Phaedra

1962

Action / Drama

6
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 40% · 5 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 40% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.8/10 10 2117 2.1K

greece athens, greece aston martin seer stepmother greek mythology

Plot summary

A modern retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. The young and fiery second wife of an extremely wealthy shipping magnate meets her estranged stepson Alexis and sparks immediately fly. Their love seems doomed from the beginning when she convinces him to come to Paris to meet his father.

Director

Jules Dassin Photo
Jules Dassin

Top cast

Raf Vallone Photo
Raf Vallone as Thanos
Tzavalas Karousos Photo
Tzavalas Karousos as (as T. Karoussos)
Melina Mercouri Photo
Melina Mercouri as Phaedra
Anthony Perkins Photo
Anthony Perkins as Alexis
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1.05 GB
1280*778
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds ...
1.94 GB
1792*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 56 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by filmreviewradical 6 / 10

Beginning with a scream

Having just taken on 'Electra' Greek cinema then took on another classic play from Ancient Greece, in this case 'Hippolytus' by Euripides. Like the film version of 'Electra' this 1962 feature film is an intense psycho(logical) melodrama - filmed very well in black and white by Jacques Natteau - which appropriately begins with a scream, being all about love, passion, jealousy, and of course tragedy. Producer/director Jules Dassin has (with co-screenwriter Margarita Liberaki) updated the story to modern Greece, where an empire building shipping magnate called Thanos (Raf Vallone) is determined that his estranged eldest son Alexis (Anthony Perkins) should succeed him as head of the family business. Unwisely Thanos sends his current wife Phaedra (Melina Mercouri) - Alexis' stepmother - over to London to try and persuade Alexis to come to Greece. And guess what happens. Visually good (the lovemaking scene is especially striking), with good locations in Athens, London and Paris, it has in places a certain theatricality to it in terms of emotion, pose, gesture and movement, some plate throwing, lashings of family intrigue, and death in a fast car (an Aston Martin) to the music of Bach. Phaedra - "Aphrodite. I need some air".
Reviewed by rivera66_99 7 / 10

Lucky blend

The film could be unbearable because over-pathetic (in the very greek sense of the word) if it hadn't the very special performances of melina Mercouri and Anthony Perkins. The latter gives one of his most convincing performances ever (very subtle & very strong at the time) and the woman, although she's not properly a great actress, gives a show of power and passion that is simply overwhelming. I felt, in many occasions, tented to laugh about the forced 'destiny'-tone of the whole, but every since I finished convinced and shivering with the couple. Pretty admirable little movie.
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