Has anyone watched The Return?

[MissMarplesNiece]

Has anyone been to see The Return, the Pasolini version of The Odyssey with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche?

Ive seen very mixed reviews. What did you think? Would you recommend it?

I haven't. I can't find a cinema with it on. But when I do I'll report. I've watched the trailers, but I haven't read the very full Imdb synopsis, in which I noticed some changes from Homer.

We’re going on Sunday - will update afterwards

I can't decide whether to get tickets for it or not. Guardian gave it 2 stars but DH said he'd seen a good review for it on TV.

In the total absence of any cinema within range, I have resorted to Imdb's collection of reviews which give pretty wide range of opinions, well worth a read. One doesn't like the suitors' representation as 'frat boys' which will stick with me for ever. Of course they are!

I enjoyed it. It is a departure from Homer in that the gods have been excised , and Odysseus is depicted as a warrior returning ashamed and full of PTSD, unwilling to emerge from the shadows because he feels he is undeserving after masterminding the slaughter of the Trojans. (Of course he does, to protect Penelope and Telemachus.)

Fiennes is amazing: he looks like a beggar, but the grandeur of Odysseus comes through when he speaks, even though his head is hanging and he is wearing rags, and covered in scars and bloodstaiins . Kept expecting him to have a glow-up, but he didn’t. That was intentional I think: only at the end, when he has reluctantly performed the additional bloodshed and violence required to destroy the suitors is he bathed by Penelope.

Fiennes, whom I have never thought of as an action hero, has pumped up massively for the role in a gnarled, ropy,
wrestler past his prime sort of way,

The guy playing Antimous is amazing as well

Fiennes is amazing: he looks like a beggar, but the grandeur of Odysseus comes through when he speaks, even though his head is hanging and he is wearing rags, and covered in scars and bloodstaiins .

In all the photos I’ve seen, he really does look a very credible Odysseus to me. And the PTSD angle also feels very compatible with Homer. Seeing this on Sunday and really can’t wait.

I don't know if it will be too blood thirsty and violent for me to enjoy. Im sort of thinking it is a 15 certificate so the violence won't be very graphic.

h’mmm. I think you will cringe a bit. The suitors are good at casual violence; it is the carelessness of it that it so shudder-making.

Right, ok, I'm reconsidering.

Still can't find a cinema. Grr. And I'm not in the wilds.
When I was young we could catch a film in the next town easily. A few years ago we spent a day catching all of the Back to the Future films by crossing the river to the two cinemas in Lakeside.
And I did a search for Howl's Moving Castle and watched it in a nearly empty cinema in a chalk pit outside Strood.
So why isn't the Return showing somewhere among all the multiscreens in the vicinity?
I feel like I did on the cruise charging up the fault derived channel to the west of Ithaca and not visiting it. Investigating that revealed that it was possible to fly to Cephalonia, negotiate privately to cross the channel in a fishing boat to Ithace, and book a B&B for two there. But not for one. All the places disappeared when 1 was entered. Not allowed Ithaca.
I'm reading the new translation, first by a woman, and have just landed in Ithaca with Odysseus. I shall enjoy reading the suitors through the lens of frat boys. I had not realised that there's only a few years between them and Telemachus, so they"need" to put him down not just for political reasons, but adolescent reasons as well. And he "needs" to put his mother "in her place" as well.
But where is the film showing? It's ridiculous that I can't put it into a search and get a list out. I did with Howl. And that was a very minor attraction.
Forgive the rant!

@Treaclewell I can appreciate how frustrating it is. Maybe it's because it's the Easter school holidays so lots of cinemas will be putting on programmes of films aimed at children. We have a decent independent cinema here, thank goodness.

There are lots of showings of children's films, which I expected, but lots of not very exciting blokey stuff as well, nothing I recognised. There's a showing in Dunfermline town, and two in Brighton, for example. Surprised by Brighton - nobody trans in the story, especially with Athena omitted. I don't think I should dump myself on my cousins for a night there.
I shall enjoy reading your opinions.

I just saw it, in Brighton, I really liked it. Ralph Fiennes was astounding.

It was really good. Enjoyed the film. Love Fiennes in anything though.

OK, that's it, I'm taking the plunge and booking tickets.

This is going down to join my memory of the uninhabited side of Ithaca, all I have of that. I found a site which lists all the showings, with a map.
Lots in London, but the wrong side, so neither possible for driving or trains. Then an empty expanse apart from Portsmouth, Brighton, Rye and Canterbury. Canterbury is a straight drive, but an easy train ride as well. A convenient showing late Monday afternoon. Head to train timss.; The two times I need, and only those, have only two spaces available. And I have to get someone else's agreement first. Too much chance of a mix up, and though it's a direct drive back, it would be into the setting sun. Try another day. Too early a matinee. And then the showings stop. Except East Grinstead. Not on a train route.
It would cost all my birthday money for the train, too.
So I'm waiting for the DVD, and setting up my projector in the living room with some mezze. Long wait, but only months, not years.
Don't know why my nearest multiscreens haven't had it. 20 minutes, or over the river 40, plus cost of crossing.
Gaargh.

Two possibles surfaces. Greenwich, which didn't answer the phone for an inquiry about parking at the weekend, and Hawkhurst, in the wild. But when I got back from researching them I found that suddenly Bluwater had appeared with one showing Tuesday May 6th afternnon. So I've booked two seats. I think at tyhat time there won't be too much popcorn and hot doggery!

Glad you've found a cinema where you can watch this film @Treaclewell . DH and I went last week and both of us thought that it was very good.

I'm a huge fan of The Odyssey, having read the translation multiple times and read or watched every adaptation I could get my hands on, so my expectations were high going into this, and I'm happy to say they were met.
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We were the only people in the cinema, with posh upholstered seats. Unfortunately the sound was quiet, so the dialogue at the end was difficult for me. I shall be seeing it again. It was the best Odyssey I've seen, stripped of the magic and with everyone realistic people. I don't know why they killed Laertes off before the return, as there's a moving scene between him and his son in the book. It was advertised as having the Q&A at the end, but it was delayed, so we left.