Vitals

Terence Stamp as “The Visitor”, enigmatic young seducer

Milan, Italy, Spring 1968

Film: Teorema
(English title: Theorem)
Release Date: September 7, 1968
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Costume Designer: Roberto Capucci (credited for Silvana Mangano’s clothes)

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

After Terence Stamp’s death last year, I realized how little of the actor’s filmography I had seen, particularly from early in his career when he and his then-roommate Michael Caine were the toasts of swinging London. Naturally, the first place I turned was the Criterion Channel, which included Teorema—a surrealist psychological drama that was director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s first film to feature primarily professional actors.

Stamp stars as a mysterious man known only as “the visitor”, whose seduction of every member of a bourgeois household forces the family to confront difficult truths about themselves—and whose eventual departure leaves an existential void in each person’s soul.

Translated to “Theorem”, as it was known in some English-speaking countries, Teorema premiered 58 years ago yesterday on September 4, 1968 during the 29th Venice International Film Festival, where it received a special award from the International Catholic Film Office—only for the award to be swiftly withdrawn after the Vatican criticized the film’s sexual content. It was widely released three days later. Continue reading →