Cinema Paradiso: Pier Paolo Pasolini ‑The Gospel according to St Matthew (Il vangelo secondo Matteo) (1964)

Sat­urday, 8 August 2026 at 2.30pm — Cinema Para­diso:

Pier Paolo Pasolini: The Gos­pel accord­ing to St Mat­thew (Il van­gelo secondo Mat­teo) (1964)

The note in the Pew Sheet on East­er Day (5 April 2026) about the show­ing of this film at the St James Insti­tute and the Bible Study’s read­ing of Matthew’s Gos­pel inspired Cinema Para­diso to present this mas­ter­piece of Itali­an cinema.

As heard on the Fourth Sunday after Pente­cost (21 June 2026), Mat­thew recor­ded some of Christ’s aston­ish­ing state­ments, some of which are known as the beatitudes.

Hailed by crit­ics as Pasolini’s greatest work, the film is a stun­ning inter­pret­a­tion of the life of Christ, who is por­trayed as a peas­ant out­cast, driv­en by anger at social injustice.

The per­form­ances are by an entirely ama­teur cast found on very evoc­at­ive loc­a­tion in Sicily.

RSVP not required. Screen­ing in the Church Hall

2.15pm for a punc­tu­al 2.30pm. The earli­er start is due to the length of the film.  Inter­val at 3.40pm — espresso! pizza mar­gher­ita! pro­secco! (strictly 20 minutes) 5.20pm Finis