Medea (1970)

70% of critics liked it
(10 reviews)
74% of users liked it
(1,584 ratings)

Put in the coldest possible terms, Medea is the story of a woman who gets sore at her husband and kills her children to get even. Greek opera diva Maria Callas is certainly in her element as Medea in this 1970 film version of the venerable theatrical piece, with Giuseppe Gentili as her husband Jason… More Put in the coldest possible terms, Medea is the story of a woman who gets sore at her husband and kills her children to get even. Greek opera diva Maria Callas is certainly in her element as Medea in this 1970 film version of the venerable theatrical piece, with Giuseppe Gentili as her husband Jason and Massimo Girotti as her father, King Creon. When Jason announces that he's prepared to bigamously marry princess Glauce (Margareth Clementi), she exacts her bloody revenge. Despite the excess verbiage and his notoriously loquacious leading lady, director Pier Paolo Pasolini conveys most of Medea's plotline visually. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 58 min.
Directed By: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Jan 1, 1969 Wide
On DVD: Nov 26, 2002

Critic Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Pier Paolo Pasolini's disappointing 1970 version of the Greek tragedy.
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
Only for an art-house audience, but those who want to feel and poetically experience the ancient world might also find this odd film worth watching, at least once.
Sean Axmaker, Turner Classic Movies Online
Pasolini strips the play down to symbolic, almost abstract expressions of scenes and ideas, like the cinema equivalent of hieroglyphics.
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
Abstruse, stark, elemental
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
This fascinating, if not entirely successful, adaptation of the Euripides play has opera diva Callas in her sole screen appearance as the sorceress queen.
, Film4
The diva's disappointing (dubbed) performance is due to Pasolini's wayward direction.

Read all 6 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Stefanie C

This film is brilliantly set and cast. Pasolini, almost wordlessly, distinguishes between the ancient and mythical world and modern and rational realm. Medea is completely associated with the elemental, while by birthright, Jason seems to be a bridge between the two worlds.… More
This film is brilliantly set and cast. Pasolini, almost wordlessly, distinguishes between the ancient and mythical world and modern and rational realm. Medea is completely associated with the elemental, while by birthright, Jason seems to be a bridge between the two worlds. Jason's denial of Medea severs the relationship to the past, never to be recaptured. This return to myth is a parabolic commentary on the then current state of Italian culture; by embracing American consumerism, values and the spiritual are negated - connection to the past is severed, forever unknown by modern man. We are the damned!
Cassandra M

Medea is an extraordinary film which some will find difficult. Telling the story of Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece, this is not the stuff of Ray Harryhausen. Meeting the priestess of the Fleece, Medea, he falls in love with her and takes her home. Years later, after bearing… More
Medea is an extraordinary film which some will find difficult. Telling the story of Jason and his quest for the Golden Fleece, this is not the stuff of Ray Harryhausen. Meeting the priestess of the Fleece, Medea, he falls in love with her and takes her home. Years later, after bearing him sons, she exacts a terrible revenge after he spurns her for a new love. Medea is also extraordinary in exhibiting Pasolini's demonstration of contrasts in plot development and framing. In the sequence in which we are introduced to Medea, we witness the mesmeric nature of a human sacrifice, which changes from the ecstatic to the horrific within the same sequence. This motif recurs throughout the film, and has prompted admiration from French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, who mentions Pasolini in his treatise on the movement-image. Filmed with a mixture of professional and non-professional actors, Medea is a challenging and refreshing change from the usual, as it builds up to a frightening climax in an unconventional way. Often shown in 'World Cinema' slots late at night, it's a film worth staying up for, or recording, for those seeking an alternative to Hollywood pap.