 | MOVIE #1,042 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 06.29.23 The big “Well, that just happened” moment in this is spoiled in the title card of Medea (and on the movie poster), Lars von Trier’s 1988 TV adaptation of the Euripides play (as much as anything emanating from 431 BC can be “spoiled”): we see two figures hanging from a tree built out of the “D” in the text. She hangs her two children is what I’m trying to say. Medea is a bad bitch, the epitome of the “a woman, scorned” motif blasted to the nth degree. It doesn’t get much darker than filicide, folks. At 76 minutes long and with its Danish television budget, it would certainly seem like minor LVT on the surface. But there are some truly wonderful moments and lovely shots. Factor in that it’s impossible to find a high-quality version of this media, it’s even more amazing that it’s still so striking. I don’t think this is going to top anyone’s filmography rankings, but it’s definitely worth your time. |
Longtime collaborator Udo Kier joins Kirsten Olesen in the title role and this dark material is right in LVT’s wheelhouse. These deep and tragic ideas — of men and women, mother and children — are the perfect fodder for his bleak and slanted perspective. His genius really lies in subtle moments, like focusing on the skinned knee of one of the hanging boys after we’ve seen Medea tenderly care for her son’s booboo before, well, you know.
Nobody’s gonna be clamoring that Lars von Trier is necessarily an enemy of the patriarchy, but with Medea he’s at least offered some perspective on that front. As with the oft-misunderstood, there’s rarely an easy answer.
CHRONOLOGICALLY
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Medea is a 1988 Danish tragedy television film directed by Lars von Trier. It is based on Carl Theodor Dreyer's adaptation of Euripides' play Medea. It was released on April 1, 1988.
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