Word: dassins
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Directed and Written by Jules Dassin...
...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...
...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 to see Burstyn, allowing Dassin some cheap, melodramatic psychologizing about Medea...
...best friend is his mother." In pre-Freudian times, that sentiment was a shibboleth; it even served as the title of a straight-faced song. But as the principle of a 1971 film? Surely Scenarist-Director Jules Dassin jests. Or does...
...hero, Assaf Dayan (Moshe's son) is called upon only to look virile, admittedly a difficult assignment given such smotherhood. As Mama, Melina Mercouri (Mrs. Dassin offscreen) has moments of solar intensity coupled with an absolute lack of vanity. When the script calls for her finally to be ill and old, she permits the makeup man to do his worst and appears pitiable indeed. In its own way, her vital, uninhibited performance is mere makeup, covering the scenario's merchandised nostalgia. There is, of course, the melancholy possibility that the Dassins wished to construct a burlesque. Sadder still...