Narcissus and Echo

Love and the Demonic Psyche(en)

A hallucinatory retelling of the Greek myth about Pan and Syrinx's brutalist romantic love. Inspired by the short films of Maya Deren, Curtis Harrington and the art of Rosaleen Norton and Brett Whiteley, 'Love and the Demonic Psyche' channels French poet Arthur Rimbaud's proclivity for a derangement of the senses, culminating in a Cocteau style blood painting invocating the horned God of Panic. Encompassed in psychedelic visuals and Moroccan trance music, this film should be viewed in the spirit in which it was made.

Echo(en)

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?

Medea(it)

Based on the plot of Euripides' Medea. Medea centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman.

The Golden Bouzouki(en)

Johnny Diamonds stars in this musical adventure set in ancient mythological greece. Johnny Orpheus returns home to the peaceful village of Salamis to find that it has come upon troubled times. Assembling a crew of heroes like no other, Johnny sets sail on a song-filled voyage of adventure to obtain the Golden Bouzouki, a legendary musical instrument of divine origin which is said to bring peace to the hearts of all mankind. (Not Rated, 1 hour, 48 minutes)

Une petite fille dans les tournesols(fr)

The young teacher Marelle goes in search of her husband who mysteriously disappeared while attending the funeral of a childhood friend.

Ulysse est revenu(fr)

Orpheus(fr)

A poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.

Polyphemus, Acis and Galatea(ru)

The Cyclops Polyphemus falls in love with the beautiful nymph Galatea, but she rejects him in favor of Acis, a shepherd. Furious, Polifemo goes in search of Acis to take revenge. Animated short film that explores the love and the sexuality from Greek myth of Galatea and Acis.

Hellhounds(en)

A Greek warrior must travel to the Underworld and battle killer hellhounds in order to rescue his murdered bride from the clutches of Hades.

Daphne(ru)

When Eros shoots his arrows on the god Apollo, he falls madly in love with Daphne. But the nymph does not correspond to his love and escapes as she can from the harassment of Apollo. Animated short film based on the Greek myth of Apollo and Daphne.

Gluck: Iphigenie en Aulide / Iphigenie en Tauride(fr)

Before the Trojan War, Agamemnon gathered the Greek armies at the port of Aulis. The goddess Diane sent unfavorable winds to prevent the Greeks from sailing. Her oracle set a condition for Agamemnon: to earn the right to sail forth and destroy an innocent country, he would have to sacrifice his own daughter. Agamemnon accepted these terms and killed his young daughter Iphigénie on the altar. In his play Iphigenia in Tauris Euripides imagines that Diane plucked Iphigénie from that altar and delivered her to a temple in distant Tauride, where Iphigénie began to serve the enemy Scythians as Diane’s high priestess—all the while Iphigénie’s family believing her dead.

Pink Ulysses(de)

An actor prepares, removing his shirt to iron it. All shirts stay off. In a mix of black and white, colour, and old film clips, a homoerotic odyssey begins. Troy is sacked, and Odysseus starts his languorous journey back to Penelope and Telemachos, who wait in Ithaca. Odysseus dreams: young well-muscled men roll on sheets, hands remove flowers to disclose a sculpted torso. The ship tosses Odysseus; gobs sleep in hammocks; a storm beats down and a life boat seeks a strand. Circe, disguised as Penelope, seduces Odysseus; he stays with her for seven years. In Ithaca, Penelope and her suitors are impatient. Will Odysseus arrive before the film crew breaks for lunch?

The Colossus of Rhodes(it)

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.

Prometheus Bound(en)

The Titan Prometheus is punished by Zeus for attempting to steal fire for humankind.

Phaedra(en)

A retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. In modern Greece, Alexis's father, an extremely wealthy shipping magnate, is married to the younger, fiery Phaedra. When Alexis meets his stepmother, sparks fly and the two begin an affair. What will the Fates bring this family? Alexis's roadster and the music of Bach figure in the conclusion.

Malpertuis(nl)

Malpertuis is the name of an old, rambling mansion which is in reality a labyrinth where characters from Greek mythology are imprisoned by the bedridden Cassavius. He manages to keep them, as well as his nephew and niece, prisoners even after his death, through a binding testament. As Jan, the nephew, unravels the mystery, he discovers that he cannot escape the house because Malpertuis is far more significant than he was led to believe.

The Illiac Passion(en)

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.

The Bacchae(en)

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.

Oedipus Rex(en)

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.

The Bright Night(fr)

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