Medea with Appunti per un’Orestiade Africana (Notes for an African Orestes)

In Medea, Greek American soprano Maria Callas stars in a rare non-opera role as the title character in Pasolini’s haunting adaptation of the tragedy by Euripides about a woman scorned by her husband (Jason of the Argonauts) who avenges herself with fierce abandon.

In Medea, Greek American soprano Maria Callas stars in a rare non-opera role as the title character in Pasolini’s haunting adaptation of the tragedy by Euripides about a woman scorned by her husband (Jason of the Argonauts) who avenges herself with fierce abandon. The film is also ravishing in its visual imagery—Pasolini’s film was shot on location in ancient sites of Italy, Turkey, and Syria.

Also screening is Pasolini’s documentary Appunti per un’Orestiade Africana about his location scouting in contemporary Uganda and Tanzania for an adaptation of Aeschylus’s tragedy The Oresteia.

Medea
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Maria Callas, Massimo Girotti, Laurent Terzieff, Giuseppe Gentile. 1969. 110 min. Italy/France/West Germany. Color. Italian. 35mm. Print from Cinecittà. Restored by Cinecittà and S.N.C. in 2012 in its original 35mm format with the support of Gucci.

Appunti per un’Orestiade Africana
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini. 1970. 73 min. Italy. B&W. Italian. 35mm. Print from Cinecittà.

All film screenings of Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Pier Paolo Pasolini are available here.