THE TROJAN WOMEN Director: Michael Cacoyannis Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Geneviève Bujold, Irene Papas, Patrick Magee, Brian Blessed and Alberto Sanz Euripides' classic tragedy brought to the screen by a star-studded cast of actresses. Hecuba, queen of Troy, leads this ensemble of women in a passionate, proto-feminist condemnation of war and its atrocities. Troy has been conquered by the Greeks. Hecuba and the other women find their city in ruins and their cause lost; they will be assigned by lot to become the concubines of Greek leaders. Produced by Michael Cacoyannis, Anis Nohra and Josef Shaftel Writing credits: Euripides (Play) English Translation: Edith Hamilton Scenario: Michael Cacoyannis Original Music by Mikis Theodorakis Cinematography by Alfio Contini Film Editing by Michael Cacoyannis Production Design by Nicholas Georgiadis Costume Design by Nicholas Georgiadis and Annalisa Nasalli-Rocca Makeup Artist: Franco Freda Production supervisor: Carlo Lastricati Sound Editor: Alfred Cox Special Effects: Basilio Cortijo Reviews Roger Ebert - Posted June 4, 1972 http://rogerebert.suntimes.com... IMDB - User comments http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067881/usercomments DVD Savant http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1330troj.html Awards Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards 1973 Best Actress Katharine Hepburn National Board of Review, USA 1972 Best Actress Irene Papas Trivia The Edith Hamilton translation of "The Trojan Women", which is used in this film, premiered on the Broadway stage in 1938. It was immediately acclaimed as being superior to the antiquated Gilbert Murray translation, which was the standard version used then. Memorable Quotes Cassandra: If God still lives, my marriage will be bloodier than Helen's. Cassandra: If war comes, to die well is the victor's crown. Biography for Katharine Hepburn Born May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut, she was the daughter of a doctor and a suffragette, both of whom always encouraged her to speak her mind, develop it fully, and exercise her body to its full potential. An athletic tomboy as a child, she was also very close to her brother, Tom, and was devastated at age 14 to find him dead, the apparent result of accidentally hanging himself while practicing a hanging trick their father had taught them. For many years after this, Katharine used his birthdate, November 8, as her own. She then became very shy around girls her age, and was largely schooled at home. She did attend Bryn Mawr College, however, and it was here that she decided to become an actress, appearing in many of their productions. After graduating, she began getting small roles in plays on Broadway and elsewhere. She always attracted attention in these parts, especially for her role in "Art and Mrs. Bottle" (1931); then, she finally broke into stardom when she took the starring role of the Amazon princess Antiope in "A Warrior's Husband" (1932). The inevitable film offers followed, and after making a few screen tests, she was cast in A Bill of Divorcement (1932), opposite John Barrymore. The film was a hit, and after agreeing to her salary demands, RKO signed her to a contract. She made five films between 1932 and 1934. For her third, Morning Glory (1933) she won her first Academy Award. Her fourth, Little Women (1933) was the most successful picture of its day. But stories were beginning to leak out of her haughty behavior off- screen and her refusal to play the Hollywood Game, always wearing slacks and no makeup, never posing for pictures or giving interviews. Audiences were shocked at her unconventional behavior instead of applauding it, and so when she returned to Broadway in 1934 to star in "The Lake", the critics panned her and the audiences, who at first bought up tickets, soon deserted her. When she returned to Hollywood, things didn't get much better. From the period 1935-1938, she had only two hits: Alice Adams (1935), which brought her her second Oscar nomination, and Stage Door (1937); the many flops included Break of Hearts (1935), Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Mary of Scotland (1936), Quality Street (1937) and the now- classic Bringing Up Baby (1938). With so many flops, she came to be labeled "box-office poison." She decided to go back to Broadway to star in "The Philadelphia Story" (1938), and was rewarded with a smash. She quickly bought the film rights, and so was able to negotiate her way back to Hollywood on her own terms, including her choice of director and co-stars. The film version of The Philadelphia Story (1940), was a box-office hit, and Hepburn, who won her third Oscar nomination for the film, was bankable again. For her next film, Woman of the Year (1942), she was paired with Spencer Tracy, and the chemistry between them lasted for eight more films, spanning the course of 25 years, and a romance that lasted that long off-screen. (She received her fourth Oscar nomination for the film.) Their films included the very successful Adam's Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), and Desk Set (1957). With The African Queen (1951), Hepburn moved into middle-aged spinster roles, receiving her fifth Oscar nomination for the film. She played more of these types of roles throughout the 50s, and won more Oscar nominations for many of them, including her roles in Summertime (1955), The Rainmaker (1956) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). Her film roles became fewer and farther between in the 60s, as she devoted her time to her ailing partner Spencer Tracy. For one of her film appearances in this decade, in Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962), she received her ninth Oscar nomination. After a five-year absence from films, she then made Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), her last film with Tracy and the last film Tracy ever made; he died just weeks after finishing it. It garnered Hepburn her tenth Oscar nomination and her second win. The next year, she did The Lion in Winter (1968), which brought her her eleventh Oscar nomination and third win. In the 70s, she turned to making made-for-TV films, with The Glass Menagerie (1973) (TV), Love Among the Ruins (1975) (TV) and The Corn Is Green (1979) (TV). She still continued to make an occasional appearance in feature films, such as Rooster Cogburn (1975), with John Wayne, and On Golden Pond (1981), with Henry Fonda. This last brought her her twelfth Oscar nomination and fourth win - the latter currently still a record for an actress. She made more TV-films in the 80s, and wrote her autobiography, 'Me', in 1991. Her last feature film was Love Affair (1994), with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, and her last TV- film was One Christmas (1994) (TV). With her health declining she retired from public life in the mid-nineties. She died at the age of 96 at her home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Biography for Vanessa Redgrave Born on 30 January 1937, London, England, UK Born into a distinguished acting family, Vanessa Redgrave knew a lot about acting technique when she started making films in the 1960s. Three decades later she has shown that an actress can improve with age. In his review of A Month by the Lake (1995), Roger Ebert sees Redgrave "at the absolute peak of physical and mental perfection". No one had any idea of what kind of a woman was in the photographs in the park in Blowup (1966). Her rich auburn hair was long, her physique lean, her countenance inscrutable. Three decades later a Redgrave who takes the pictures has hair that is short, the auburn shade muted. The physique is still lean and it is strong from the work it has taken to keep it that way. And the countenance is a lot easier to read. Add expertise with body language and a superb sense of timing and here is a comedienne who should still be carrying films when she is in her 90s. Biography for Geneviève Bujold Born on 1 July 1942, Montréal, Québec, Canada Genevieve Bujold spent her first twelve school years in Montreal's oppressive Hochelaga Convent where opportunities for self-expression were limited to making welcoming speeches for visiting clerics. As a child she felt 'as if I were in a long dark tunnel trying to convince myself that if I could ever get out there was light ahead'. Caught reading a forbidden novel, she was handed her ticket out of the convent and she then enrolled in Montreal's free Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique. There she was trained in classical French drama and shortly before graduation was offered a part in a professional production of Beaumarchais' 'The Barber of Seville'. In 1965 while on a theatrical tour of Paris with another Montreal company, Rideau Vert, Bujold was recommended to director Alain Renais (by his mother) who cast her opposite Yves Montand in 'La Guerre est Finie'. She then made two other French films in quick succession, the Philippe de Broca cult classic King of Hearts and Louis Malle's 'Le Voleur'. She was also very active during this time in Canadian television where she met and married director Paul Almond in 1967. They had one child and divorced in 1973. Two remarkable appearances - first as Shaw's Saint Joan on television in 12/67, then as Anne Boleyn in her Hollywood debut role ('Anne of the Thousand Days', 1969) - introduced Bujold to American audiences and yielded Emmy and Oscar nominations respectively. Immediately after 'Anne', while under contract with Universal, she opted out of a planned 'Mary Queen of Scots' ('it would be the same producer, the same director, the same costumes, the same me') prompting the studio to sue her for $750,000. Rather than pay, she went to Greece to film 'The Trojan Women' (1971) with Katharine Hepburn. Her virtuoso performance as the mad seer Cassandra led Pauline Kael to prophesy 'prodigies ahead' but to assuage Universal, Bujold eventually returned to Hollywood to make 'Earthquake' (1974). A host of other films of varying quality followed but she managed nevertheless to transcend the material and deliver performances with her trademark combination of ferocious intensity and childlike vulnerability. In the 1980s she found her way to director Alan Rudolph's nether world and joined his film family for three movies including 'Choose Me'. Highlights of recent work are her brave performance in Cronenberg's 'Dead Ringers' and a lovely turn in the autumnal romance 'A Paper Wedding' (1990). |
Sydney Session Times: Thu 21th Sept 6.30pm Sun 24th Sept 6.00pm Tickets: Ticket Info >> Rated: 18+ Year: 1971 Duration: 105 mins Language: English Subtitles: Greek Country: Greece/UK/USA Film Type: 35mm Colour Sound: Stereo |
