mesmerizing

myriamlenys

"Medea" reflects (some of) Pasolini's ideas about religion. He points out, accurately enough, that all religions we know today are successors to other, earlier religions. He also points out that religions interact : they fight, subvert, plagiarize, influence, nourish and transform each other. And quite often it's a case of "Plus ça change"... He expresses this concept by filling the movie with deliberate anachronisms : in Colchis, for instance, Medea and her family live in age-old dwellings, graven from the mountains, which at one time served as Christian churches or monk's cells. I can't say that everybody is going to appreciate these anachronisms but I for one did, I thought they resulted in a thought-provoking and artistically striking play of echoes and correspondences.

So this is not a straightforward adaptation of Euripides' tragedy. For instance, much of the text goes out of the window ; indeed, bursts of speech or dialogue are few and far between. By the same token there is little in the way of classical classical costume. We, the viewers, are looking at the kind of ancient cultures - far older, even, than Euripides' own time period - whose practices, beliefs and rites may have inspired the various elements behind the Medea legend. The result is both familiar and vividly, dauntingly alien.

Casting Maria Callas as the lead actress was a stroke of genius, since she possessed both majestic beauty and a general air of fierceness. One can well imagine such a woman taking sudden, sharp, cruel decisions and then executing them to the bitter end. (Watch out for the scene where the young Medea kills and then dismembers her brother : it's like watching a lioness systematically destroy her prey.) The actor playing Jason seemed inferior in talent, although he did succeed in capturing something of the infuriating opportunism and myopia of the character.

An original, striking, electrifying work, but one that requires patient attention.

score 9/10

myriamlenys 21 April 2018

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw4137116/