Casarsa della Delizia (PN), Italy
Mission Title: The Gospel According to Pasolini - Pasolini in the Friuli
Mission By: Tomaso Valsecchi, Fabio Zinna
Mission Finished on Date: 18-07-2008
SCRIPT
- Go to Casarsa della Delizia, to the Pier Paolo Pasolini Center, settled in Casa Colussi, historical house of the author's mother.
- Explore the Center's spaces (thematic rooms at the low ground, the external garden, the "Academiuta" room), and ask the curators about the changes of building's architecture, how it has been affected by renovation works, ended in 1999. If it's possible, take a look at the manuscripts from Pasolini's period in the Friuli, and his letters. Ask about the people confluence at the center, what kind of public does it gather, only studious or also more heterogeneous groups?
- The Center organizes a trip through the symbolic places which influenced Pasolini's life and production. Try to approach these places through his own words, which described them as a refuge, a safe bay. Try to imagine how the village could be enlivened by town festivals and local rites of 60 years ago.
- The stops pass through Casarsa, Versuta, San Giovanni and surrounding villages, Santa Croce Church and Casarsa cemetery. Stop to the places mentioned in the mission, as the San Giovanni Loggia, Pasolini's grave, or the "ciasèl" in the middle of Versuta fields, where summer classes took place. Take a careful look of these landscapes: is it still open country? Try to find some old local inhabitant, someone who maybe attended Pasolini's funeral, or who lived in Versuta during his political propaganda. Most important, try to understand how locals live Pasolini's myth, how it affects their imaginary, what do they think about this complex charachter and how these places are still affected by his inheritance (not only personal, but also litterary, political, historical).
TRAVEL BAG
How does a landscape affect the poetics of an author?
P.P.P. Three identical initials, became over the years, more than an acronym, they became an unmistakable abbreviation for one of Italy's most controversial luminaries. Pier Paolo Pasolini's name is linked to Rome and its suburbs ("borgate") and his use of amateur actors, his open homosexuality and his political declarations, his polymath capabilities and of course his famous films, all of it divisive and often misunderstood. His very first collection of poetry, Poesi a Casarsa, released in 1942, rather than the queer communist anticonsumerist poetry of his films, instead reflecting the rural landscape and agricultural lives (and language) of his mother's native village, called Casarsa. He celebrated the fields, the people, and the "Glisiùt," the ancient Santa Croce church where he was eventually buried in 1975, all in the currently autonomous province of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
Casarsa's rural peacefulness became a little compromised with the regular bombings of WWII, and so Pasolini moved to Versuta, close to Pordenone, where he delved into his first journalistic experience founding the "Academiuta di lenga furlana" ("Academy of the Friuli Parlance"), a little poetical salon that aimed to safeguard the regional identity of the Friuli. The geography of Pasolini's youth marks a precise path: in Versuta there is the "Ciasèl," a small cabin used as a tool shed, in the middle of the Spagnol field, where the author used to give class to his students. And more: the ancient Loggia in San Giovanni di Casarsa, whose walls hosted his political diatribes (both in Italian and in dialect) from the period of his flirtation with the Communist party. After a violent death strongly overdrawn by media, Pasolini is now buried in the Casarsa cemetery, a simple white stone with a bay laurel tree behind.
Mission Report
The recording starts with some shots of Casa Colussi. There follows a long interview with Gian Mario Villalta, director of Centro Studi Pasolini (Pasolini Study Centre), during which many topics are discussed, among which the ones pointed out in the mission’s script.
Then the secretary of the centre takes us on a tour of the house – we ask her to read for us in Friulan one of the political Manifestos that on Sundays Pasolini used to put up in the loggia of San Giovanni of Casarsa.
The following shot is the one that could become the opening scene of our reportage, in which you can see the MINI getting to the cemetery. There follow shots regarding the landscapes and the places belonging to the pasolinean memory, among which: the cemetery where Pasolini was buried, next to his mother; the loggia where he used to put up his political manifestos; the fountain of Versuta, extolled by him.
In our opinion the video should feature the shots of the study centre and above all of the landscapes and the places on the pasolinean itinerary. The soundtrack should have music or words taken from the interview to the people in charge of the centre.
Tomaso Valsecchi, Fabio Zinna
