In filming his very literal approach to the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Pasolini employed a cast of non-actors, and settings of rugged Southern Italian landscapes and hill towns, shot with a mixture of cinema-verité techniques and expressive close-ups. His Christ is anguished, determined, a peripatetic preacher against the afflictions of social injustice. His miracles are matter-of-fact.
Yet, what was seen in 1964 as an innovative, daringly direct, almost reportorial account set against the everyday life of the times, looks today more like a classic: the faces Pasolini chooses evoke parallels with Italian religious art; the imagery is drawn from works of Masaccio, Giotto, Pero della Francesca, and others; the music is a mixture of Bach, Mozart, black spirituals, and the Congolese Missa Luba. Pasolini has stated: “It's only externally that the film has the characteristic features of a Catholic work.... (M)y tendency (is) always to see something sacred and mythic and epic in... even the most humdrum... and banal objects and events... even though I don't believe in the divinity of Christ....” (in Oswald Stack, “Pasolini”) (JB)