NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (May 2023): Criterion have transferred nine Pier Paolo Pasolini films from the 1960's in their Pasolini 101 package to nine, separate, dual-layered Blu-rays. We have reviewed all 9 films in previous digital editions from DVDs - Criterion, Koch Lorber, Raro Video, Films sans Frontieres, Legend Films, Water Bearer etc. etc. - to Blu-ray (BFI, Masters of Cinema.) Accattone is reviewed HERE, Mamma Roma HERE, Love Meetings (an extra on MoC's Accattone Blu-ray reviewed HERE), The Gospel According to Matthew compared HERE, The Hawks and the Sparrows HERE, Oedipus Rex HERE, Teorema (is the exact same disc as Criterion's 2020 Blu-ray release - only with different menus) compared HERE, Porcile HERE and Medea HERE. Criterion states: "New 4K digital restorations of seven films and 2K digital restorations of Teorema and Medea".

Before some of the films there are restoration details via text screens:

Accattone
"Restored in 2020 by Cineteca di Bologna and The Film Foundation, in association with Compass Film and Istituto Luce-Cinecitta, at L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory.
Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
The 4K restoration of Accattone was made from the original camera and sound negatives provided by Studio Cine in Rome. The final grading was supervised by cinematographer Luca Bigazzi."

Mamma Roma
"The restoration of Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962) was carried out in 2022 by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia - Cineteca Nazionale starting from the scene and column negatives made available by RTI-Mediaset in collaboration with Infinity+ and Cine34
To reconstruct the complete version of the film, some sections that were missing or damaged in the scene negative were integrated with a positive preserved by the Cineteca Nazionale Laboratory: Cinema Communications Services"

Love Meetings
"The 4K restoration of Comizi d'amore was carried out by the Cineteca di Bologna Foundation, in collaboration with Compass Film, starting from the original camera and sound negatives made available by Studio Cine. The dubbed sequences mounted on the 35mm camera negative (about 50% of the film) were restored from the original 16mm camera negative. The grading of the film was supervised by DoP Luca Bigazzi.
The processing was carried out at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in 2020.
Restoration carried out with the contribution of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, and with the support of "A Season of Classic Films", an initiative promoted by ACE - Association des Cinémathèques Européennes within the Commission's Creative MEDIA program European."

The Gospel According to Matthew
"Il vangelo secondo Matteo (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964) was restored in 4K by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, in collaboration with the Criterion Collection and the copyright holder Compass Film, from the 35mm original camera negative and sound negative, made available by Studio Cine.
Pieces of negatives were found in a separate can. Due to their extremely poor conditions, these shots had been cut and replaced by a dupe negative. These negative pieces have now been integrated into the new restoration.
Special acknowledgments to DoP Giuseppe Lanci for supervising the color correction.
The restoration on the film's image was carried out at LImmagine Ritrovata laboratory. The soundtrack restoration was undertaken by the Criterion Collection. The project was completed in 2022."

The Hawks and the Sparrows
"The 4K restoration of Uccellacci ebirdini (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1966) was carried out by the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, in collaboration with Compass Film, starting from the original camera and sound negatives made available by Studio Cine.
Thanks to the director of photography Luca Bigazzi for supervising the grading. The work was carried out at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in 2020. Restoration carried out with the contribution of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism."

Oedipus Rex
"The 4K restoration of Oedipus Rex (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1967) was carried out by the Cineteca di Bologna Foundation, in collaboration with Compass Film and Istituto Luce-Cinecittà, starting from the original camera and sound negatives made available by Studio Cine. Grading was supervised by cinematographer Luca Bigazzi.
Processing carried out at the L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in 2021.
Restoration carried out with the contribution of the Ministry of Culture."

Porcile
"Porcile (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969) was restored in 4K by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, in collaboration with the Criterion Collection and Compass Film, from the 35mm original camera negative and sound negative made available by Studio Cine.
Special acknowledgments to DoP Giuseppe Lanci for supervising the color correction.
The restoration work on the film's image was carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory. The soundtrack restoration was undertaken by the Criterion Collection. The project was completed in 2022."

All the Criterion transfers are dual-layered with max'ed out bitrates and all appear to advance on previous editions NOTE: Teorema is the exact same disc as Criterion's 2020 Blu-ray release - only with different menus - same extras, same transfer. The Criterion 1080Ps look more balanced where some of the older HD transfers were too bright, or faded - the Criterion al consistent with only Oedipus Rex having notable teal. Appreciated grain textures are highly apparent. No sign of excessiveness sometimes seen when films are 'Ritrovata'ed'. It would be reasonable to state that these Criterion restoration / transfers are the best these nine films have ever looked on digital.  

NOTE: We have added 90 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a linear PCM mono tracks (24-bit) in the original Italian language with Teorema offering an optional, lossy, English DUB. Some of the films in Criterion's Pasolini 101 have violence that generally comes through with modest depth. The audio is authentically flat. Pasolini often uses classic pieces in his film; Accattone has JS Bach's St Matthew Passion, Mamma Roma has Vivaldi and Bixio. On The Gospel According to Matthew the uncompressed transfer handles the impacting music from "Sometimes I feel like a motherless child" to J.S. Bach's Matthäus Passion, "Concerto for violin in E major (BWV 1042)" and Blind Willie Johnson's "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground". The Hawks and the Sparrows and Teorema scores were by Ennio Morricone (A Bullet for the General, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, U Turn, Stay As You Are etc. etc.) The score on Porcile was by Benedetto Ghiglia (I Knew Her Well.) Criterion offer optional English subtitles - also including optional 'English: The King James version' on The Gospel According to Matthew. Criterion's Blu-rays are all Region 'A'-locked.

The Criterion Blu-ray offers plenty of extras including commentaries on Accattone (the critic Tony Rayns repeated from Masters of Cinema's 2012 Blu-ray) and Teorema with the same audio commentary from 2007 featuring Robert S. C. Gordon, author of Pasolini: Forms of Subjectivity - that is on the 2007 BFI DVD and 2001 BFI  Blu-ray. Both commentators analysis remain rewarding - revealing impressive details and they provide some keen insights into the productions and Pasolini.

Also on the Accattone disc is Pasolini on Pasolini - a 1/2 hour program, produced by the Criterion in 2023, with actor Tilda Swinton and writer Rachel Kushner reading from Pasolini's personal essays and journal entries, in which he reflects on the meaning of cinema in his life and his journey to becoming a maestro of the craft. Cineastes de Notre Temps runs over 1.5 hours and is an intimate portrait of Pasolini, dubbed "the enraged" in the program's subtitle, aired on French television on November 15th, 1966, and was directed by Jean-Andre Fieschi. It features wide-ranging conversations with the director as well as interviews with the actors and collaborators who helped shape his cinematic universe over the course of the sixties. Lastly on that disc is a trailer.

On the Mamma Roma Blu-ray are some of the extras from Criterion's 2004 DVD. There is an hour-long documentary, made by No Barnabo Micheli in 1995 -the twentieth anniversary of Pasolini's murder - examines the central ideas in the work of this legendary and controversial artist. In 1962, the year in which Mamma Roma was released, Pasolini made the 35-minute La ricotta, about a director filming the Passion of Jesus, as part of the anthology film Ro.Go.Pa.G. The short was mired in controversy but marked an important turning point in Pasolini's thematic, political, and stylistic development. It is included on this disc. There are two interviews from 2003 - with Tonino Delli Colli who worked as the director of photography on eleven of Pasolini's films. And with Enzo Siciliano - the author of Pasolini A Biography (1982). There are 6-minutes with filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci who began his career as a production assistant on Pasolini's first film, Accattone (1961). This interview was recorded in Italy in the fall of 2003. Lastly is a trailer for the film.

Supplements on the Love Meetings Blu-ray include the 1/4 hour Notes from a Critofilm - a short documentary, made by Maurizio Ponzi in 1967, where Pasolini offers a concise yet illuminating explanation of his cinematic grammar, drawing on his regular collaborator Ninetto Davoli and scenes from Love Meetings to illustrate examples of his larger artistic worldview. 'Varda Meets Pasolini' runs 4-minutes as the two icons of cinema link up on the streets of New York City in this portrait of Pasolini, shot by filmmaker Agnes Varda in 1967. These images were shot by Varda in 1966, with editing and commentary completed in 1967. All the elements were discovered in 2021. This film was restored in 2022 by Cine-Tamaris, with the kind collaboration Llmmagine Ritrovata, as part of the project Memories in images. Lastly is a trailer for Love Meetings.

On The Gospel According to St. Matthew Blu-ray is the 54-minute 'Scouting in Palestine'. In 1963, Pasolini traveled to Palestine to find locations for his upcoming film, The Gospel According to Matthew, with a newsreel photographer and a Catholic priest in tow. This documentary overlays Pasolini's sojourn from village to village with his improvised observations and commentary. There are also 3-minutes of outtakes from that documentary and a long trailer for The Gospel According to St. Matthew.

The Hawks and the Sparrows Blu-ray includes Toto at the Circus, a deleted scene from The Hawks and the Sparrows features the film's lead actor Totò and includes the dialogue that Pasolini had planned to record for the scene. We also get the 1/2 hour documentary, Ninetto The Messenger, which was directed by Jean-Andre Fieschi and aired on French television in 1997, actor Ninetto Davoli discusses his collaboration with Pasolini, whom he met in the early 1960s. Again a trailer for the film is included on this Blu-ray.

Sharing the Oedipus Rex disc is the 35-minute documentary Notes for a film on India that was shot on the occasion of Pasolini's trip to post independence India to do research on a proposed film. It features his reflections on the country's economic and class-based hardships, as well as on its modernization and Westernization. The Sequence of the Paper Flowers runs shy of a dozen minutes. Pasolini directed this sketch featuring actor Ninetto Davoli as part of the 1969 anthology film Love and Anger, a compendium of modern-day cinematic reflections on the Gospels that also features the work of contemporaries such as Jean-Luc Godard, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Marco Bellocchio. BTW, the restoration of The Sequence of the Paper Flowers was carried out from the original 35mm negative (4K scan) and from a mono 35mm optical soundtrack negative. The work took place in 2022 at the digital laboratory of Cinecitta SpA. There is also a trailer.

The Teorema Blu-ray has the same 2020 extras on Criterion's initial BD of the film with a brief introduction by director Pier Paolo Pasolini that was first broadcast on February 8th, 1969, where the director responds to questions from journalist Cecile Philippe about his film Teorema. There is the same 1/2 hour interview from 2007 with Stamp (also on other editions) plus a new 16-minute interview with John David Rhodes, author of Stupendous Miserable City: Pasolini’s Rome. In this interview, shot by the Criterion Collection in 2019, the film scholar discusses Teorema with revealing depth. There is no trailer.

Pasolini on Porcile is a 5-minute interview with the director for the French television program Allez au cinéma, directed by Colette Thiriet and aired on October 13th, 1969, Pasolini talks about making Porcile and casting Pierre Clementi and Jean-Pierre Léaud as the film’s lead actors. There is a trailer for Porcile.

On the last Blu-ray disc, Medea, Criterion have included the 1/2 documentary On-Set Memories from 2004 on the making of Medea features rare behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with actors Laurent Terzieff and Giuseppe Gentile, cinematographer Ennio Guarnieri, production designer Dante Ferretti, costume designer Piero Tosi, and still photographer Mario Tursi. There are short comments by Maria Callas in an interview for the French television program Pour le cinéma, directed by Pierre Mignot and aired on October 28th, 1969, actor and opera icon Maria Callas speaks from the set of Medea about her first on-screen performance and collaboration with Pasolini. A trailer is included.

The deluxe packaging, includes a 100-page book featuring an essay and notes on the films by critic James Quandt, and writings and drawings by Pasolini (see image below.)

Criterion's beautiful Blu-ray package, Pasolini 101, featuring nine the poet, filmmaker, writer, and intellectual's films from the 1960's is one of their very best. Growing up, Pasolini was a fervent reader of Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Shakespeare and Coleridge and became a major figure in European film. Early on Pasolini collaborated on Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria, writing the Roman dialect dialogue. His first film as writer and director was Accattone - made in 1961 - and included here. It was set in Rome's disadvantaged neighborhoods with pimps, prostitutes and thieves making a stark contrast with Italy's postwar economic reforms. Noted for the biblical drama The Gospel According to Matthew in the neorealist style, through to Medea - based on the ancient myth of her being the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis. It ironically starred opera singer Maria Callas (her only film role) she does not sing in the film. All here and much more in Criterion's exceptional Blu-ray set. Pasolini was daring and contentious; openly gay he was a strong personality in cinema. In later films he juxtaposed socio-political polemics with a daring examination of risqué sexual content establishing himself as an un-restrain-able artist. Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered at Ostia, a large neighborhood in the X Municipio of the commune of Rome, in November 1975, the year Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom was released, during an altercation with a young male prostitute. We can only imagine the cinema he would have created in the late 70s and 80s. The Criterion Blu-ray set has nine of his films in their 'best ever' home theatre presentations plus commentaries, interviews etc. and a 100-page book. At the writing of this review the Pre-order price is 30% OFF HERE on Amazon. Our highest recommendation.

Gary Tooze