Saturday, November 12, 2016

Assignment for Tuesday, 11-15-16

Dear Mythologists,

For Tuesday, November 15, please do the following:

(1) Watch Medea (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969), taking notes as you see fit. In addition to the DVD being reserved at the library, the film is also streaming on Amazon.

(2) Read Kristi M. Wilson's essay, "Hero Trouble: Blood, Politics, and Kinship in Pasolini's Medea," another entry from the Of Muscles and Men volume. Wilson will fill in the background on Pasolini and his intentions, which you might want after seeing this film.

(3) Remember by noon on Tuesday to comment on this post with your choice of a sequence from Medea to view in class.

NOTE: Our speaker, Meredith Safran, might be joining us in class, so look sharp!

DC

13 comments:

  1. I would like to watch the scene where Creon and Glauce commit suicide (~01:41:06). I liked this scene because it gave agency to Glauce. Instead of being the voiceless princess we know, we see a Glauce who is conflicted about her position as bride to Jason. There is a sense of camaraderie between the two women; Glauce feels the guilt of destroying Medea's life and thus commits suicide. Creon, in his grief, commits suicide after his daughter. I liked that this took some of the guilt away from Medea and actually placed on Jason.


    ~Sophie

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would like to discuss the scene of Medea killing Absyrtus and scattering his body (00:44:00 - 00:46:52). I think that the speed of how the scene progresses is something to watch for. Medea dismembering her brother's body takes her a long time because she does it very slowly. Although she does not hesitate, she seems as if each cut is almost as if she is cutting into herself, she appears as if she is in much pain. I also think it's important how much Medea's actions slowed down her father's men. After they find the first part of Absyrtus their chase looks more like a funeral procession. --Willa

    ReplyDelete
  3. I want to see the scene when Medea receives a divine message and decides to wreak havoc on those that wronged her from 1:11:00-1:14:00. It was interesting to see her internal transformation and her interactions with the nurse

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'd like to watch the very dramatic final scene. The dialogue between Jason and Medea is what interests me (1:49:15-1:50:15), but the scenes immediately previous may be worth watching in class for their context. I find the lines in this scene rather interesting, particularly Medea's declarations that Jason will understand when he is old and that nothing is possible anymore. There are a couple different ways to interpret these lines and I haven't quite decided my take on them yet.

    One thing to note is that Medea is portrayed with low angle shots in this scene while Jason is portrayed with high angle shots. It's possible that this is simply meant to convey the fact that Medea is standing over Jason in a physical sense, but a more involved and perhaps shakier reading could suggest that the angles show that Medea is still morally superior to Jason despite her actions. This could be seen as adaption of how Euripides portrayed ascending in the Chariot of the Gods, unarmed.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would like to watch the sacrifice scene, beginning at 16:10 and ending at 22:56. This movie is titled Medea, but begins with long exposition about Jason. With this extremely long sequence, Pasolini establishes that this is still Medea's story. The viewer learns early on that Medea holds a powerful position in her home country, and that she is comfortable with grotesque violence. The structure of the ritual is odd, as well, and seems like a melding of completely different rituals from different cultures, mixed with cannibalism. One also has to wonder how these local extras fared in the making of this film.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also want to see this scene. It went from a little odd to very unsettling very quickly. I think the cinematography and dissonant music really added to this, and I felt very uncomfortable, anxious, and a little confused the whole time.

      Delete
  6. I would like to watch the gift giving scene (1:14:47- 1:19:27). The movie stays faithful to Euripides play. The music used during the scene also gives it a more mystical essence, preparing us for the bloody ending. It is very interested to see how the director has decided to depict both Medea and the princess, not necessarily as the foreign and the Greek, but there are some elements that reveal Meade’s non- Greek origin.

    -Frini

    ReplyDelete
  7. 2:22-8:27 I would like to watch the sequence where Chiron tells the tale of the golden fleece. I want look at this because it sets the tone of film and it's interesting to hear about the golden fleece from the perspective of a film that has a focus on medea.

    ReplyDelete
  8. At 24:30-26:13 there is the scene of Jason returning to claim his thrown. This section struck me because of Jason's confidence, which is something we have not seen. It is also followed by the depiction of the argo which I think we must discuss to understand this film, and then the of the scene with the argonauts and the horse. This final scene flushes out the character of some less likable Argonauts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We could at the next two minutes as well, for just how much less idealistic this depiction of the argonauts is.

      Delete
  9. I would like to watch the sequence from 57:53 to 59:30 where Medea is physically stripped of her clothing and it is replaced with more "Greek" appropriate garb - she becomes (in appearance) similar to all the other woman around Jason. By standing passively as the women run around her and change her clothing, she allows them to strip her of her identity and tries to mold herself into the woman she thinks that Jason wants. Here we see how much Medea is willing to sacrifice in order to make Jason happy before there is any bad blood between them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would also like to watch this sequence. I think that in seeing Medea changed this way, there is a powerful vehicle through which we can discuss transformation in classics-related films. In a way, this asks us to consider what is 'not greek enough' vs. what is 'just enough greek.' This applies not only to the Medea films, but also to other classical films, especially romanizing films, such as some of the pepla.

      Delete
  10. I would like to watch the scene from 1:04:30 to 1:07:45 where Medea, confused, watches Jason dancing, and then speaks to her nurse about her sorceress power. At first, Medea denies that she is a sorceress any longer, since she has been away from her homeland and in Greece for ten years. However, by the end, she admits that she has not changed, that she is not and cannot be truly Greek, and breaks down crying, realizing that she is alone in her new land. This scene shows Medea struggling with her identity and her foreign-ness and other-ness to the Greeks, including Jason.

    ReplyDelete