MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Antigone/Rites of Passion’: A Fresh Meaning to Tragedy

The AFI USA Independent Showcase, which over the last six months has provided one-week theatrical runs for films that have otherwise been unable to obtain regular release, concludes on a bravura note with Amy Greenfield’s dazzling, demanding “Antigone/Rites of Passion” (at Laemmle’s Grande downtown).

It is a bold, triumphantly ambitious and successful attempt to fuse dance and mime with sound and image to bring fresh meaning to Sophoclean tragedy--”to bring the life behind the words onto the screen,” as Greenfield saw her task.

The film progresses in straightforward fashion. Oedipus (Bertram Ross) and his daughter Antigone (Greenfield herself) are wandering in exile from Thebes after Oedipus has blinded himself in his horror at discovering he had married his own mother.

We then move through the deadly struggle of his two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, over their father’s throne and on to Antigone’s determination to bury Polynices in defiance of the orders of Creon (also Ross), the new King of Thebes. We finally arrive at Antigone’s inevitable martyrdom and Creon’s madness, triggered by the fact that his son Haemon (Sean McElroy) is Antigone’s lover. It is Greenfield’s inspired notion to have Antigone’s sister Ismene (Janet Eilber) take up her torch in a spirit of vengeance informed by feminism and human-rights advocacy.

Greenfield wisely decided to shoot her film as a silent, allowing her performers complete freedom of movement as they trek over rugged mountainous landscapes and debate on the immense, stark white marble terraces, colonnades and staircases outside Creon’s palace--it’s actually the Empire State Plaza in Albany, N.Y.--with their tragic conflict culminating in a vast, dark cave setting.

The movement of the actor-dancers is simple, clean and very nearly constant. Greenfield and her cinematographers Hilary Harris (for the natural locations) and Judy Irola (for the architectural settings) keep the camera in perfect, expressive harmony with the performers; there’s a wonderful, powerful use of close-ups, especially of Greenfield and Ross (a magnificent former Martha Graham dancer), both of whom have strong, sculptural features.

Add to this spare offscreen narration, written by Greenfield, spoken by the various characters as they reveal their innermost thoughts along with the occasional direct exchanges between each other. Further add the film’s astonishing score, a great, richly varied hum and roar and shimmer, incorporating the human voice, acoustical instruments and real sounds electronically processed and composed by Glenn Branca, Diamanda Galas, Paul Lemos, Elliott Sharp and David Van Tieghem.

Through the flawless fusion of all these elements we’re able to experience an “Antigone” as if we had never seen it performed in any form before, an “Antigone” at once sensual and erotic, timeless and timely, for this film is charged with the tension of viewing Oedipus from his daughter’s point of view, his ultimate fate a betrayal of her rather than as a transcendent tragic catharsis. “Antigone/Rites of Passion” (Times-rated Mature for complex, adult themes) demands the utmost attention--and consistently rewards such effort.

‘Antigone/Rites of Passion’

Amy Greenfield: Antigone

Bertram Ross: Oedipus/Creon

Janet Eilber: Ismene

An Eclipse production. Writer-producer-director Amy Greenfield. Based on “Oedipus at Colonus” and “Antigone” by Sophocles. Cinematographers Hilary Harris, Judy Irola. Editors Peter Friedman (words and music), Greenfield (images and music). Costumes Betty Howard, Jane Townsend. Music Glenn Branca, Diamanda Galas, Paul Lemos, Elliott Sharp, David Van Tieghem. Music producer Roma Baran. Sound designer and editor Bernard Hajdenberg. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

Times-rated Mature (adult themes).