A DREAM OF PASSION

Switzerland/Greece, 1978, 110 minutes, Colour.
Melina Mercouri, Ellen Burstyn, Andreas Voutsinas.
Directed by Jules Dassin.

While highly contrived and always drawing attention to its artificiality, is a frequently powerful film. Rehearsals (in Greek and in English for a B.B.C. program) of scenes from Medea are the framework for this study of an ageing actress (a controlled, passionate Melina Mercouri in yet another film (Never On Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi, Promise at Dawn) by her writer director husband Jules Dassin) and the effect of an exploitive publicity stunt on her. She uses, then is deeply affected by, a contemporary Medea - instead of the savage barbarian princess of passion in Euripides' drama and poetry, she is an uneducated, Bible-thumping American housewife. hurt and passionately vengeful. Ellen Burstyn is superb. Full of ideas, passion and important questions.

1. The significance of the title? The choice of words and their overtones? Dream and reality? Passion and feelings. emotions, motivations? Acting, feeling? Insight through dream? Indication of thews?

2. For what audience was the film made? Greek audience., American audience,, international? An educated audience with knowledge of Greek tragedy? The contemporary audience and the focus on the perennial stories of passion and death?

3. The background of the writer-director - the American background and the story of Brenda, his marriage to Melina Mercouri and his Greek vision? Knowledge of the Greek classics and the attempts to adapt them to the world of the 1970s? How successfully can the themes of ancient Greek tragedy be modernised?

4. The importance of the Greek setting: the visuals of Greece itself - Athens, the mountains, the countryside? Modern Greece as compared with ancient Greece? The setting for tragedies? Greece and its place in Europe today? International attitudes towards Greece?

5. Audience knowledge of and presuppositions about Greek tragedy? The importance of Euripides.. his style,, his themes? Greek tragedy and their starkness, the various characters, the persona and the mask. the role of the chorus,, the drawing on mythology.. religion and fate? Themes of civilisation versus barbarity? The role of the Gods? Passion as a driving force? The characters as types illustrating basic and deep human themes?

6. How well did the film present the elements of ancient Greek tragedy: the old and the heroic, religious themes? The epic overtones and symbolic thews? The transition to the modern world and the possibilities of modern heroic? The mundane realities of the 70s? The lack of heroic status of contemporary heroes and heroines? The place of religion? The religion of the gods of Greece. the mundane religion of the American sects? Passion and sentimentality? The tragic heroine of olden times and modern times?

7. What did the film say about the vision of the ancient Greeks? Our view of the past? Our view of the classics? The quality of the present. the quality of vision? Our view of the vision of the 70s? Differences. similarities?

8. The contemporary themes of personalism, human rights. feminism, violence, prison and reform, madness?

9. The value of a contemporary presentation of Medea? The classic status of the play, its entering into mythology? As a symbol of the vengeful woman, the rejected woman, infidelity and fidelity, cruelty and revenge? A dream of passion? Medea as a play about human rights? Its relevance to the contemporary themes elaborated?

10. The appropriateness of a contemporary version of Medea in Greece? For a Greek audience, a Greek director, a Greek actress with international background? The passionate nature of the actress? Her life, her ambition to play Medea, her attitude towards the director and clashes with him? The place of the chorus, of the prompter, of the actress' agent? The ordinary realities of rehearsals and the preparation of the play? The characters being caught up into a wider drama in the encounter with Brenda?

11. The importance of the variety of stagings of the scenes? The actual presentation of so many scenes from Euripides' play? The cinema presentation, the rehearsal versions? The television presentation, the scenes presented on television stage, in the exteriors? The versions in Greek, in English? The impact of the Greek presentation? The importance of the B.B.C. crew and the English view of the rehearsals and the play? The contrast of the studio and the amphitheatre? The devices used for communicating the play and the characters: angles, close-ups, the variety of ways of presenting the chorus? The development of the plot throughout the film? Audience response to Medea and her background, her marriage to Jason. his rejection, her killing of the children, Kreon and his role of justice, his daughter and the revenge? Themes from the past brought into the present? (The chorus becoming accomplices with Medea?)

12. The contribution of the B.B.C. crew, the ironic look at the play and Maya and her involvement with Brenda? The importance of the interviews, the translations, the gearing of the material to the English-speaking audience?

13. Melina Mercouri's interpretation of Maya? Her presence, appearance, intensity? Her international reputation, a temperamental actress, her age, her beauty? Her whiffs? The quality of her talent? The initial feminist interpretation of Medea and the rejection of this? Her relationship with Ronnie and reliance on him? The background of her visits to her husband and the memories of their life? Indications of her past and contribution to understanding her character? Her clashes with the director and the reasons for these? Temperament, verbal edge? Her relationship to Maria, the past rivalries, the love-hate relationship? The continued presentation of her memories? Maya's callowness, her potential for being a great woman? The importance of the interviews? The importance of her self-analysis to the screen - the story of her life, her moods, passion, friendships, love, the place of men in her life, jealousies? How valuable a device for revelation of character? (And the echoes of the similar device from Last Tango In Paris?)

14. The idea of the publicity stunt, Maria and her role in this, Maya's consent to it? The build-up for the arrival at the prison, the press? The reaction of Brenda, the effect on Maya, the publicity and her regretting it?

15. What view of Brenda did the audience have before seeing her? Knowing her story, the parallel with that of Medea? The contrast of the ordinary American housewife and the Medea of mythology? Ellen Burstyn's interpretation of Brenda? Seeing her in prison, her slow reactions, her religious background, her simplicity and ignorance? Her language and temper? The friendship with the biblical student? Her relationship with the nuns and their control in the prison? The blend of moods and passion? Her ignorance, her childish writing, the odd moods in her language? Her awareness of the movies? Her being used by the stunt and the reaction against it? Maya's apology and her accepting of this, Brenda's growing to rely on her? The parallel between Medea and Brenda and the contrast of ignorance and culture, the implications of the foreign woman coming and Greece being the place where things went awry?

16. Brenda and the growing friendship with Maya, the gifts, the erratic moods? How Medea-like was Brenda? The memories of the past, her telling her story, her passion about her husband, telling the story about the killing of her children? The importance to the building up of the re-enactment? Maya present and the intertwining of the two personalities?

17. The facts of what happened to Brenda - the doctors, her trial, the visit of the student, her life in prison? Brenda becoming the heroine of her story despite her horrendous deeds? The credibility of the murders? Her feelings and the children as victims?

18. How well did the film show Maya and her obsession with Brenda? The gifts, the interviews? Her empathy? The final uniting and Maya's re-enacting Brenda's understanding of the character of Medea? The fusion of the two women in the final performance?

19. How well did the film comment on the relation of art to life? The background them of the various contemporary issues and their being illustrated by the classic Medea and the modern Medea?

20. How well did the individual sequences fit into this overall framework e.g. the world of the director, his discussions with Maya, the clashes with Maria, Maya's worry about her reputation, her tantrums , her visit to her husband? The rehearsals, the party and her self-revelation?