What it’s about
Greek beauty Electra (Papas) seethes with hatred after her mother, Clytemnestra (Katselli), plots with her lover to murder King Agamemnon, a newly returned war hero, as he bathes. But noble Electra's all-consuming need for vengeance, which she plots to exact with the help of her brother Orestes (Fertis), leaves her blind to the repercussions of her actions.
Why we love it
Michael Cacoyannis (“Zorba the Greek”) brings Euripides’s timeless tragedy to full-blooded life in this Oscar-nominated drama featuring the lovely and blazingly talented Irene Papas. Big-screen adaptations of the ancient Greek plays are often overly theatrical and leaden affairs; by contrast, this film pulses with life, both dramatically and visually, and drives home its pointed psychological themes with a searing lesson about the dangers of iron certainty.