PHAEDRA, a mother and stepson tragedy with Greek Lesbian Collateral Damage
Gays in the Movies 1960-1990: A Pre-Woke History
See: Also, THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE EARLY FILMS OF THE ACTOR FORMERLY KNOWN AS “ELLEN PAGE” Part 1 and Part 2.
Phaedra (1962) Dir. Jules Dassin
Phaedra (Melina Mercouri) is the wife of a shipping magnate who falls in love with her stepson, Alexis (Anthony Perkins). She becomes obsessed and nihilistic, clinging to a no-hope situation. It’s a classic Greek tragedy that leaves one wondering if Eros is not the most cruel of the mythical gods, or maybe the most inept. When Phaedra first meets Alexis, he is in a museum sketching a statue of a headless Aphrodite (Goddess of Love), leaving one with the impression that embodiments of love must sometimes be destroyed.
Conflict between social classes, old world/new world, pagan beliefs and faltering Christian morality are all at play here as sparks fly between characters who the locals have commented, “They are very powerful. They speak many languages and celebrate with fire in the sky”, referring to fireworks celebrating the christening of a new ship the SS Phaedra, which later sinks. Fireworks are later followed by a dazzling candlelight dining experience, a poetry of fire that could only end in a blazing backdrop of even more fire that surrounds Phaedra and Alexis the first time they make love. Through a window looking in, rain pours over the fiery scene, bathing this cursed relationship simultaneously in both fire and water. An interesting and self-extinguishing bit of symbolism.
This is a death and rebirth that happens repeatedly between Phaedra and Alexis. During a final scene where Phaedra bathes the face of Alexis, it almost appears as if he could be pulled back into her consuming furnace, revealing weaknesses and finally, a preference of death over that life.
The conflicts and disturbances that wash over all involved in this can’t-have and shouldn’t-have tragedy is most interestingly captured in Phaedra’s long suffering servant, Anna, an obvious lesbian who takes advantage of Phaedra’s pain by pawing at her in many bizarre scenes of concerned arm and shoulder rubbing. Anna cries when Phaedra admits she’s in love with Alexis. When Alexis leaves her, the scene cuts to Phaedra telling Anna, “Undress me.”
Phaedra, the woman who would destroy everything to stay in a relationship with her stepson also sees the importance of her relationship with an older lesbian, the one person who knows of her indiscretions. Anna may be a repressed lesbian living in a time and place where openness might be her end, but lesbianism and the occult don’t seem to be a problem for Phaedra, perhaps as long as she is the object of desire and can reap the rewards of occultism. When Phaedra can’t have the man she wants, Anna is exploited as a proxy and the constantly mewling old lesbian is rewarded with a mercy fuck that can only assist with Phaedra’s sense of self-preservation.
It all ends terribly for everyone, but we knew that. Recommended!