In a montage alternating with moments of Nigel Rogers' interpretation of the most beautiful passages from "Orpheus," the opera by Striggio and Monteverdi, La Nuit Claire is an evocation of the celebrated myth, within which images of the love between its two modern protagonists, Anne and Julien, are inscribed. - BAM/PFA
The story of Oedipus' gradual discovery of his primal crime, killing his father and marrying his mother, filmed by the famed British theatrical director Sir Tyrone Guthrie. This elegant version of Sophocles' play adds a brilliant stroke: the actors wear masks just as the Greeks did in the playwright's day.
Johnny Minotaur is a lyrical explosion of taboos: incest, intergenerational desire, pansexuality and autoeroticism are a few of the issues Charles Henri Ford grapples with through mythopoeic, sensual imagery, recitations of his diaries and a philosophical debate featuring an impressive narration by such artists as Salvador Dali, Allen Ginsberg, Warren Sonbert and Lynne Tillman.
A talented ensemble cast bring Euripides masterpiece to life. The Bacchae (also called The Bacchants or Bakchai in Greek) tells the story of the god Dionysus who comes to the city of Thebes disguised as a charismatic young man accompanied by a throng of erotic female maenads. The immortal play is a study in fanatical religions and confronts the personal balance that we all must find between order and spontaneity.
A homoerotic exploration of the Odyssey mixing black and white, color, and old film clips.
A man has his routine reduced to his monotonous work and the suspicious relationship with his wife, until objects, places and people mysteriously disappear, making his life more interesting and, at the same time, dangerous.
The young teacher Marelle goes in search of her husband who mysteriously disappeared while attending the funeral of a childhood friend.
Prometheus, on an Odyssean journey, crosses the Brooklyn Bridge in search of the characters of his imagination. After meeting the Muse, he proceeds to the "forest." There, under an apple tree, he communes with his selves, represented by celebrated personages from the New York "underground scene" who appear as modern correlatives to the figures of Greek mythology. The filmmaker, who narrates the situations with a translation of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, finds the personalities of his characters to have a timeless universality.
A reframing of the classic tale of Narcissus, the director draws on snippets of conversation with a trusted friend to muse on gender and identity. Just as shimmers are difficult to grasp as knowable entities, so does the concept of a gendered self feel unknowable except through reflection. Is it Narcissus that Echo truly longs for, or simply the Knowing he possesses when gazing upon himself?
It’s a cold Christmas Eve and mean-spirited miser Ebenezer Scrooge has an unexpected visit from the spirit of his former business partner Jacob Marley. Bound in chains as punishment for a lifetime of greed, the unearthly figure explains it isn’t too late for Scrooge to change his miserly ways in order to escape the same fate, but first, he’ll have to face three more eerie encounters. Filmed at the Alexander Palace Theatre, London.
While on holiday in Rhodes, Athenian war hero Darios becomes involved in two different plots to overthrow the tyrannical king, one from Rhodian patriots and the other from sinister Phoenician agents.
With the loss of Patroclus (his undeclared male lover), Greek warrior Achilles returns to the Trojan War.
This musical comedy based on an opera by Jacques Offenbach incorporates a twist on the classic Greek myth: Orpheus, a music teacher at a girls’ school in the ancient Greek city of Thebes, actually does not miss his wife Eurydice that much – until the gods and Offenbach himself pressure him to retrieve her from Hades.
A young sailor finds himself trapped in the labyrinthine mansion of his occultist uncle, along with a number of eccentric and mysterious relatives who all seem to be harboring a dark secret.
A modern retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. The young and fiery second wife of an extremely wealthy shipping magnate meets her estranged stepson Alexis and sparks immediately fly. Their love seems doomed from the beginning when she convinces him to come to Paris to meet his father.
Penthesilea, the first of six films made by Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, traverses thousands of years to look at the image of the Amazonian woman in myth. It asks, among other questions, is the Amazonian woman a rare strong female image or is she a figure derived from male phantasy? The film explores the complexities of such questions, but does not seek any concrete answers.
Born with the beauty of the gods, Electra's lust for sexual gratification is exceeded only by her lust for vengeance. Enter a world of forbidden family love, betrayal and murder.
Dr. Zeigler-Wolf, a renowned crime novelist, joins a 70s-style murder show to promote his newest novel, but quickly notices strange coincidences from the show's host, Jeremy Palmer.
Based on the legend of Tiresias, it tells of a transsexual who is kidnapped by a man and left to die in the woods. She is then saved by a family and receives the gift of telling the future.
A modernized telling of the Greek Mythology romantic tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice.