Filmcollege: Greek Mythology + Medea ¹⁹⁶⁹

This film lecture explores how Greek mythology continues to circulate through cinema in all kinds of forms. Rather than preserving ancient stories as heritage, filmmakers repeatedly return to myth as a way of thinking through human experience under changing historical conditions. In this film lecture, Hugo Emmerzael explores how myth functions in cinema not as a set of narratives, but as a flexible visual and emotional language. The focus lies on how these stories are transformed when they move across time, style, and political context, how they shift meaning depending on the cinematic world that contains them. The screening of Medea (1969) offers one of the most striking examples of this approach. In Pier Paolo Pasolini’s adaptation, myth emerges through stark landscapes, ritualised gestures, and moments of stillness that give the story a tangible, almost elemental force. About Medea (1969)

In Medea, director Pasolini brings the classical Greek tragedy to life as a hypnotic and visually overwhelming cinematic experience. Opera legend Maria Callas shines as Medea, a powerful priestess who gives up everything for her beloved Jason. When he trades her in for a younger woman, love turns into an all-consuming revenge.