In keeping with the Humanities Initiative's theme, Media & Meaning, Princeton enjoyed a special screening of The Return and discussion with the film’s director, Uberto Pasolini, and Barbara Graziosi, Chair of the Classics Department, along with Rachael DeLue, director of the Humanities Initiative and professor in the Department of Art & Archaeology, and fellow art & archaeology faculty member Carolina Mangone, who is also the director of the Program in Italian Studies. 

“Sometimes it pays to be brazen!” said Graziosi. "I contacted Pasolini after seeing his beautiful film in December and – to my delight – he agreed to come to Princeton to talk to us about it. I am grateful to him for his time, insight, and humor: his visit was an inspiration. I would also like to thank our beloved local cinema, the Garden Theater, for readily agreeing to host a special screening of The Return, followed by discussion. We continued our conversation the next day, in the Classics Department, where community members, students, and colleagues asked more questions about The Return and considered how the Odyssey, like its eponymous hero, travels far and wide, adapting to circumstances, and returning to us in ever new guises.” 

“It was wonderful to bring so many people and perspectives together to explore the power of Homer’s text and to think about what makes it compelling as a story today – how its characters, themes, and conflicts have so much to say about our 21^st century existence and so much to teach us about what it is to be human,” said DeLue.

Pasolini’s “take” on Homer’s Odyssey, The Return stars Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus, washed ashore on his home island of Ithaca after a 20-year absence fighting in the Trojan Wars, and Juliette Binoche as his wife, Penelope. 

On February 15, the Garden Theatre screened the film to a sold-out audience.  Opening the screening with an invitation to “Look forward to some blood!,” Pasolini returned in the aftermath to engage in a vibrant conversation with Graziosi and the audience.  The following day, discussion continued over breakfast in East Pyne Hall, with DeLue and Mangone joining the panel.

Pasolini views his film as being “in conversation” with Homer’s text, delving into the psyche of a war hero who isn’t anchored in any specific era.  To inform his central question, “what does it mean to return from a war?,” Pasolini turned to living witnesses. His interviews with Vietnam veterans and their wives are reflected in his script. 

Further reinforcing the atemporal telling of this epic tale, Pasolini’s wardrobe and architecture choices were intentionally sparse in favor of granting the audience unmitigated insight into the characters’ inner struggles.

Mangone praised Pasolini’s use of visual language to make his point, citing the expressive body language as a mode of communication that text alone is not capable of conveying. Perhaps this contribution to the ongoing conversation that classic works like The Odyssey sustain will inspire viewers to reinvestigate the original text, or discover it for the first time, Mangone noted.

Film and Media Studies at Princeton

There was unanimous approval among the panel and faculty in attendance at the breakfast discussion of the growing momentum behind establishing a Film and Media Studies Program at Princeton.  In recent years, the community of student filmmakers at Princeton and appetite for courses on the art form have soared.  In response, the Visual Arts Program expanded its faculty with two new film positions in 2024. “The appointments of filmmakers Chris Harris and Nico Pereda mark a transformative moment for the Visual Arts Program, as well as for the study of film at Princeton,” said the program’s director Jeffrey Whetstone.  

“Since its inception, film has been a vital expressive form. It immerses us in lives and stories other than our own, creating shared worlds from shared experience,” said DeLue. “As a world-making medium, film helps us imagine what is possible and envision realities beyond the status quo.”

For Pasolini, film is a medium for storytelling akin to theater, literature, and epic poetry that should be studied accordingly.  Pasolini’s knowledge of and passion for film began in his youth, watching every film his local film theater in Milan put on view.  After a detour as an economics major and investment banker, he found his way back, starting as a gopher on film sets and ultimately making acclaimed films including The Full Monty (1997), Machan (2008), Still Life (2013).

Pasolini strongly encourages students to investigate the history of cinema and push their professors to find connections to their explicit disciplines. 

This especially resonated with the panel. “I really like what you said about our students pushing us to make connections,” DeLue said, “because I think sometimes our students know what we need to do sooner than we do.” 

“To have a take on the world, you make connections between different bits or aspects–different courses of study,” Pasolini said. ”It’s the making of those connections that gradually allows you to have a point of view.” As students naturally make connections, he said “the world starts getting filled.” Graziosi added that these connections develop not only through the course of our own lives, but on much longer timescales too: “It would be wonderful to take students on a journey from ancient drama to modern movies and future-oriented explorations of new media”.

“Academia is a bridge to other worlds,” Mangone agreed, adding that what students learn in the classroom is “their own material to have a conversation with.”