Pier Paolo Pasolini

Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s powerfully iconoclastic take on Sophocles’s tragedy blends eras and cultures to create a searing exploration of fate, free will, and the things we fear most in ourselves. Shot amid the stark, elemental landscapes of the Moroccan desert, and set in an indefinable ancient past, this bold reimagining casts the filmmaker’s frequent collaborator Franco Citti as the eponymous foundling, whose willful blindness to his own nature unleashes a cataclysmic reckoning. With a prologue and epilogue set in twentieth-century Italy, Pasolini connects the story to his own upbringing, daring to bare his soul on-screen.

Film Info

  • Italy, Morocco
  • 1967
  • 104 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • Italian

Available In

Collector's Set

Pasolini 101

Pasolini 101

Blu-ray Box Set

9 Discs

$174.96

Oedipus Rex
Cast
Franco Citti
Oedipus
Silvana Mangano
Queen Jocasta
Laura Betti
Jocasta’s maid
Alida Valli
Queen Merope
Julian Beck
Tiresias
Carmelo Bene
Creon
Ninetto Davoli
Angelo
Luciano Bartoli
King Laius
Ahmed Belhachmi
Polybus
Francesco Leonetti
Servant of Laius
Giandomenico Davoli
Shepherd of polybus
Ivan Scratuglia
Priest
Pier Paolo Pasolini
High priest
Credits
Director
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Written by
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Based on the play by
Sophocles
Produced by
Alfredo Bini
Cinematography
Giuseppe Ruzzolini
Edited by
Nino Baragli
Production design
Luigi Scaccianoce
Production design
Dante Ferretti
Set decoration
Andrea Fantacci
Costume design
Danilo Donati
Sound
Carlo Tarchi

Current

The Elegiac Heart: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Filmmaker
The Elegiac Heart: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Filmmaker

With a divided self that reflected the fissures in his country in the wake of World War II, the most courageous and dangerous Italian artist of his generation transcended dogma and resisted affiliations.

By James Quandt