• Attendance
   
• BLOG review

The story of the Master (Pasolini) and his painting don’t quite match the analysis of the film provided, in my point of view. Unlike the majority of the stories within the film, it mainly focuses on varied passions, suppressed desires, lust, and the hypocrisies of society. It was the struggle of an artist, creating a fitting end for his work of art. The Master stressed himself in creating a suitable panel to complete his piece, looking for any inspiration he could. At the film’s climax, he realized what he could do and resolved in leaving the third panel blank as the final product. What struck me with this was that the other short stories were similar to the structure of the painting. They all had no definite conclusion. They all leave it up to the audience how each of these stories would end. The Master’s last lines best summarize the take-away of this film: “Why produce a work of art when it’s nice to just dream about it?”

 

One of the critical analysis of Pasolini’s film made is that “ the narrative structure of the film wants us to feel the same reaction as the audience when they first read the book.” This is true due to the fact that in the movie , the characters are portrayed in their purest self, which is poor and low class citizens. For example, in the story of an irreverent individual ciappelletto that made a false confession on his bed to the friar. His sins were so insignificant , that he was deemed as a very holy man . This story is set to counter the christian beliefs that if a person confess their sins, then they can go to heaven . This was one of several attempts of Passolini to show corruption and how fallacious the church actually was which many people during the 1300’s could relate too.

Pasolini was successful in communicating his vision of life through the film. The last story where Meuccio and Tingoccio promised that the one who dies first would tell the other what afterlife was like is the one that is most direct in expressing Pasolini’s message that human nature is beautiful and should be celebrated. Although Tingoccio died due to excessively indulging in sexual activities, he was not punished for this. Tingoccio never specifically stated what his punishment was, but he does say that he is paying for his sins. This directly support Pasolini’s belief and message that human nature is not sinful as of the many sins that Tingoccio committed, lust was not one of the sin that landed him where he is.

I think what Pasolini is trying to tell others is that part of being a human/us is to dream about the great/happy things. No one’s life is a simple easy journey, people will go thought hardship and desires and what’s better to fulfill these desires and needs than dreams.

In the third panel of the fresco’s triptych is left incomplete because It meant that there is more to the film, it is not yet over as it has been cut short in comparison to the book itself. There is more to look forward too possibly in the next film . In the last sentence, Passolini also says “ why produce a work of art when it is so nice to just dream about it ?” this sentence could mean that the work he was showing was also from a personal point of view which means that viewers were free to interpret and make assumptions about what was going to occur next .  The incomplete triptych can also be interpreted as a work of art is not simply enough to capture the truths of the world, which is why it’s a blank space because there is much more corruption and fallacies and so many questionable beliefs . The film only captured a small glimpse of human life.

By leaving the third panel of the fresco’s triptych incomplete, Pasolini may be trying to convey that a work of art may not be able to truly convey the painter’s vision. By putting a vision into a painting, the scene would also become unrealistic as it is something that only exists in the author’s mind. Thus, leaving the last panel empty could convey the flexibility of an artist’s dream or vision that could not be expressed in a painting. The last sentence Pasolini states “Why produce a work of art when it’s nice to just dream about it?” could convey an artist’s inability to truly expressed a dream within a painting, as dreams entice a person’s attention due to its strangeness, and not due to its symbolisms.