The Gospel according to St. Matthew (film)

The Gospel according to St. Matthew ( Il Vangelo secondo Matteooriginal title:) is an Italian-French black and white feature film from 1964, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini.

The Italian asked in the film (with a duration of approximately two hours and fifteen minutes) covers the life of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew but thenCommunist-from aRoman Catholic point of view. Pasolini used this Gospel as playbook and wielded only literal quotes it in his film. The actors were all amateurs. The role of Jesus was fulfilled by the Spanish-Catalan economy student Enrique Irazoqui. A special feature was that the mother of Pasolini the old Mary played. The film was shot on location in the South-Italian place Matera from which place most people for the film were recruited.

At the Venice film festival in 1964 fought this movie for the price of the Golden Lion. For his directorial Pasolini received the special prize of the jury.In 1964, this film also performed in the Vatican, before an audience consisting predominantly of Roman Catholic dignitaries. At the end gave the attendees a forty-minute applause. A remarkable information, however, is that Director Pasolini himself was an atheist .