Product Description

A dark and riveting retelling of the classic Greek tragedy "Oedipus Rex". Unknown to himself, Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother. When the truth is discovered, he puts out his eyes and Oedipus wanders the streets until he is found by his daughter, Antigone, a common blind beggar. Set in Morocco, the film is a visual wonder of desert landscapes and powerful Moorish architecture. The interesting cast include avant garde film and theater director Carmelo Bene, Julian Beck from New York's Living theater, and Pasolini himself as the High Priest. This remastered version is a must for any serious video collector.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59851 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-03-14
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: Italian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

Review
Startling and magnificent Greek tragedy --LA Times

Customer Reviews

Greek tragedy or Italian saga?
Pasolini's Oedipus Rex is not a movie to be taken lightly. It is definitely intended more as a discussion centerpiece than an actual beacon of entertainment. The story is told in a symbolistic manner, however, leaves a little too much lee-way in the sense of captivating general audiences. It's a hard movie to get engaged with, however majestically intended it may be.

Film As Art - 10 stars
This film is possibly the most brilliant - color - film AS ART that I I have ever seen. It combines beautiful and fascinating poetic color visuals, unusual landscapes and locations with the classic story of Oedipus.

The story is told with very little dialog, (subtitles for the dialog where present) and this enhances the internal, primal feeling of the piece. Pasolini was often compared to Fellini, but I feel he is much better, because he uses his visuals always to advance and to the purpose of the story. To me Fellini's visuals were often purposeless antic oddity. Here, any ambiguity is not in the story, but in character motivation, which lends modern reality and immediacy to the whole.

The acting style combines the classic Greek use of stylized mannerisms and mask work seamlessly with smaller modern film acting. The setting transitions from 1960s Italy to a primitive/tribal landscape which lends itself beautifully to the timeless/ancient feeling of the Greek story. An example of detail: tribal body painting is used to represent both a ritual queen in shades of Elizabeth R, to the whiteness of a plague death; the costume designs are a combination of rustic and Egyptian/Papal religious.

Cast mainly with little known actors, the big name actor in this film was international star Alida Valli, who has only two or three brief scenes. Her talent is fairly wasted here, but her presence is riveting as the aging, childless queen. (Valli: A brilliant Italian actress who had a brief career here in the 40s-50s, then returned to Italy/Europe, and balanced her commercial work in slashers with more oddball artistically challenging work. Her work often embodies "excess within control," the dichotomy of superficial clam with seething internal emotion. PARADINE CASE, THE THIRD MAN, THE MIRACLE OF THE BELLS, CASSANDRA CROSSING, EYES WITHOUT A FACE, SENSO, WALK SOFTLY STRANGER.) This film is the kind of work I would hope to be a part of as an actress and artist. This film could easily be in theatres today and be even more appreciated now than it was at the time of its making.

Theatrically literate, visually stunning, gutsy, and intelligent. Enjoy!

Yet another mediocre transfer from Waterbearer
Of the three Pasolini DVD's recently released by Waterbearer, Oedipus Rex is probably the best not only in its transfer, but in the film itself.

That being said, the transfer is still far from great. The matting is off, although nowhere near as badly as it is on Porcile. The colors are faded and the film is pitted and scratched, but again, nowhere as badly as on the Porcile disc. My main complaint is (as it was with Love Meetings) that the burned-in (not optional) subtitles are white, and are impossible to read in many parts of the washed-out transfer.

That being said, this is one of Pasolini's strongest films, and is definitely worth watching, whether you're a cinephile, a Pasolini fan, or a classical scholar. Casual viewers may be put off by Pasolini's style which, admittedly, is an acquired taste, but more open-minded viewers will be greatly rewarded. Again, it's doubtful that these films will see better editions any time soon, so if you're interested, there's no reason to wait around.