Abstract: The unpublished Bestemmia represents the pinnacle of Pasolini’s hidden, inverted Franciscanism. The mimesis of the historical and hagiographic figure intertwines with the elaboration of a notion of sub-proletarian sanctity and Pasolini’s Christomimicry. The result is the most original aspect of Pasolini’s appropriation of the figure of Francis: the eponymous anti-Francis embodies the reflections on the language of cinema later collected in Empirismo eretico.
