Customer Reviews

Electra

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Greek director Michael Cacoyannis brings Euripedes' classic tragedy to the screen with great liberties. Taking off from the murder of Agamemnon, this version of the tragedy sticks to the basic story of Elektra marrying and the ensuing double murder. Yet, Cacoyannis has stripped away much of the original dialogue in favor of stark cinematography and silent stretches. Irene Papas is outstanding as the doomed heroine. Pure Cinematography...excellent film

Electra is a 1962 black and white adaptation of the version of the story from Euripides. Electra (Irene Pappas) and Orestes take revenge on King Aegisthos and on their mother, Queen Klytemnestra, for killing their father, King Agamemnon. [It's interesting to compare "Electra" with "Hamlet".]

The movie is very close to the play. The main difference is an added portrayal of the arrival and murder of Agamemnon and the rescue of the young Orestes. Also, the death of Aegisthos now comes at a festival for Bacchos, rather than at a service to honor the Nymphs. These changes make sense for a modern audience.

Euripides is well served by the excellent acting and by the psychologically-correct bleak, isolating landscapes. It even looks as though the scenes at Mykenai may have been done on site. (The end credits are all Greek to me.)

(If the movie were remade to day, one might be tempted to have a computer-generated Palace. If one wanted to be historically accurate, the film maker might have had to partially reverse the severe soil erosion that accelerated the relative decline of the Argos area.)

While it is difficult to know why such a cloud of black-clothed women would hang around Electra's house in such a sparsely populated land, the handling of the Greek chorus is well done.

The movie can be heard in Greek, English, or French. There are subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. The music is small- scale Near Eastern. The only extra is the original theatrical trailer.

It is a classic movie from a classic source, given classic acting.

Irene Papas as Elektra gives probably her finest perfomance ever. Cacoyanis made an exceptional translating process with this drama from Euripides.
The fundamental atmosphere of the female chorus and all the haunting drama hidden about the revenge to make justice is told
brilliantly.
Cacoyanis shows us why he was blessed by the Gods .
Acquire this superb masterpiece.

must greatly suffer - something along that line - but that quote belongs to the Sophocles version - this one's a little more method - although slightly too emotional [but then - there goes ther movie and the performances!] Always bearing in mind that these great works were written as rituals - not as .... entertainment. [This version is slightly too close to the kitchen sink - smatters of that great Juliette Greco vehicle "The Crack in the Mirror"].

BUT for what this version is worth IRENE PAPAS is spectacular as the misbegotten daughter seeking revenge - choreography of the chorus is superb as is the bleak, bleak cinematography.

Perfect and no doubt authentically researched costume design.

Interesting that this 1962 film's director, Michael Cacoyannis, also directed Zorba the Greek and that the latter film also starred Irene Papas who plays the title character in Electra. It easily demonstrates Cacoyannis' artistry as a director, for in this film, he does a masterful job of interpreting the Euripides drama.

Filmed naturalistically in Greek settings, Electra does not disappoint. The great hero and king Agamemmnon is brutally murdered near the beginning of the story by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Electra and her brother Orestes, children of the royal couple, are both thrown out of their palatial home--Orestes is exiled, and Electra forced to marry a commoner and live in a hovel.

The term "Electra Complex" refers to a daughter's unnatural love for her father and while this is not overtly portrayed here, the hints are certainly in place. Even when her mother tells Electra of the king's infidelities the daughter defends him, citing the queen's own as proof of the latter's treachery.

Electra and Orestes take revenge on the couple who have killed their father--not without great remorse.

Cacoyannis' skill is demonstrated in his choice to film this work in black and white, accentuating the starkness of the tale, which contains numerous stretches of silence, an effective Greek chorus of village women (all clothed similarly in black), and an equally effective score by the great Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis who also composed the music for Zorba the Greek. The story is pure drama--the emotional elements are laid bare in the stripped to the bone dialogue that wastes no words.

The cinematography as well emphasizes the basic elements of earth and sky; black and white has seldom been used as well in a drama as it is here. Earth is the land of man where we live and die; sky is the land of the gods to whom we appeal for everything we want that we don't have. And whether or not we get what we want--who can say?

Highly recommended.