Oedipus Rex (1967)

 Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Oedipus Rex"


By 1967, many European filmmakers fully transitioned to full-color films, as the technology had now become more accessible. Pier Paolo Pasolini, the controversial Italian filmmaker, decided to make his first color film an adaption of Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex." He decided to make his adaptation heavy stylized, infusing it with a sense of otherworldly-ness. The film was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 1967 Venice Film Festival and is still considered a critical piece of Pasolini's oeuvre. 

Pasolini's "Oedipus Rex" is a straight book-to-film adaptation, even containing the original dialogue of Sophocles' play. Its central character, Oedipus, is abandoned as a child and found by the King and Queen of Corinth Polybus, where he is raised as their own. After being told a prophecy that he will kill his father and sleep with his mother, Oedipus leaves him to avoid his fate. After killing a king from a neighboring province, he takes his place as king and marries the widowed Queen. After learning the truth of his parentage, he claws his eyes out.

There is one aspect of Sophocles' original play that Pasolini deviates from: he opens and closes the film with Oedipus as a modern Italian. According to Pasolini, this is meant as an act of Freudian sublimation - a reconciliation with himself as the central character. Given that the Oedipus story thematically can be individualized to our own personal human nature (and our inability to escape it), Pasolini personalizes it.

That being said, I didn't feel as much of a connection to Pasolini's rendition. The film certainly has its merits and is adamantly faithful to the text, but I didn't feel much of an elevation of the text to its fullest filmmaking potential. While the film is still enjoyable, it won't certainly be something I call back to.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Fire Within (1963)

Image
  Louis Malle's "The Fire Within" The first thing I noticed while watching Louis Malle's 1963 film " The Fire Within " was it's lack of music or soundtrack. Aesthetic choice perhaps. After all, Malle is an engineer of the Nouvelle Vague movement. It's safe to assume that some creative liberties were to be used. However, " The Fire Within " was far from the typical style that Nouvelle Vague had become known for. The film centers on Alain, a rehabilitating alcoholic who vows to kill himself by the end of the week. He is separated from his wife, Dorothy, who is living in New York, while he rehabilitates in a clinic. After leaving the clinic, he meets up with various former friends and associates. None of them are able to convince him that life is worth living, however. To entrench our character's story with the malaise of his own emptiness, Malle really makes the atmosphere as dry as possible. The story plods along without any kinetic ener...
Read more

Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967)

Image
  Jean-Luc Godard's "Two or Three Things I Know About Her" As with many other Jean-Luc Godard films, " Two or Three Things I Know About Her " packs lots of ideas into a single, short viewing experience. What's unique about it is the seemingly open metatextual format of the film. Meaning, Godard includes the viewer in on the process and ruminations on the arbitrary choices made in the film. Released in 1967, " Two or Three Things I Know About Her " acts more like an essay film, one that critiques modern consumerism and capitalism. The plot of the film centers on 24 hours in the sophisticated, but empty life of Juliette: a wife, a mother, and a prostitute. After dropping her children off with a man who watches prostitutes' children, she goes shopping for dresses, drink coffee in a cafe, has appointment with clients, and visits a beauty salon. All the while, Godard's metatextuality bleeds through with interspersed shots of construction work in...
Read more

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Image
  Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, & Tim Whelan's "The Thief of Bagdad" After the rousing success of new technicolor films in the late 1930s, like 1937's " A Star is Born ," 1938's " The Adventures of Robin Hood ," and the smash success of 1939's " The Wizard of Oz ," the United Kingdom tried their hand at making a technicolor epic, 1940's " The Thief of Bagdad ." Produced by Alexander Korda, the film required multiple directors in order to compose the extensity of the film visual landscape. Production began in London but had to be moved to California to be completed due to the start of World War II. The film is essentially a remake of the Raoul Walsh 1924 film of the same name. That film, like this one, is loosely based on the classic Arabic fairy tale, " One Thousand and One Nights ," or as it is commonly referred to in the west, " Arabian Nights ." Most contemporary American would understand ...
Read more