Pier Paolo Pasolini carefully avoided imposing a 20th century Freudian perspective onto his adaptation of Sophocles' classic play. Instead, he emphasized the ritualistic aspect of the proceedings, depicting Oedipus as a man trapped by both fate and his own instinctual behavior. Pasolini stayed true to his source, to the extent that key lines of dialog appear as interstitials during otherwise silent sequences, but he also indulged his penchant for gorgeous imagery, combining primitive iconography with stunning landscapes and stark costuming. The filmmaker's overriding impulse to render this familiar story in a primarily visual fashion is well served by the beautifully restored print found on this disc. Water Bearer is releasing Oedipus along with Porcile (1969) and Love Meetings (1964), supplementing each film with an artifact from the archives, the 1970 documentary entitled Pier Paolo Pasolini. Carlo Hayman-Chaffey's portrait of the artist unfortunately overdubs the Italian spoken by the interview subjects with radio--announcer American tones. However, the film does offer a valuable portrait of the conflicting impulses in Pasolini's art and life: bourgeois upbringing and fervid Marxism; his Catholic background and Atheist philosophy; and his financially comfortable state and his intense interest in the life of Rome's peasantry (his homosexuality is left out of the discussion). The individuals who testify to the genius of this author and filmmaker include Neo-Realist pioneer Cesare Zavattini, novelist Alberto Moravia and actor Ninetto Davoli. The most intriguing moment in this fascinating 30-minute curio is the moment where Pasolini proclaims that he looks on Oedipus as his "autobiography." "I had lived the Oedipus complex ... in an almost elementary and schematic way," notes the auteur, causing alert viewers to wonder if perhaps his love of visual splendor wasn't the only reason he rejected Freudian interpretations of Sophocles' parable. --Ed Grant