Distant Shadows

Tribute to Pier Paolo Pasolini
Multimedia Concert for the Fiftieth Anniversary of His Death
by
Andrea Centazzo

On November 2, 2025, the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Pier Paolo Pasolini will be commemorated. Pasolini was a unique figure—an artist, intellectual, filmmaker, essayist, and poet—who left an indelible mark on the international cultural landscape of the twentieth century. Andrea Centazzo, who shares with Pasolini a connection through origins, migration, and artistic vision, has paid tribute to his great fellow countryman, who lived just a few kilometers away, every decade since his passing with orchestral and solo works. Distant Shadows is the fifth act in this ongoing homage to the remarkable intellectual and artist. In this new project, in addition to images of places dear to the poet, clips from his films, and pictures of himself, his voice is used for the first time as a central element in several musical compositions.

Pier Paolo Pasolini 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, screenwriter, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist and a political figure.

A controversial personality due to his straightforward style, Pasolini’s legacy remains contentious. Openly gay while also a vocal advocate for heritage language revival, cultural conservatism, and Christian values in his youth, Pasolini instead became an avowed Marxist shortly after the end of World War II he began voicing extremely harsh criticism of Italian petty bourgeoisie and what he saw as the Americanization, cultural degeneration, and greed-driven consumerism taking over Italian culture. As a filmmaker, Pasolini often juxtaposed socio-political polemics with an extremely graphic and critical examination of taboo sexual matters. A prominent protagonist of the Roman intellectual scene during the post-war era, Pasolini became an established and major figure in European literature and cinema. Pasolini’s unsolved and extremely brutal abduction, torture, and murder at Ostia in November 1975 prompted an outcry in Italy, where it continues to be a matter of heated debate.

Andrea Centazzo’s compositional work has always drawn from the source of literary and poetic inspiration, but it is above all from his encounter with Pasolini’s poetry, novels and movies that Centazzo has drawn inspiration for some works that rightfully place him among the innovators of the contemporary musical language. With Pasolini, Centazzo shares birthplaces, migratory experiences, studies, exile and inspirations, linked to that land of his poor childhood, but full of pathos, that was post-war Friuli. “Homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini” for orchestra saw the light on the tenth anniversary of the poet’s death, while “Rain on the Borders” also for orchestra was commissioned from the artist for the twentieth anniversary of the poet’s death. In this solo percussion Pasolini multimedia project Centazzo brings to the public a new stage of his work The songs are presented to the public together with video images shot by himself and clips from Pier Paolo’s films, on which music with archaic and magical echoes is synchronized. Centazzo’s music escapes any definition, balanced as it is between genres: minimalism, European avant-garde and ethnic reminiscences.

Journey to Casarsa (Without Return)

No town was as dear to the poet as Casarsa, the hometown of his mother, Susanna Colussi.

Pier Paolo Pasolini was born in Bologna, Italy, the son of elementary school teacher Susanna Colussi and Carlo Alberto Pasolini, a lieutenant in the Italian Army. The couple married in 1921. After her husband was arrested for gambling debts, Susanna left him and returned with young Pier Paolo to her family’s home in Casarsa della Delizia, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.

It was in Casarsa that Pasolini began writing poetry at the age of seven, inspired by the natural beauty and quiet rhythms of village life. The town became a wellspring of inspiration, a place where his artistic voice first began to emerge.

In January 1950, Pasolini moved to Rome with his mother to begin a new life, carrying with him the memory of Casarsa—the village that had nurtured his earliest dreams.
This video and its music trace the poet’s journey: first to Casarsa, and then from Casarsa to Rome. Through images of the little town and recordings of Pasolini’s voice reciting the poems he wrote about it, the work captures the profound emotional bond he maintained with the place he once called home.

TIARE 1985-2025

The award-winning video Tiare—meaning “homeland” in the Friulian language—was filmed in Friuli in 1984, the native land of both Pasolini and myself. I edited it the following year, in 1985, marking my first journey into the world of video making.

To my astonishment, the film garnered awards across the globe in 1985 and 1986, celebrated for its unmistakable echo of Pasolini’s cinematic vision.

In this new work, I weave fragments of the original music with fresh images of Friuli’s rivers and waters—a quiet tribute to Pasolini, who so often exalted fountains and flowing water in his poetry and films, as symbols of memory, purity, and the eternal.

MEDEA OEDIPUS REX

Medea is a cinematic adaptation of the ancient myth of Medea, starring the legendary opera singer Maria Callas in her only film role. The film remains largely faithful to the story of Jason and the Argonauts, as well as to Euripides’ tragic play Medea. It stands as a bold, confrontational work from a director known for challenging societal norms—a film Pasolini himself described as “a love song to Maria Callas.” His intense, dramatic spirit is deeply woven into the film, which culminates in Medea’s harrowing acts of vengeance: the murder of her husband, their children, and her husband’s new lover.

Oedipus Rex: Pasolini’s adaptation of Oedipus Rex is based on the classic Greek tragedy written by Sophocles in 428 BC. Shot primarily in Morocco, it was Pasolini’s first full-length film in color. The visual style is deliberately ahistorical, blending a range of cultural elements to evoke an otherworldly, mythic atmosphere. The cast includes both Italian and Berber actors, with costumes that mix medieval knight helmets, broad-brimmed straw hats, and winged top hats. The film is framed by scenes set in 1920s Italy, which Pasolini described as an act of Freudian sublimation—bridging the ancient and the personal in a powerful narrative arc.

I handpicked the most poignant scenes to accompany the musical narration, offering them as a heartfelt tribute to Pasolini.

THE WALLS OF SANA’A

The capital of Yemen, the city of Sana’a, holds an important part of history within its walls filled with medieval architecture and culture. But that same culture was about to disappear with the country’s modernization which came after the civil war in the 1960’s. To impeach such modern invasion, director Pasolini pledges to UNESCO for the recognition of Sana’a as a World Heritage Site. After going through a civil war in the 1960’s, Yemen was no longer what it used to be, cities were destroyed and rebuilt in modern ways. Centuries of history and the famous medieval architecture of the place could disappear anytime if it wasn’t for the efforts of historians and many other people and efforts like this movie made by Pasolini. The battle succeed, but only in 1986 and unfortunately the director wasn’t here long enough to see it. The chants and rhythms of the continent echo through the images Pasolini filmed in that place.

FACES OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

“The Gospel According to Matthew” is a 1964 epic biblical drama crafted in the Italian neorealist style. The film offers a cinematic retelling of the life of Jesus, following the narrative of the Gospel of Matthew from the Nativity to the Resurrection. True to the neorealist tradition, it features a cast of non-professional actors and was shot entirely on location throughout Southern Italy.

Widely regarded as a masterpiece of world cinema and a cornerstone of the neorealist genre, the film also stands as a deeply personal tribute from Pier Paolo Pasolini to his mother, Susanna—who appears in the film as the older Mary.

In my homage, I have edited the faces of Pasolini’s non-professional actors into a visual gallery that reflects the sublime poetic quality of his direction. The accompanying music blends Gregorian chant, haunting soundscapes, and dramatic percussion to enrich and underscore the narration.

TIARE 1985

Tiare was filmed in Friuli and edited by myself in 1984, a time when its resolution was far below today’s standards. Sadly, the original master was lost to time, leaving me with no choice but to rely on a copy that I painstakingly digitized using AI technology. Despite this, I present the scenes most closely tied to Pasolini’s work, my chief inspiration during the film’s creation. The faces of marching band musicians and everyday people intertwine with the fading sounds of church bells, a tradition now lost. And amidst this, the haunting images of the Venzone dome, destroyed by the 1976 earthquake, serve as a solemn reminder of a vanishing heritage.

DISTANT SHADOWS