Phaedra - 1962, Dassin
In the movie Phaedra, one of the most disturbing aspect of the film was the detached partial-incestual relationship portrayed between Phaedra and Alexis. The film begins with a beautiful black and white scenery: the people are celebrating, cheering, and having fun. However, after Phaedra takes Thano’s gift in vain, there is a rapid-passing ominous mood which foreshadows that she will be the root of a very huge problem.
Even though in the ancient text, Hippolytus written by Euripides, Phaedra doesn’t take into account Hippolytus, the toxic bond created by the two characters in the movie arises from Phaedra’s inability to value what is in front of her. Phaedra has a successful husband that gives her anything that she wants. However, she is filled with a desire to tap into anything that is forbidden.
As the plot moves forward, the interactions between Phaedra and Alexis escalate tremendously. For example, in the early stages of their prohibited relationship, Phaedra and Alexis laugh joyfully when he tells others that Phaedra is his mother. Although this seems harmless, the comment here illustrates that Alexis is looking beyond the paradigms to see Phaedra as more than his step-mother. As the audience places into perspective Phaedra’s and Alexis’s intense and lasting stares, in the restaurant and by the river, we can see that Alexis regards Phaedra as a woman; and with Phaedra, she sees him as a man.
With the relationship moving forward, Phaedra opens herself in a disturbing way to the audience demonstrating that she will do anything to keep Alexis. Phaedra’s boldness demonstrates her powerfulness; however, the way she uses her power foreshadows that her Machiavellian intensions will be the end of her. In the scene where she tries to manipulate her step-niece, the audience further cement that Phaedra wants to remain with Alexis without giving up her access to Thanos’s riches.
Eventually, the audience sees that Phaedra’s greediness catalyzed her death, Alexis’s death, and the death of the innocent Greek travelers on the Phaedra S.S.
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