Iphigenia (MGM World Films)
by Michael Cacoyannis
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Irene Papas, Kostas Kazakos, Tatiana PapamoschouDirector: Michael Cacoyannis
Brand: PAPAMOSCHOU,TATIANA
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Greek (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 127 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-07-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of Iphigenia (MGM World Films)
DVD Review: "That any god is evil I do not believe."
Summary: 5 Stars
NOTA BENE. The following review was that of the VHS transfer of the film. Amazon allows you to edit your reviews, but not your rating. If it were not so, my rating of this DVD tranfer would be ONE star only. I was stunned by the gall of MGM World Film! How dare they sabotage Cacoyannis' masterpiece? How could the idiots who published this DVD took so much liberty with the original film, cropping it on all sides. As a result, the long shots are seriously shrunk, the people in the full shots are most of the time cropped, and even more so the close-ups, which are badly damaged, giving the impression that Cacoyannis does not know how to use his camera. (Where is Criterion when we need it?) Therefore, I give ONE star to this disaster of a transfer, which has irremediably damage this beautiful production.
Mikhali Cacoyannis is peharps the first film director to have successfully brought the feel of ancient Greek theatre to the screen. Cacoyannis' film was based on his stage production of the play, produced first in Greece then taken on tour, where it played at the Classic Stage Company in New York. His own screenplay, an adaptation of Euripides' tragedy was far from easy, compared to that of the other two films of the trilogy he directed. The text of the original play contains many inconsistencies resulting from the fact that the play is thought to have been put together after Euripides' death, by his own son, using rough drafts. However, Cacoyannis, in his transcription of the tragedy to the screen, seems to have done away with these inconsistencies and ambiguities. The story itself has been very carefully deconstructed from Euripides' version and placed in a logical, strictly chronological framework, better conforming to the modern methods of cinematic story-telling.
The most obvious of Cacoyannis' changes to the original play is the removal of the Chorus of Players traditionally employed to provide explanatory narrative before and after key scenes. These choral interludes would have been alien to the pace of the film, and made for cinematic nonsense. As a result of having eschewed the chorus, the drama moves forward in a seamless and coherent fashion. Cacoyannis also added some characters to his film who do not appear in Euripides' tragedy: Odysseus, Calchas, and the army. This was done in order to make some of Euripides' points regarding war, the Church, and Government clearer. Finally, Cacoyannis' ending differs remarkably from Euripides'. Cacoyannis chooses to leave the ending somewhat ambiguous: is Iphigenia supernaturally whisked away, as in Euripides' play, or is she sacrificed, in agreement with the tradition? Not having Agamemnon's eyes, we'll never know for sure.
The film was shot on location at Aulis. The Director of Photography, Giorgos Arvanitis, shows us a rugged but beautiful Greece, where since the Homeric days time seems to have stood still. He takes advantage of the bodies, the arid land, the ruins, the intense light and the darkness. The harshness of the landscape is particularly fitting to the souls of the characters. The camera uses the whole gamut of available shots, from the very long, reinforcing the vastness and desolation of the landscape, as well as the human scale involved, to the extreme close-ups, dissecting and probing deep into the soul of the tormented characters.
Cacoyannis opens the film with a bold, accelerating tracking shot along a line of beached boats. This shot is followed by an aerial view of the several thousands soldiers lying listlessly on the beach. This is a very effective means of communicating Agamemnon's awesome political and military responsibility -- quite a different way from Agamemnon's recounting of these events in Euripides' original tragedy.
No word but "sublime" can describe the stunning performances of Kosta Kazakos (Agamemnon), Irene Papas (Clytemnestra), and Tatiana Papamoschou (Iphigenia). Since my Greek is, as it is I believe for most of you, limited to only few words, I must refer to the subtitles 100% of the time. But are subtitles, letters at the bottom of the screen, what choke you and bring tears into your eyes? Most likely not. I believe instead that the amazing power and sincerity of the acting is the reason. Kazakos and Papas embody the sublimity of the classical Greece tragedy. Kazakos' character is extremely down-to-earth, and his powerful look into the camera, more than his words, reveals the unbelievable torment tearing his soul. Irene Papas is the modern quintessence of classic Greek plays. In Iphigenia , she is terrible in her anguish, and even more so for what we know will be her vengeance. Her career spans more than fifty years, during which she has appeared in more than seventy films, including all three of. Cacoyannis' Euripidean trilogy. Tatiana Papamoskou, in her first role on the screen, is outstanding in her portray of the innocent Iphigenia, which contrasts with Kazakos' austere depiction of her father, Agamemnon. She received Best Leading Actress Award at the 1977 Thessaloniki Film Festival.
Cacoyannis is faithful to Euripides in his representation of the other characters, and his chosen actors have lived up to the tasks: Odysseus is a sly, scheming politician, Achilles, a vain, narcissistic warrior, Menalaus is self centered, obsessed with his honor, eager to be avenged, and to have his wife and property restored.
The costumes and sets are realistic: no Hollywood there. Agamemnon's quarters resembles a barn, he dresses, as do the others, in utilitarian, hand-woven, simple garb. Clytemnestra's royal caravan is made up of rough-hewn wooden carts.
The music is by the prolific contemporary music composer Mikis Theodorakis. Theodorakis' score intensifies the dramatic and cinematographic unfolding, reflects on the psychological aspect of the tragedy, and accentuates its dimensions and actuality. Theodorakis uses the richness of motifs from the first movement of his seventh symphony ("of Spring"), but also the Byzantium theme from his third and seventh symphonies.
This film and the story it narrates offer considerable insight into the lost world of ancient Greek thought that was the crucible for so much of our modern civilization. It teaches us much about ourselves as individuals and as social and political creatures. Euripides questions the value of war and patriotism when measured against the simple virtues of family and love, and reflects on woman's vulnerable position in a world of manly violence. In his adaptation of Euripides' tragedy, Cacoyannis revisits all of these themes in a modern, clear, and dramatic fashion.
The relationships governing the political machinations are clearly demonstrated: war corrupts and destroys the human soul to such an extent that neither the individual nor the group can function normally any longer. With the possible exception of Menelaus, whose honor has been tarnished by his own wife's elopement with her lover, everyone else has his own private motivation for going to war with Troy: the thirst for power (Agamemnon), greed (the army, Odysseus), or glory (Achilles). And so in a real sense, Helen became the WMD of the Trojan War. The War, stripped of all Homeric glamor and religious sanctioning, was just an imperialist venture, spurred primarily by the desire for material gain, all else being a convenient pretext.
Another conflict raised in the film is that between the Church and the State. Calchas, who represents the Church, feeling the challenge to his priestly authority and wishing to destroy Agamemnon for the insult to the Goddess he serves, tells him to sacrifice his daughter. In consenting to the sacrifice, the King comes closer to his moral undoing, but in refusing, loses his power over the masses (his army), who are brainwashed by religion. Of course, for Agamemnon, it's a game. The King must go along with the charade whether he honestly believes in the Gods or not. At first, he agrees to the sacrifice because, blinded by his ambition, he trusts that the winds will eventually blow. When he realizes he has ensnared himself into committing a despicable filicide, it is too late: he is trapped.
Is it a sacrifice or a murder, and how can we tell the difference between the two? By focusing on the violent and primitive horror of a human sacrifice--and, worst of all, the sacrifice of one's own child--Euripides/Cacoyannis creates a drama that is at once deeply political and agonizingly personal. It touches on a most complex and delicate ethical problem facing any society: the dire conflict between the needs of the individual versus those of the society. In the case of Iphigenia, however, as in the Biblical tale of Abraham and Isaac, the father is asked to kill his own child, by his own hand. What sort of God would insist on such payment? Can it be just or moral, even if divinely inspired? Finally, does the daughter's sacrificial death differ from the deaths of all the sons who are being sent to war? These are many deep questions raised by a two-hour film.
Euripides' Iphigenia is a tragedy for all time, and deserves a special place in the modern repertoire. Cacoyannis' film recreates for the modern audience that overwhelming, excruciating assault on the emotions that was Euripides' special talent, which made him, in his own time, a poet greatly loved but also feared.
Iphigenia received Best Film Award at the 1977 Thessaloniki Film Festival, and the 1978 Belgian Femina Award.
Description of Iphigenia (MGM World Films)
No Description Available.Genre: Foreign Film - Other
Rating: NR
Release Date: 24-JUL-2007
Media Type: DVD
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
MedeaFacets Multimedia; Release date: 2003-05-20; DVD
Best price: $69.97
TopkapiSony; Release date: 2001-12-11; DVD
Best price: $7.61
Price in other shops:
Never on SundayTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2003-07-01; DVD
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
Greek Paradigm HandbookFocus Publishing/R. Pullins Co.; Published: 2008-01-20; Spiral-bound; Book
Best price: $6.96
Price in other shops:
Antigone (Broadway Theatre Archive)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2001-11-20; DVD
Best price: $79.95
Zorba the GreekFox; Release date: 2004-08-03; DVD
Best price: $7.02
Price in other shops:
Oedipus RexImage Entertainment; Release date: 2002-06-11; DVD
Best price: $13.43
Price in other shops:
AntigoneKino International; Release date: 2004-09-14; DVD
Best price: $16.66
Price in other shops:
The Trojan WomenKino International; Release date: 2004-09-14; DVD
Best price: $16.32
Price in other shops:
ElectraRelease date: 2002-03-05; DVD
Best price: $16.06