Are you well versed in Greek mythology? You’ll need to be if you take a deep dive into Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1969 version of Medea starring the world’s most famous opera diva Maria “La Divina” Callas in her only feature film role (and she doesn’t sing). Freely adapting narrative elements from the original Greek myth as well as Euripides’ play, which was first performed in 431 BC, Pasolini presents the tragic tale in the manner of a social anthropologist crossed with an experimental filmmaker dissecting an ancient case history of a marriage gone wrong. If you aren’t familiar with the story of Jason and Medea, this interpretation can be confusing, mysterious and inaccessible at times but it is also one of the most visually and aurally dazzling of the many versions produced on stage, TV or film over the years.
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Cinema Sojourns 