La Rabbia

In 1963 newsreel producer Gastone Ferranti commissioned Marxist Pier Paolo Pasolini and conservative Giovannino Guareschi to each make a one hour document about the state of things as they saw it. Using footage culled from newsreel archives (both used the same sources) accompanied by narrative voices employing poetry and prose to deliver their messages, Pasolini rails against the crimes committed in the name of Western culture – particularly those in the African colonies – while Guareschi sees in those same Western, “civilising” values hope for the future humankind. Still this unreleased and virtually unseen film is a masterclass in 1960s ideology from both points of view, and proved a significant influence on Derek Jarman, for whom Pasolini became a great source of inspiration – most evident in the British filmmaker’s mythic and poetic SEBASTIANE.