Teorema

Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini

1968 / 98min / Digital

A mysterious, irresistible stranger (Terence Stamp) drops into the sterile, orderly home of a Milanese industrialist, then proceeds to methodically seduce the patriarch and his entire family in Pasolini’s perverse masterwork, as simple in structure as it is endlessly beguiling in execution. Italian stars Massimo Girotti and Silvana Mangano are heads of the household, but it is the blue-eyed Christ-devil Stamp and his painted-on slacks that reign here, exerting control over father, mother, and daughter Anne Wiazemsky in turn. The dialogue is sparse, but Ennio Morricone’s score speaks volumes.