Coming out not long after Godard's "A Bout de Souffle" (Breathless), there are lots of similarities. Both films are about a not very high level criminal for whom things go wrong. Both are shot in black and white. Both have a protagonist with some charm, up against the world because of their disgusting behaviour.
Godard however chooses to dress his criminal up in the occasional trapping of glamour, albeit he is on the run and hiding in a Parisian room. He has the car, he has the glamourous girlfriend and he has the Parisian backdrop.
Pasolini on the otherhand, shows the underbelly of Rome. The prostitutes he tries to persuade to work for him, so that he does not have to work (only trying for one day in the film). The squalour of living without facilities in a shared room with others. The sheer hunger as he starts to starve when unable to get woman to prostitute themselves for him. There is a great scene involving pasta when he and friends are hungry that is very memorable.
For all these reasons it it the better film. It will never be one to show the kids or to show the ordinary cinema goer, but for a film buff it is a fascinating film, well worth watching.
Godard however chooses to dress his criminal up in the occasional trapping of glamour, albeit he is on the run and hiding in a Parisian room. He has the car, he has the glamourous girlfriend and he has the Parisian backdrop.
Pasolini on the otherhand, shows the underbelly of Rome. The prostitutes he tries to persuade to work for him, so that he does not have to work (only trying for one day in the film). The squalour of living without facilities in a shared room with others. The sheer hunger as he starts to starve when unable to get woman to prostitute themselves for him. There is a great scene involving pasta when he and friends are hungry that is very memorable.
For all these reasons it it the better film. It will never be one to show the kids or to show the ordinary cinema goer, but for a film buff it is a fascinating film, well worth watching.