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Phaedra (1961)

Director: Jules Dassin

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

A risibly misbegotten attempt to update Euripides' Hippolytus, and not a patch upon Dassin's best Hollywood work. Mercouri is characteristically overbearing as the wife of a shipping magnate (Vallone) who falls in love with her stepson (Perkins, hopelessly miscast). But the main problem is that the transposition from ancient to modern Greece simply won't wash: gone are the poetry, psychological insights, and dramatic single-mindedness of the original, while the horror of incest seems horribly overblown when applied to a stepson in the modern world. Thus the final car crash is less tragic than wholly unnecessary, and what one takes away from the film is the impression of a classic travestied.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

  • Polly Holbrook said...
    Posted on Nov 30 2008 07:04 The best film ever, a complete cult in the sixties when it came out. Everyone was talking about it. The music, the scene by the fire, the cliffs, why oh why can't we buy a copy now??????????
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Cast & crew

Director: Jules Dassin

Producer: Jules Dassin

Cast: Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone, Elizabeth Ercy, Olympia Papadouka, Jules Dassin full cast

Duration: 116 mins


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