Oedipus Rex (1967)
Cast: Silvana Mangano, Franco Citti, Alida Valli
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Country: Italy | Morocco
Genre: Drama
Official Site: Here
Editor’s Notes: The following review is part of our coverage for TIFF’s Pier Paolo Pasolini: The Poet of Contamination which runs from March 8th to April 12th at TIFF Bell Lightbox. For more information on upcoming TIFF film series visit http://tiff.net and follow TIFF on Twitter at @TIFF_NET.
Crickets and marching bands launch Pier Paolo Pasolini’s version of Sophocles’ classic tragedy as we are taken to a Victorian re-imagining of Thebes and bear witness to the birth of Oedipus Rex, a pitiable infant destined to return to the passage from whence he emerged in a film that traverses mythical realms and jarringly returns to reality to provide a contemporary subtext to one of the great Greek tragedies. We follow our tragic protagonist from hazy lensed realms of affluence and innocence, to plague-addled lands of shamanism and dark prophecies, and finally the uncaring streets of modern civilization as both Oedipus and Italy descend into inescapable darkness and are forever warped by madmen and false prophets.
We follow our tragic protagonist from hazy lensed realms of affluence and innocence, to plague-addled lands of shamanism and dark prophecies, and finally the uncaring streets of modern civilization…
Young Oedipus is removed from his home by a paranoid patriarch and transplanted into a post-apocalyptic wasteland far removed from the realities of his previous life and is born anew in a green oasis painted onto the sandy mountain valleys of a John Ford desert. It is a strange realm of mythical prophesies and grand wind-ravaged cities sculpted from an unending sea of sand that stretches out to the horizon in every direction. Once Oedipus has come of age he sets out on a voyage of exploration and self-discovery, passing through dusty lands of proto-Christian theologies and strange masked figures that spread dogmatic propaganda to captivated disciples and hand down the fate of Oedipus like a menacing gypsy curse. He is understandably distraught by the implications of these twisted incestuous prophecies but hubris and the seduction of power lead to forgetfulness that ultimately seals his fate and his tenure as leader in these strange lands is addled by death and tragedy.
The toxic, mustard-tinted skies of this realm of dust and decay loom over strange masked figures that travel its perilous roads as they engage in battles over trivial misunderstandings with crude broadswords that glint in the sun like the magical blades of King Hu protagonists.
The toxic, mustard-tinted skies of this realm of dust and decay loom over strange masked figures that travel its perilous roads as they engage in battles over trivial misunderstandings with crude broadswords that glint in the sun like the magical blades of King Hu protagonists. The unexpected threat of deadly conflict for something as trivial as traveling on the wrong road seems like the stuff of legend and fantasy, but such threats were all too real for anyone unfortunate enough to have lived in the hotbed of Word War II hostilities a mere two decades before Pasolini’s reimagining of Sophocles’ sordid tragedy. Dead bodies that litter the outskirts of the grand kingdoms of sand are filmed with handheld cameras that bring the audience uncomfortably close to their ghastly sunken faces to serve as confrontational reminders of transgressions against humanity that were perpetuated within the original audience’s lifetime.
After Oedipus’ prophecies are brutally fulfilled, we find ourselves following him through the streets of 1960s Italy in a disorienting shift of time and space as Pasolini observes the forgetful inhabitants of his homeland that have allowed themselves to move past the tragedies of recent history, seemingly unscathed and unaffected despite the monumental significance of large scale genocide. A blind Oedipus weeps for the sins of humanity as an uncaring populace emerges from an era of profound tragedy when the world was robbed of its innocence and momentarily mired in a new dark age. With Oedipus Rex, Pasolini invents a strange mystical world filled with death and decay, alien landscapes bereft of the modern precepts of morality, but bearing uncomfortable parallels to realities spawned by tyrannical world leaders who attempted to shape a terrifying new world order and very nearly succeeded.
[notification type="star"]89/100 ~ GREAT. With Oedipus Rex, Pasolini invents a strange mystical world filled with death and decay, alien landscapes bereft of the modern precepts of morality, but bearing uncomfortable parallels to realities spawned by tyrannical world leaders who attempted to shape a terrifying new world order and very nearly succeeded.[/notification]
