"Teorema" has it's pros and cons well balanced; on one hand it's a very original, creative, different film to everything i've seen before, but it's also dull and rather repetitive, with some of the scenes bordering on the ridiculous. Technically, it's not a very competent film either, and it looks quite amateurish, with bad camerawork and sloppy editing here and there.
In spite of all this, I liked the mystical, quasi religious tone of this movie, the sense of mystery and desolation within this (strange) tale.
A handsome young man, whom we only know as "The Visitor" (Stamp) arrives at the home of an upper class Milanese family. He befriends and has sex with all the members of the family (the maid included), and then he suddenly leaves as he arrived, without explanation.
Director Pier Paolo Pasolini explained in an interview that "The Visitor" represented God, and so he transforms every member of the family with his visit. My take on all this is that "The Visitor" makes the family aware of who they truly are, he reveals their inner or intimate nature, instead of just them playing a "role" in the bourgeois society. Thus, the maid becomes a saint, the mother becomes promiscuous, the daughter becomes severely depressed, and the father and son reveal their homosexuality and also go insane towards the end of the film... As a Marxist, Pasolini makes the maid the only "positive" character of the movie, suggesting that the presence of God/The Visitor has made her capable of making miracles, while the bourgeois family indulges in destructive behavior after they meet him. Once again, and, ironically, an atheist and Socialist like Pasolini has made one of the most religious films i've seen.
Director Pier Paolo Pasolini explained in an interview that "The Visitor" represented God, and so he transforms every member of the family with his visit. My take on all this is that "The Visitor" makes the family aware of who they truly are, he reveals their inner or intimate nature, instead of just them playing a "role" in the bourgeois society. Thus, the maid becomes a saint, the mother becomes promiscuous, the daughter becomes severely depressed, and the father and son reveal their homosexuality and also go insane towards the end of the film... As a Marxist, Pasolini makes the maid the only "positive" character of the movie, suggesting that the presence of God/The Visitor has made her capable of making miracles, while the bourgeois family indulges in destructive behavior after they meet him. Once again, and, ironically, an atheist and Socialist like Pasolini has made one of the most religious films i've seen.