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claudja777 — 21 years ago(January 29, 2005 10:10 AM)
is the opposite.the guy is an angel,is the personification of "holy"
the theorem is:the bourgeoise who meet the holy get crazy,they can't stand it.Infact the only one who get out well from this encounter is the maid.Got it? -
j_michellejones — 20 years ago(April 07, 2005 07:36 PM)
when i first saw this film, i really didn't get it. but it's been almost a year and i can still remember parts of it vividly. i read somewhere afterwards that the visitor could be god, and that paosolini was an adamant socialist. i don't get how the vatican could have given this film an award, because i thought it was mocking christianity. but i like your explanation claudja777.
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poppe_dreng — 20 years ago(August 19, 2005 10:37 AM)
I think, that if a movie is really good, like this one, it offers the possibility of different, even mutually conflicting, interpretations. Like in this case: I agree that in a way it is mocking cristianity, but in deed I also understand, why the vatican liked it very much. I think such ambiguity is very beautiful.
It's a simular case with Luis Buuel's "La Voie Lactee" and Lars von Trier's "Breaking the Waves": They can also be seen as both religious and blasphemous. -
gantami — 20 years ago(October 20, 2005 04:23 PM)
I think Stamp's character could easily be interpreted as Christ. The way I saw it, Stamp loves everyone in the house, then quickly departs, leaving them all lost and searching. This could be read as an allegory for Jesus' life. Pasolini could be saying that because Jesus loved his followers so completely, his death left a void which could not be filled. The way in which people attempt to fill this void is, in my view, what Teorema is about. The maid fills it through sacrifice (and subsequently, is given the power to perform miracles), the boy fills it through art, the girl is unable to cope with the loss (she becomes paralyzed), the wife travels the city looking for sexual satisfaction to replace the loss, and the husband finds himself naked in a barren wasteland, screaming. I think all of these characters can be interpreted as representations of certain social types. Pasolini could be making the point that all of us are lost as a result of Jesus' love and death, therefore the way in which we try to make up for it, defines us. That's my take Any thoughts?
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dbaboci — 20 years ago(November 08, 2005 08:29 PM)
I don't think the 'stranger' is God. He is a messanger, sent to earth to destroy the false security that people create in themselves.
As Pasolini states in an interview to the NYTimes :
"Its not important to understand Teorema,"
"I leave it to the spectatoris the visitor God or is he the Devil? He is not Christ. The important thing is that he is sacred, a supernatural being. He is something from beyond."
The only one to not lose her identity is the maid. All the other characters lose their identity, they are nothing! The maid becomes the stranger, she gives herself to earth, to god. She let's go of her identity, she knows she is nothing. The Bourgeoise don't think so, they all try to find a way in defining who they are. The father ends the movie with a scream, a dry empty scream. He is in the desert we see throughout all ht emovie. He knows he is nothing!
Pasolini:
"But as for sexual intercourse, well, I havent had the occasion to use that yet. The sexual theme in Teorema is only metaphorical. Thats why the sex scenes between the visitor and the members of the family are not explicit. The love that is offered is spiritual. The mother and father have the illusion that it is physical and that they can replace it by having sexual relationships with pick-ups, boys who resemble the visitor physically. These relations are shown realistically because there is nothing else to show. Nothing mystical takes place with them. The mother and father, because of their middle-class, industrial values, have not been able to learn from a truly religious experience. The father almost does. He takes off his clothes and, like Saint Francis, leaves all material things behind. When he reaches the desert, which represents the ascetic life he has been trying to gain, he is not capable of living a mystical experience, as Saint Francis was, because he is historically made in another manner. He arrives almost to the limit of being saved, but he doesnt make it. Its very important that the middle-class sees its own errors and suffers for them."
P.S.
The left hated the movie. The right hated the movie. They couldn't fully understand it at the time.
The church anulled the award it gave to Pasolini because the film "respect the sensibility of Christian people". -
TemporaryOne — 17 years ago(June 14, 2008 03:03 PM)
She let's go of her identity, she knows she is nothing.
After she departs the family, a new maid replaces herand her name is Emilia, a younger version of Emilia, a dopplegnger
Emilia the catatonic saint performs miracles, cures blisters on a young boy's face, levitates.
She knows she has transcended humankind, she wants to be buried, not to die, but to weep, weep life-essence into the soil to rejuvenate humankind, to allow her hope and faith and life to nourish the earth and mankind. She knows she is a life source because she was absolutely fulfilled by the stranger, she benefited from him.
She says,
I didnt come here to die. I came here to weep. They're not tears of sorrow. No, theyll be a
source
but not a sourse of troubles.
Her open weeping eyes will give rise to a new life, new ideology, new revolutions