Scouting in Palestine
1965 · 55 MIN · IMDB 7.1 · 344 VOTES · DIR. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Overview
In 1963, accompanied by a newsreel photographer and a Catholic priest, Piero Paolo Pasolini traveled to Palestine to investigate the possibility of filming his biblical epic The Gospel According to Matthew in its approximate historical locations. Edited by The Gospel‘s producer for potential funders and distributors, Seeking Locations in Palestine features semi-improvised commentary from Pasolini as its only soundtrack. As we travel from village to village, we listen to Pasolini’s idiosyncratic musings on the teachings of Christ and witness his increasing disappointment with the people and landscapes he sees before him. Israel, he laments, is much too modern. The Palestinians, much too wretched; it would be impossible to believe the teachings of Jesus had reached these faces. The Gospel According to Matthew was ultimately filmed in Southern Italy. Mel Gibson would use some of the same locations forty years later for The Passion of the Christ.
Dialogue Timeline — 605 lines
A SAMPLE ACROSS THE RUNTIME — EVERY LINE IS SEARCHABLE
00:00:13 - A VISIT TO PALESTINE -
00:02:01 ...and led them up a high mountain, by themselves.
00:04:32 The multitude probably gathered here, to listen to Christ...
00:06:31 ...from a philological point of view and, more importantly, a historical one.
00:08:35 Then, possibly, relive it, rebuild it, invent it, perhaps...
00:09:57 ...I imagine it would be difficult to find extras:
00:11:29 ...in preparation for the New Testament.
00:13:41 ...the donkeys from the Bible, the little girl from the Bible.
00:17:26 Still continuing towards Nazareth, we pass through zones...
00:19:32 ...about the differences between how she raised you, her grown daughter...
00:21:13 And even the types of work are organised...
00:22:56 ...a little like what was before my eyes here.
00:25:15 ...in both a philological and poetic sense.
00:27:46 There it is, down there.
00:30:55 ...we find large industrial plants.
00:34:31 This is Jerusalem.
00:36:26 ...and have lost all of the "archaic" aspects that I would like for my film.
00:37:55 ...has become an aesthetic idea and thus, spiritual.
00:39:53 ...articulated with extreme absoluteness...
00:42:17 ...in Don Andrea's mind everything was straightforward...
00:45:51 And I don't mean the rather embarrassing venal part...
00:47:31 Except for the European clothes, the others...
00:49:25 "...what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;..."
00:51:23 ...the moment in which Christ leaves us alone to search for him.