Independent British distributors Eureka Entertainment have detailed their upcoming Dual Format edition of Pier Paolo Pasolini's Oedipus Rex (1967), starring Silvana Mangano, Franco Citti and Alida Valli. The release will be available for purchase online and in shops across the United Kingdom on September 24th.
Special Features:
Gorgeous new HD restoration of the film in its original aspect ratio, in 1080p on the Blu-ray
Newly translated optional English subtitles
Original Italian theatrical trailer
28-page booklet featuring vintage writing by Pasolini, excerpts from an interview with the director by Oswald Stack about the film, and rare archival imagery
Three years after The Gospel According to Matthew, Pier Paolo Pasolini resumed his series of classical adaptations with a savage, highly personal take on Sophocles' ancient Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex [Edipo Re]. As his first color feature, Oedipus Rex makes brilliant use of wildly alternating Moroccan landscapes to transpose collective myth into a particular vision that is at once tender, sensual, and wholly unsparing.
The film is divided into three sections set in different eras. The opening takes place in 1920s Italy, and recounts a birth that echoes that of the director himself, the product of a beautiful bourgeoise's affair with a military officer. The mid section depicts a time "outside of history" - it is here that the myth of Oedipus (portrayed by Franco Citti of Accattone and Coppola's The Godfather), one of patricide and incest, plays out opposite the young man's mother/lover (Silvana Mangano). An epilogue shot on the streets of present-day Bologna finds Oedipus playing his flute for a bustling citizenry.
I have been wanting a GOOD print of this one for years. The old Waterbearer Films DVD and VHS transfers were awful for such a great film. My problem is that this is a Region B locked blu, and I only have a Region A blu ray player. Still, I have a multi-region DVD player, so I may get this anyway for the DVD, for right now. I keep hoping Criterion or someone will eventually release this to blu ray in the States.
