(Theorem)
Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
93 minutes
In Italian with English subtitles

Originally banned in its home country and officially attacked by the Pope, Theorem, a film told largely through quiet images, is one of Pasolini's most uncompromising works of art. A stranger (a very young Terrance Stamp) visits a small bourgeois family in the suburbs, and silently blows away their hollow and facile existence by dismantling it piece by piece. Along the way, this Pandora's box reveals all sorts of social dynamics including the hidden sexualities beneath the surface of everyday life. 

This was a film made at the height of the revolutionary 1960s, and its central theme is the subversive power of seduction and desire. For me it's the best example of Pasolini's concept of cinema as allegorical poetry. In Pasolini's hands the mysterious guest is sexually fluid and democratic, queer and hetero are both territories free to explore. In the end, the film shows how much the modern world is based on repression, fear, and the absence of spirituality. Besides starring Terence Stamp, it also features Anne Wiazemsky. 

A few comments by viewers:

"Pier Pasolini creates a surrealistic, dreamy mood in the story of a stranger who proves to be a life-changing catalyst for an entire family. The stranger doesn't say much, but he really doesn't have to. The beautiful male visitor is played by Terence Stamp, at the height of his striking good looks. The film also serves as a criticism of post-war industrialized Italy and its depersonalizing cultural destruction. Lots of haunting imagery."

"One of Pasolini's best. It's an 'impossible' work of art—tragic, lyrical, outrageous, deeply felt and wholly sincere."