ecclesiastical authority

His masterpieces like 'The Passion of Joan of Arc' and 'Vampyr' probe the conflict between individual faith and institutional religious power with stark, spiritual intensity.

Throughout his career, Buñuel systematically deconstructed Catholic doctrine and ecclesiastical hypocrisy in films like 'Viridiana' and 'The Exterminating Angel' with surreal provocation.

Pasolini's work, especially 'The Canterbury Tales' and 'Salò', interrogates religious authority, bodily transgression, and the Church's role in social control with unflinching radicalism.