OVERLAY REPORT

Because **Ro.Go.Pa.G.** (1963) is an anthology film, it does not have one single "main character" for its entire duration. Instead, it is composed of four segments, each with its own protagonist. However, the most critically acclaimed and culturally significant segment is **"La ricotta"**, directed by **Pier Paolo Pasolini**. When people discuss the "main character" of *Ro.Go.Pa.G.*, they are almost always referring to its protagonist, **Stracci**, or the bombastic **Director** played by Orson Welles. Below are the details on the primary characters and their most memorable lines. ### 1. Giovanni Stracci (Played by Mario Cipriani) Stracci is a desperately poor, starving extra hired to play the "Good Thief" in a film about the Passion of Christ. He represents the "sub-proletariat"—the marginalized poor whom Pasolini often championed. * **The Context:** Stracci spends the entire film trying to find enough food to eat. He gives his own rations to his family, then steals or tricks his way into more food, eventually gorging himself on a massive amount of curd cheese (*ricotta*) and bread. * **Memorable Line:** While being nailed to the cross for a scene, the actor playing Christ (or the script) prompts the line, *"Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom of heaven."* Stracci, delirious with hunger and exhaustion, mutters: > **"I’d settle for the kingdom of earth."** * **The Fate:** Stracci dies of "gastric congestion" (indigestion) while hanging on the cross during the final take, becoming a literal martyr for his hunger. ### 2. The Director (Played by Orson Welles) Though Stracci is the protagonist, Orson Welles’ character—a meta-fictional version of a world-weary, intellectual filmmaker (likely a stand-in for Pasolini himself)—delivers the film's most famous and scathing dialogue. * **The Context:** An "average" journalist arrives on set to interview the Director. The Director uses the opportunity to vent his contempt for the Italian bourgeoisie and the "average man." * **Memorable Lines:** * **On the "Average Man":** When the journalist identifies as an "average man," the Director replies: > *"You don't know what an average man is? He's a monster, a dangerous criminal, conformist, colonialist, racist, slave-driver, indifferent."* * **On Federico Fellini:** When asked his opinion of the famous director, Welles’ character famously and cryptically replies: > *"He dances... he dances!"* * **The Final Eulogy:** Upon discovering Stracci has died on the cross, the Director remarks with tragic irony: > **"Poor Stracci. To die... it was his only way of reminding us that he was alive."** --- ### Other Segment Leads For completeness, the main characters of the other three segments are: * **"Illibatezza" (Rossellini):** Anna Maria (**Rosanna Schiaffino**), a flight attendant who uses a "provocative" makeover to repel an obsessive American businessman. * **"Il nuovo mondo" (Godard):** The Narrator (**Jean-Marc Bory**), a man who remains rational while the rest of Paris (including his girlfriend) loses the ability to think logically after a nuclear explosion. * *Memorable Line:* His girlfriend Alexandra (**Alexandra Stewart**) tells him, **"I ex-love you,"** signifying her loss of linguistic logic. * **"Il pollo ruspante" (Gregoretti):** Togni (**Ugo Tognazzi**), a middle-class father who takes his family to a construction site for a prospective home, only to be "processed" by the soulless mechanics of consumerism. * *Memorable Line:* Togni yells **"Maledetto Topo Gigio!"** (*"Cursed Topo Gigio!"*) at his children, who can only speak in advertising slogans.