God’s voice or man’s death in May 68. À propos of two short films of Bernardo Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini

Abstract

May 1968 meant for youth a turn in their ways of representing and acting. Likewise, it meant the complex transformation of cultural, political and economic discourses of which the representation of the divinity was not an exception. This article will describe how Bernardo Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini represented the divine figure in the context of the Italian 68. As a song by Francesco Guccini states, God is dead but the desire for his resurrection still exists. The analysis focuses on two short films from the collective film Amore e rabbia (1969): "Agonia" by Bertolucci and "The sequence of the fiore di carta" by Pasolini. The analysis shows that far from wishing and declaring divinity’s their death, both authors call into question the divine existence and its relevance in a world characterized by suffering and injustice as well as by solidarity and love. It is in the contradictory interstice between love and rage that the relationship of these directors with the divinity happens.