There are some films which you forget almost as soon as you've seen them and then others which seem to burn their way into your brain so that you can't get them off your mind after watching it.
Iphigenia 1977 is a Greek movie which takes a thoroughly grownup approach to it's filmmaking. We feel a sense of unstableness and tension right from the off as an army restlessly awaits the moment to depart from the beach and off to war. This army though seems more a rag tag bunch of hooligans at times, right away you are dropped into a setting that feels so real you could almost reach out and touch it. The film's location on in the arid and rugged country just adds to it's authentic look and the sun-drenched landscape is the perfect backdrop for this drama to unfold against. When the Greeks did comedy they really did comedy and when they did tragedy it was real tragedy. By cruel fate the gods it seems have ordained that in order for the winds to blow again and for the army to sail only the sacrifice of the King's daughter will do. What follows is two hours of agonising for the king and others as the tensions build and build and his army grows more and more impatient. In this one single story really is captured the whole futility of the Trojan War, a fight to recapture a woman now hated and despised anyway by her people in return for the sacrifice of so many so good. Helen is not present in this film but her absence looms large. This is no action film, not even for Achilles it's instead a superbly tense and tragic story played out in words and looks not swords. It puts the 2004 film to shame really with it's American Achilles, CGI boats and Hollywood ending. The acting in Iphigenia is some of the best you'll see. Everything looks so real, the costumes are simply done, mostly in white cloth or wool, it perfectly fits the bronze age setting. This is the kind of film which haunts you once you've seen it.
Iphigenia 1977 is a Greek movie which takes a thoroughly grownup approach to it's filmmaking. We feel a sense of unstableness and tension right from the off as an army restlessly awaits the moment to depart from the beach and off to war. This army though seems more a rag tag bunch of hooligans at times, right away you are dropped into a setting that feels so real you could almost reach out and touch it. The film's location on in the arid and rugged country just adds to it's authentic look and the sun-drenched landscape is the perfect backdrop for this drama to unfold against. When the Greeks did comedy they really did comedy and when they did tragedy it was real tragedy. By cruel fate the gods it seems have ordained that in order for the winds to blow again and for the army to sail only the sacrifice of the King's daughter will do. What follows is two hours of agonising for the king and others as the tensions build and build and his army grows more and more impatient. In this one single story really is captured the whole futility of the Trojan War, a fight to recapture a woman now hated and despised anyway by her people in return for the sacrifice of so many so good. Helen is not present in this film but her absence looms large. This is no action film, not even for Achilles it's instead a superbly tense and tragic story played out in words and looks not swords. It puts the 2004 film to shame really with it's American Achilles, CGI boats and Hollywood ending. The acting in Iphigenia is some of the best you'll see. Everything looks so real, the costumes are simply done, mostly in white cloth or wool, it perfectly fits the bronze age setting. This is the kind of film which haunts you once you've seen it.