Il vangelo secondo Matteo (1964)'s comments

quote:

One of The Gospel According to Matthew’s special achievements is the way it finds a cinematic equivalent to the literary nature of the Sermon on the Mount, which fills three chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. It's widely regarded by biblical scholars not as a single speech originally given by Jesus on a single occasion, but as a collection of sayings and teachings that Jesus proclaimed on various occasions, probably repeatedly and in various forms, edited together into a single speech by the sacred writer.

In keeping with this, Pasolini likewise edits together his Sermon on the Mount sequence out of separate shots of Irazoqui proclaiming Jesus’ teaching at different times and places. The camera stays tight on Irazoqui’s face, keeping the edits relatively unobtrusive, just as they are in Matthew’s Gospel; of the differing circumstances or audiences that occasioned the various components that become the Sermon on the Mount we learn nothing in Matthew, and therefore Pasolini shows us nothing of them. Only the cuts themselves, along with varying backgrounds and lighting conditions, indicate that we are experiencing a continuity created in the editing room.

The score includes some curious choices, ranging from Mozart and Bach to blues. One could imagine The Gospel According to Matthew with no music at all, just as Carl Dreyer wanted The Passion of Joan of Arc to play. Yet I think Christian film writer Seth Studer has a point when he argues in his review of the film, "Surprisingly, the soundtrack only adds to the film’s spiritual authenticity. By not confining itself to one style or era, the music invokes afresh the transcendence of Christ across the ages, across cultures."