The Trojan Women by Michael Cacoyannis Essay -- Film Cinema Movies Eur

Desperate Trojan Housewives Some Reflections on The Trojan Women, A buck by Michael Cacoyannis.I am exploring some aspects of the film of Euripides The Trojan Women,directed by Michael Caccayannis, based on the poetic translation by Edith Hamiltonand starring Katherine Hepburn as the tragic hero Hecuba, queen of Troy. I would liketo explore an essentially Jungian theory of what loss means, and whether there can beso such(prenominal) suffering, that it overwhelms the personality. In Jungs view, which isessentially the view held by most spiritual disciplines, it is only through suffering thatwe become fully human. It is only when we are in touch with our shame, through ourpublic nakedness, and private anguish, that we can be in touch with our limitationsand our humanness. But as we work with our patients do we not doubt the possibility,so eloquently put by Aeschylus and misquoted by Robert Kennedy at a famousspeech upon the assassination of Martin Luther King.RFKs speechIn our sleep, pain which cannot forget,falls vomit by drop upon the heart,until,in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdomthrough the awful grace of God.THE FILMThere is little plot in the Trojan women and closely no action. It is the day afterthe destruction of Troy, after ten years of siege, and the women are weeping in theashes of their destroyed metropolis and waiting by the city walls to be transported along withthe Trojan treasure to be handed out a slaves. They await their fate, but still looktowards their queen, Hecuba, for guidance and security.The women are cluster in the ashes of their now destroyed city, awaitingtransportation by the Greeks. Women and gold are the spoils of war. They all will bedished up as bo... ...vesting the characterswith an identity gives me a dimension of reality that helps to stimulate myimagination. In the case of THE TROJAN WOMEN, pre-casting was an artisticnecessity. There was no wavering in my choice of the four actresses. I do it asmuch on th e basis of their talent as for r their very special qualities as human beings,their outlook, their spirit. The spirit , and especially Katherine Hepburns, who wasthe first to unfeignedly and the last to leave the location, not only made this film possible butradiates through performances in a manner that makes thedifficult art of acting seem as natural as breathing.Claire Odeon Hershman is a psychotherapist in both private practice in London, andThe National Health Service. She is a percent time lecturer in the department ofPsychoanalytic Psychotherapy at Birkbeck College, London University. U.K.