Medea

Jason goes to Colchis for the golden fleece. Medea, the king's daughter, falls in love with him, helps him steal it, and kills her own brother during the escape. They reach Greece. Years later Jason decides to marry a king's daughter and leaves her. Her answer is to kill their children. The subject is not tragedy but the incompatibility of two worlds. The first part shows a bloody agricultural ritual in Colchis where everything is sacred and everything means something. In Greece there is no such world. Medea cannot make that crossing, and Pasolini presents her killing not as an eruption of rage but as the last signal of the order she belongs to. The form is heavy and sparing with words. The long ritual sequences run without dialogue, and the music comes largely from recordings gathered across different traditions. Two decisions stand out. First: Maria Callas leads, in the only film role she ever played, and never sings in it. Second: the Colchis material was shot in Cappadocia, around Göreme, while Syria and Italy stood in for the Greek sections. Massimo Girotti and Laurent Terzieff are in the cast. Who it is for: viewers who like Pasolini and mythology approached anthropologically. Who it is not for: anyone wanting narrative flow; the film tells you nothing for long stretches and explains nothing.