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

Desperate Trojan Housewives: Some Reflections on The Trojan Women, A Film 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 Hamilton and starring Katherine Hepburn as the tragic hero Hecuba, queen of Troy. I would like to explore an essentially Jungian theory of what loss means, and whether there can be so much suffering, that it overwhelms the personality. In Jung’s view, which is essentially the view held by most spiritual disciplines, it is only through suffering that we become fully human. It is only when we are in touch with our shame, through our public nakedness, and private anguish, that we can be in touch with our limitations and 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 famous speech upon the assassination of Martin Luther King. RFK’s speech In our sleep, pain which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God. THE FILM There is little plot in the Trojan women and almost no action. It is the day after the destruction of Troy, after ten years of siege, and the women are weeping in the ashes of their destroyed city and waiting by the city walls to be transported along with the Trojan treasure to be handed out a slaves. They await their fate, but still look towards their queen, Hecuba, for guidance and security. The women are huddled in the ashes of their now destroyed city, awaiting transportation by the Greeks. Women and gold are the spoils of war. They all will be dished up as bo... ...vesting the characters with an identity gives me a dimension of reality that helps to stimulate my imagination. In the case of THE TROJAN WOMEN, pre-casting was an artistic necessity. There was no wavering in my choice of the four actresses. I made it as much on the basis of their talent as for r their very special qualities as human beings, their outlook, their spirit. The spirit , and especially Katherine Hepburn’s, who was the first to really and the last to leave the location, not only made this film possible but radiates through performances in a manner that makes the difficult art of acting seem as natural as breathing.’ Claire Odeon Hershman is a psychotherapist in both private practice in London, and The National Health Service. She is a part time lecturer in the department of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy at Birkbeck College, London University. U.K.