Pier Paolo Pasolini

Known for: The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), Salò (1975)

Pier Paolo Pasolini worked as a novelist, poet, journalist, and political theorist before directing films that drew on Dante, Greek tragedy, and the lives of Rome's urban poor. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) — shot in southern Italy with non-professional actors — was widely praised by Catholic critics despite Pasolini's avowed Marxist atheism. He was murdered outside Rome in November 1975 in circumstances that remain disputed.