Medea, Retaking the orizon
A total look at Medea
by Costas Karderinis
KEMES
by Costas Karderinis
KEMES
Dimitris Athanitis films and re-signifies the icy ether of our alienation from the cinema, our distance from classical education, our disenchantment with the platforms, any last attempt to regain the horizon.
In the director's note we read: The film is based on Euripides' masterpiece, which I keep almost intact but with some important interventions and cuts in the structure of the work. Although the myth is known, there are constant twists and turns in the script and the unexpected dominates the development of the story. The time is not clearly defined but it is certainly far away from today, in the distant past. The space in which the people will move will also be extreme.
The cuts in the structure concern the rigid cold black and white photography, the imposing winter country wild landscapes (Parnitha, Ymittos, Zagora Peliou, Dervenochoria) and the stentorian screams of the killer (strong and explosive Alexandra Kazazou) that haunt the beauties of nature, the flowers of evil and the puppets of power. This is how the iconic and terrorist shot acquires a double meaning with this specific color detail.
The heroine of Euripides and Athanitis, simultaneously foreign and blasphemous and vengeful, reminds me of Alexious' song (dance, grace and joy) and Rasouli's lyrics: Crazy and bewitched / Enchanted by you / I cry and I hurt / I shout and laugh / I shout and laugh / And cry and talk. It exaggerates and reflects many modern and timeless -isms: aestheticism, elitism, vendettaism, cathosprepism, gender racism, ass-pedism, palimpedism, authoritarianism, machismo, statism, chauvinism, sexism, skepticism.
Unique in my opinion is the shot that shows her double face against the horizon, one half bright and the other half shadowy at the edge of the profile.
In the director's note we read: The film is based on Euripides' masterpiece, which I keep almost intact but with some important interventions and cuts in the structure of the work. Although the myth is known, there are constant twists and turns in the script and the unexpected dominates the development of the story. The time is not clearly defined but it is certainly far away from today, in the distant past. The space in which the people will move will also be extreme.
The cuts in the structure concern the rigid cold black and white photography, the imposing winter country wild landscapes (Parnitha, Ymittos, Zagora Peliou, Dervenochoria) and the stentorian screams of the killer (strong and explosive Alexandra Kazazou) that haunt the beauties of nature, the flowers of evil and the puppets of power. This is how the iconic and terrorist shot acquires a double meaning with this specific color detail.
The heroine of Euripides and Athanitis, simultaneously foreign and blasphemous and vengeful, reminds me of Alexious' song (dance, grace and joy) and Rasouli's lyrics: Crazy and bewitched / Enchanted by you / I cry and I hurt / I shout and laugh / I shout and laugh / And cry and talk. It exaggerates and reflects many modern and timeless -isms: aestheticism, elitism, vendettaism, cathosprepism, gender racism, ass-pedism, palimpedism, authoritarianism, machismo, statism, chauvinism, sexism, skepticism.
Unique in my opinion is the shot that shows her double face against the horizon, one half bright and the other half shadowy at the edge of the profile.
