Teorema 08/23 Blu-ray (Rental)

One of the iconoclastic Pier Paolo Pasolini’s most radical provocations, Teorema finds the auteur moving beyond the poetic, proletarian earthiness that first won him renown and notoriety with a coolly cryptic exploration of bourgeois spiritual emptiness. Terence Stamp stars as the mysterious stranger—perhaps an angel, perhaps a devil—who, one by one, seduces the members of a wealthy Milanese family (including European cinema icons Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti, Laura Betti, and Anne Wiazemsky), precipitating an existential crisis in each of their lives. Unfolding nearly wordlessly in a procession of sacred and profane images, this tantalizing metaphysical riddle—blocked from exhibition by the Catholic Church for degeneracy—is at once a blistering Marxist treatise on sex, religion, and art and a primal scream into the void. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES • New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack • Alternate English-dubbed soundtrack, featuring the voice of actor Terence Stamp and others • Audio commentary from 2007 featuring Robert S. C. Gordon, author of Pasolini: Forms of Subjectivity • Introduction by director Pier Paolo Pasolini from 1969 • Interview from 2007 with Stamp • New interview with John David Rhodes, author of Stupendous, Miserable City: Pasolini’s Rome • New English subtitle translation • More! • PLUS: An essay by film scholar James Quandt