's Decameron, which I saw for the first time last month, and since then I have been interested to see more of his work. The Criterion Channel has cycled off the three Pasolini films they were showing, so I decided to watch The Gospel According to St. Matthew, which is on Amazon Prime at the moment.

 It's an epic. It's exquisitely done. It's a cast of hundreds (including, for some reason, Giorgio Agamben), and the art direction is extraordinary. But... well, it's still the story of Christ, and the storytelling here feels disjointed and disconnected, as if Christ's life is a series of tales rather than a single story (which of course it is, but this doesn't make for the best narrative feature). I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to.

Also, the homoeroticism promised by the poster (and, indeed, by Pasolini's life) comes to naught. This film is not the least bit erotic, even with the beautiful Enrique Irazoqui in the main role.