Pier Paolo Pasolini
Edipo Re

This is a film to watch in reverent silence. One of those films where poetry and art reach the highest expression in every frame; the classic story of Oedipus is reconstructed and reimagined, presenting us with a surprise ending where Oedipus (Citti), now blind, wanders the modern streets alongside a loyal companion (Anghelos, played by Davoli)...

What strikes most about the film is the extraordinary balance in Pasolini's direction: what has always been criticized by journalists and critics (namely his boundless taste for raw stories of common and disheveled people) is here extraordinarily put in the background. Any other director would have focused on the more "bawdy" side of the mother/son-lover relationship and would likely have filled much of the scenes with strong and scandalous images dedicated to incestuous passion; instead, Pasolini only lets the physical passion be imagined and elegantly focuses on the contents and tragic implications on Oedipus's psyche. The very fact that he chose Mangano to play Jocasta (here fascinating to the point of the unreal) and had her made up in a pale, almost angelic way is a very specific choice: she is not seen as a symbol of incest, passion, sin, but is rendered as a lure, an icon that serves to unravel the plot and make it more fluid. Her initial choice to abandon the small Oedipus on a hill following a malevolent and cruel prophecy is not heavily emphasized for the rest of the story but is placed in the background, highlighting her incredible elegance and almost divine superiority; also noteworthy is the makeup choice for Citti (tanned and therefore dark, compared to Mangano's almost electric, glacial whiteness), which suggests a sort of real personification of the original tragedy character. Oedipus's behavior and reaction in choosing to blind himself as self-punishment are actually meant to be understood as a form of self-castration, since the damage was sexual and not through the eyes...

In short, a highly recommended film, for both young and adults, an ancient story made modern by a genius of art like Pasolini.

Note: the film is not shot in Greece but rather in Morocco, and it also features among the actors Carmelo Bene in one of his rare film appearances.