Word: mercouri
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Following the ritual wreath laying at the tomb of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe-attended by such fellow Socialists as former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt and Greek Actress and Parliamentarian Melina Mercouri-Mitterrand proceeded to the Left Bank and a new ceremony of his own: a pilgrimage to the Panthéon that provided a television spectacular that was even better orchestrated than Giscard's farewell...
...honesty and bravery of her self-exposure, and since stars of a certain age are thought to combine volatility and vulnerability in a colorful way, the opportunities for bravura effects are endless. The opportunities for tedious egocentricity are there too-so much so in the case of Melina Mercouri, in this vehicle that her husband, Jules Dassin, has created for her, that the movie has the suffocating air of a vanity production...
...Mercouri plays a fading film star who returns to her native Greece to appear in Medea and also in a TV film about her preparation for the role. As a publicity stunt she arranges to visit, in jail, an American woman (Ellen Burstyn) who, like Medea, has committed infanticide. What with a demanding rehearsal schedule and the raging and pouting she inflicts on her director and her entourage, you would think the Mercouri character would have no time left to feel guilty about exploiting the half-mad murderess, but she does. Repeatedly she goes back into the prison...
...nothing very vital is added to anyone's understanding of that classic figure, and Mercouri's performance in long scenes from Medea doesn't help much either. There is much eye rolling, teeth baring and anguished screeching, but no break in the clouds of self-absorption that always hover around her. Finally, the modern Medea's story gets told, the play opens, and the picture ends, leaving the audience no wiser...
...Melina Mercouri, upon winning a seat in the Greek parliament: "A close link has been established with the people. They treat me as if I am the Madonna of Paris who is going to perform miracles for them...