Oedipus Rex is a 1967 Italian

Cinema of Italy

The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

  directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini was an Italian film director, poet, writer, and intellectual. Pasolini distinguished himself as a poet, journalist, philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure...

. Pasolini adapted the screenplay from the Greek

Greek literature

Greek literature refers to writings composed in areas of Greek influence, typically though not necessarily in one of the Greek dialects, throughout the whole period in which the Greek-speaking people have existed.-Ancient Greek literature :...

 tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

 Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King , also known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles's three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone...

written by Sophocles

Sophocles

Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...

 in 428 BC

428 BC

Year 428 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Cossus and Cincinnatus or Cincinnatus and Atratinus...

.

Plot

A son is born to a young couple in pre-war Italy. The father, motivated by jealousy, takes the baby into the desert to be abandoned, at which point the film’s setting changes to the ancient world. The child is rescued, named Edipo by King Polybus (Ahmed Belhachmi) and Queen Merope (Alida Valli

Alida Valli

Alida Valli , sometimes simply credited as Valli, was an Italian actress who appeared in more than 100 films, including Mario Soldati's Piccolo mondo antico, Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case, Carol Reed's The Third Man, Michelangelo Antonioni's Il Grido, Luchino Visconti's Senso, Bernardo...

) of Corinth and raised as their own son. When Edipo (Franco Citti

Franco Citti

Franco Citti is an Italian actor. He came to fame at the age of 26, playing the title role in Pier Paolo Pasolini's film Accattone...

) learns of a prophesy foretelling that he will kill his father and marry his mother, he leaves Corinth believing that Polybus and Merope are his true parents.

On the road to Thebes, Edipo meets Laius (Luciano Bartoli), his biological father, and kills him after an argument. Later Edipo solves the riddle of the Sphinx. For freeing the kingdom of Thebes from the Sphinx's curse Edipo is rewarded with kingship and marriage to queen Jocasta (Silvana Mangano

Silvana Mangano

Silvana Mangano was an Italian actress.Raised in poverty during World War II, Mangano trained as a dancer and worked as a model before winning a "Miss Rome" beauty pageant in 1946...

), who is his biological mother. When they discover what they have done, fulfilling the prophecy, Edipo blinds himself and Jocasta commits suicide.

Awards

Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalist

Won Silver Ribbon

Alfredo Bini

Alfredo Bini

Alfredo Bini was an Italian film producer. He produced 32 films between 1958 and 1979.He was born in Livorno, Italy.-Selected filmography:* The Law Is the Law * Il bell'Antonio...

 for Best Producer and Luigi Scaccianoce for Best Production Design

1968

Kinema Junpo Awards

Won Best Foreign Language Film

1970

Venice Film Festival

Venice Film Festival

The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...

Nominated for Golden Lion

Golden Lion

Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...

1967