Uccellacci e uccellini

Of all things, Pasolini concludes his cinematic preoccupation with the subproletariat with a comedy. A Mao quotation puts a father (Totò in his last role) and son (Ninetto) on the road across Italy, but after marching off from Rome they go in circles. A raven tries to point them in the right direction, but they don't want to listen to the "left-wing intellectual of the kind found living before Palmiro Togliatti’s death", as it is described in the intertitles. A temporal leap catapults Totò and Ninetto to the time of St. Francis, who instructs them, now friars, to teach the sparrows and the hawks how to live peacefully. But the mission fails. The episode is a reference to Rossellini's St. Francis film, which Pasolini appreciated very much. Then, it is announced that "the age of Brecht and Rossellini is finished". At the end, the raven gets the chop. No buts. (hp)