After ELEKTRA/’62 and THE TROJAN WOMEN/’71, iconic Greek director Michael Cacoyannis wrapped his cycle of freely adapted Euripides with this historical step back to opening moves in the Trojan Wars. Functioning much like the Biblical story of Abraham & Isaac, it’s one more child sacrifice called for by God, or ‘the Gods.’ Here, Agamemnonas is ‘oracled’ to offer up beloved daughter Ifigenia to get out of the doldrums. That’s literal doldrums (well, landlocked doldrums), as he has engaged an army but can’t set sail until the winds blow in. Tricking Mother Klytaimnistra to send the girl off to camp to wed Achilles, his scheme quickly collapses with secret messages waylaid, Achilles kept in the dark, a usurp-minded brother, and a large hungry army kickstarting the jinx by slaying a sacred deer for dinner. This purposefully flip description a bid to get at what’s missing from this often well laid out, handsome vision of the story; it never dares to subvert or reinvent.* Cacoyannis gets away with this pageant-like presentation for half the way, but once Achilles shows up, looking like a Greek Alain Delon, and then falls for an androgynous Tadzio of a Ifigenia Luchino Visconti might have cast in DEATH IN VENICE, the screen quickly goes dead as the stink of culturally approved state-fund-worthy art drowns the project in tears & nobility. (Are the earlier films like this?) Worth a look for the scrubby locations and some fine acting. (What screen presence Irene Papas has! Klytaimnistra here; her nemesis Helen in TROJAN WOMEN after starting with avenging Elektra. It does make you want to watch the other two.) Cacoyannis lived another thirty-four years, with but two more feature films after a break of a decade. Still largely known for ZORBA THE GREEK/’64 which also has Papas with Anthony Quinn’s Zorba and a youngish Alan Bates who rather quietly out acts them both.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, ZORBA THE GREEK/’64 https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2014/03/zorba-greek-1964.html
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Couldn’t Agamemnonas have asked for a second opinion from another oracle?
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