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The somewhat obscure nature of Teorema made the film bound to reach only a small cinephile audience back when it came out. That was before the film got heavily criticised by the Catholic church and everybody flocked to see it. The film became a huge success and can now be seen as one of Pasolini’s best known, widely analysed and perhaps most influential film.
A handsome and enigmatic stranger arrives at an upstanding wealthy household in Milan and successively seduces the son, the mother, the daughter, the father, and the maid. Each individual experiences some sort of revelation or epiphany. Then, as abruptly and mysteriously as he arrived, he departs.
Pier Paolo Pasolini (born March 5, 1922, Bologna, Italy — died Nov. 2, 1975, Ostia, near Rome) was an Italian film director, poet, and novelist, noted for his socially critical, stylistically unorthodox films. His debut feature, Accattone (1961), dealt with the lives of thieves, prostitutes, and other denizens of the Roman underworld. Among his many great films are The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (1964), his greek myth diptych, Oedipus Rex (1967) and Medea (1969) and the adaptations of literary classics Il Decamerone (1971), The Canterbury Tales (1972), Arabian Nights (1974) and Saló, or the Hundred days of Sodom (1975). Besides his films, Pasolini published numerous volumes of poetry and several works of literary criticism.