“Provocative, highly controversial…arguably [Pasolini’s] most finely wrought work. It brings together politics, sexuality, society, art, and the irredeemable inauthenticity of bourgeois life.” –Guardian

With Teorema (a.k.a. Theorem), a coolly cryptic exploration of bourgeois spiritual emptiness, Pier Paolo Pasolini moved beyond the poetic, proletarian earthiness that first won him renown. Terence Stamp stars as the mysterious stranger—perhaps an angel, perhaps a devil—who, one by one, seduces the members of a wealthy Milanese family (including European cinema icons Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti, Laura Betti, and Anne Wiazemsky), precipitating an existential crisis in each of their lives. Unfolding nearly wordlessly, this tantalizing metaphysical riddle—blocked from exhibition by the Catholic Church for degeneracy—is at once a blistering Marxist treatise on sex, religion, and art and a primal scream into the void.

On March 8, TEOREMA plays as a double feature with Bruce LaBruce’s The Visitor, a sexually explicit quasi-remake of Pasolini’s timeless original.

This film is screening as part of Arkadin’s March-long series, Disruptive Guests, featuring films where visitors from other countries, other worlds, and other socioeconomic statuses upend domestic normalcy.

Arkadin does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. However, we encourage researching titles to determine if a screening may contain content that could be upsetting to you. Please feel free to contact us for guidance on specific films. Information about content can also be found on Common Sense Media, IMDB and DoesTheDogDie.com, as well as through general internet searches.