The short movie "La Ricotta" (the curd cheese) is one of four films by four Italian directors in a move called "Ro.Go.Pa.G (1963). Pier Paolo Pasolini directed this segment.
This is a movie about making a movie. Pasolini's film-within-a-film is about the death of Jesus. Orson Welles portrays the director of this movie. I read that we're supposed to understand that his career has declined to the point where he can only make low-budget movies in Italy. (That's reasonable enough, although I don't understand how we would know that.)
In Welles' movie, we learn that, with the exception of a few stars, who play Mary and Mary Magdalene, the rest of the cast are supposed to be local people from the surrounding poor community. (Some of them may actually be those local people, but one of the angels is played by Ettore Garofolo, who co-starred with Anna Magnani in "Mama Rosa.")
Mario Cipriani stars as Stracci, the character who portrays the Good Thief. There is a running joke throughout the movie about Stracci somehow missing out on every meal. He ultimately steals a dog and sells it to make money. Then he buys an immense amount of cheese. (That's where the title of "La Ricotta" comes from.)
The movie switches back and forth between color for the movie-within-a-movie, and black and white for the movie itself.
The whole movie has a rough, slapped together quality about it. It's not a great film, although reviewers who have seen all four segments say it's the best one.
We saw this film on the smal screen, because it was a bonus DVD packaged with the Pasolini movie "Mama Rosa." Mama Rosa is worth seeing. If you buy it as part of the Criterion Collection, you will have "La Ricotta." Because it's short, and it's there, I would watch it. I don't think it's worth seeking out otherwise.
