Review of Iphigenia (1977) by William R — 02 Jul 2016
As I've said before, there is no one better qualified to tell a story than the people who originated it. In this case, the Greeks have adapted a tragedy from one of their well-known ancient playwrights and have given us this gem of a film.
Overall, I was very impressed with what I saw here. All of the actors do a great job but there are times when all the emotional yelling and screaming tends to go overboard. But in a tragedy, I prefer too much emotion to too little.
The production was especially impressive for a relatively unknown foreign film from the 70's. I thought that the editing could have been slightly better. The pacing is weighed down in parts with one or two too many still shots; a shot of Agamemnon's tent for 10 seconds, a shot of the beach for 15 seconds, then back to a shot of Agamemnon's tent for another 10 seconds, that sort of thing.
Despite all this, Iphigenia excels as a presentation of one piece of one of the greatest stories in human mythology. One of the best shots is the very last one. It may mean more to those who have read the stories and know what the eventual end to this story entails.
Too bad these guys never made a sequel!
This review of Iphigenia (1977) was written by William R on 02 Jul 2016.
Iphigenia has generally received very positive reviews.
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