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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Silence et langage du corps dans le cinéma de Pier Paolo Pasolini

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In Pasolini’s films, the dialogue may be removed from the narrative of the film or even reduced significantly. It is not uncommon to see sequences without dialogue, where meaning effects are attributed exclusively to visual impact. In Oedipus Rex (1967), Pasolini combines a vision closer to painting with the captions prevalent throughout the film. The captions reveal the absence of a voice and mimic the identity of a third person. The inscriptions, such as “Where are you going, my youth? Where, my life?” deceive the continuity of images, and produce the same effect of an intervention of the first person narrator in a written text. This technique epitomises two film eras: Modern and Silent Cinema. According to Pasolini, silence and dialogue are the expression of the body and its language. Indeed, Pasolini gives major importance to the human face by multiplying the frontal plans and focusing on facial expressions. Through mimicry it appears, in Pasolini’s films, that the issue of body language and the question of the historical dimension of the language are included in the body. One therefore notes the presence of a silent body exposed with sudden movements, spasms and a word that comes from the very bottom of this silence, thereby revealing the body’s presence even more. In this paper it will be shown how Pasolini’s films endeavour to get out of the “verbal-centered” logic favouring instead the silence and the bodily expressiveness of the actor