I decided at the last minute to go into TO and see a movie at the Cinematheque, Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema (Theorem).

It begins with reporters asking a man why he is giving away his factory, and political questions, about whether it's the beginning of a revolution (it was made in 1968), is it the end of the bourgeoisie (upper middle class) and so on. Then we jump back, finding ourselves with an upper midde class family, and a young man who wanders into their lives. He reads Rimbaud (not 'Rambo', a French poet, famous for his degenerate ways). One by one, each member of the household desires to be seduced by him: the religiously devout housekeeper, the studious son, the detached mother, the naive daughter, and finally the father. Then, the young man is mysteriously called away, but not before each of them has told the young man how he has transformed them, and they don't know how they can go on without him.

The son becomes an artist, seeking new methods of creating, ones that have never been done before (i'm not sure if throwing cans of paint and urinating on canvases was new even in 1968). The daughter runs around measuring things, and then becomes catatonic and hospitalized. The mother now has unquenchable passion (though she does her best with a string of young men). The maid goes to her home village, eats only nettles, and sits on a bench. She heals children, and then floats above the buildings, and finally buries herself, not to die to be transformed. Then the father, after ogling another young man and giving away his factory, strips naked and walks into a desolate landscape.

The director was arrested for obscenity, but there's hardly any nudity (tighty-whities, (very briefly) girl's bare chest), and much of the sex is actually alluded to. There's the religious aspect - aside from the miracles, the young man comes across as a Christ-like figure. It's an odd film - less than 1000 spoken words, not much in the way of explanation, or even story. The family doesn't seem particularly repressed, although maybe that's the point - we are all so rarely in touch with our true selves, that we don't know we are repressing until we are liberated. Perhaps the 'theorem' is that 'liberation' (the director was a 60s style Marxist) is less about class than personal revelation. At the same time, it's pretty funny, as their attractions and reactions are so over-the-top ridiculous.

You know you want him, because he's The (younger) Most Interesting Man In The World....