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Sunday, April 24, 2016

Blessed our son on Earth




          Blessed are the poor  - LaStampa


READ ALOUD the FIRST 40 seconds 
from the script on the screen (Off the sound in   Italian )The Gospel According to St. Matthew is a 1964 Italian film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
 ("dedicated to the dear, joyous, familiar memory of Pope John XXIII").



3  Blessed are the poor in spirit,*
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.

5   Blessed are the meek,
     for they will inherit the land.

6  Blessed are those who hunger  for holiness; 
      they shall have their fill.

7  Blessed are the merciful,
     for they shall obtain mercy.

8  Blessed are the clean of heart,
    they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peace-makers,
    for they shall be counted the children of God.

10 those persecuted in right’s cause,
   is the kingdom of heaven is  theirs
  
(...)

(00:45-->)
 if your son asks for bread, will you  give him a stone 
Or if he asks for a fish, will give you him a serpent?

 If you, evil as you are, 
    know what is good for your children,
Will not your Father in heaven give 
      more good gifts to those who ask!

 Do to other men all that 
    you would have them do to you,


Even the way Pasolini presented the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is fascinating. Jesus doesn't say the sermon in one setting, but gives parts of the sermon in various contexts -- the scenes shift between day and night, between inside and outside shots, Jesus with and without a scarf, etc. In my mind (and perhaps only in my mind!) this suggests that Pasolini wanted to present the sermon as more of a compendium of Jesus' teachings, not a long sermon that took place at one time. 
that is the Law and the Prophets.



Tyler comments:
El evangelio según San Mateo PosterThe Vatican newspaper recognises Pasolini’s ability to let the Gospel message flow freely through his work. The “cursed” director allows religious inspiration to flow through the camera and express itself on the screen. The Vatican film library has now stored the film in its computer database. The film has been blessed as “a performance that touches a sacred chord and is inspired by a sincere realism.”
It is “certainly the film in which the Gospel message rings out most fluidly, loftily and loudly, carved into the bare stone.” It is a perfect illustration of Francis’ “poor Church for the poor”.   (LaStampa- 2015)

Roundinf off

1) Peter T. Chattaway writes regularly about movies - Today on JESUS

2) -Wikipedia

RATING: 
The Gospel According to St. Matthew was ranked number 10 (in 2010) and number 7 (in 2011) in the Arts and Faith website's Top 100 Films,[15] also is in the Vatican's list of 45 great films and Roger Ebert's Great Movies list

Location:
 Places in South Italy - around BarileMatera, and Massafra, where the film was shot 
(Pasolini visited the Holy Land but found the locations unsuitable and "commercialized")
Pasolini ended up filming The Gospel According to St. Matthew in southern Italy (Mel Gibson would use some of the same locations forty years later for The Passion of the Christ), but he originally planned to shoot in the Holy Lands. This diary-on-film has Pasolini and his team visiting Galilee, Jordan, Damascus, Bethlehem and Jerusalem – and coming to the conclusion, with disappointment, that Matthew would have to be made elsewhere

Alternate versions 

The 2007 Region 1 DVD release from Legend Films features a colorized, English-dubbed version of the film, in addition to the original, black-and-white Italian-language version. (The English-dubbed version is significantly shorter than the original, with a running time of 91 minutes — roughly 40 minutes shorter than the standard version.)

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