[…]
Agnès Varda: Would you please tell me your definitions of reality and fiction?
Pier Paolo Pasolini: There’s no difference between reality and fiction, because cinema is reality expressing itself through itself. In reality, I can photograph a man walking down the street. He’s not aware that he’s being filmed, and this is reality. If I choose an actor to play that man, then there’s another reality, the actor’s reality. But it’s always reality, it’s never fiction.
[…]
AV: The other day you said you’re a Marxist who is missing faith.
PPP: My relationship with religion is so dark, I can’t talk about it. I don’t have a film education, I approached movies at 40, so my culture is more figurative than cinematic.
AV: You make extensive use of images of the Christian religion.
PPP: It’s not images of the Christian religion, but of Italian paintings. Little by little I abandoned my obesession with images. I’m sorry, I’m obsessed with this aesthetic, and so I have to take a shot with the same love a painter has for his painting.
