Iphigenia

Greece 1977

Dir: Michael Cacoyannis

127 mins, Subtitled

Cast: Irene Papas, Kostas Kazakos, Kostas Karras, Tatiana Papamoschou

Rating: PG

Based on the classic Greek tragedy of Euripides (485-406 BCE), Michael Cacoyannis’s (Electra/The Trojan Women) film is both stunning and moving. A talented cast, headed by Irene Papas, give first-rate performances and do wonders with this stirring ancient drama. ...

The film brilliantly captures the stark tragic mood of the myth and shows this classic Greek theater production in a mesmerising way that’s never before been realized on the screen as powerfully as it is here.

Dennis Schwartz, Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

With Iphigenia, Mikhali Cacoyannis is perhaps the first film director to have successfully brought the feel of ancient Greek theatre to the screen. 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 story 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. Cacoyannis also added some characters to his film that 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' Iphigenia ending is somewhat ambiguous when compared to Euripides'.

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. In particular, the film's opening, with a bold, accelerating tracking shot along a line of beached boats, followed by an aerial view of the many thousands of soldiers lying listlessly on the beach, is a very effective means of communicating Agamemnon's awesome political and military responsibility. ...

IMDB