Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Odysseus is dressed as a beggar, ragged and ruined.
Nobody recognizes him, and hes repeatedly humiliated.
Its a fine showcase for Fienness physicality not just in movement but stasis as well.
I say this with nothing but admiration: Ralph Fiennes makes for a great burning sausage.
He can do coiled menace and rage, but he also knows how to use his stillness.
These two seemingly passive roles demonstrate, in subtle ways, the actors range.
(Thats not a spoiler; youve had 2,500 years to familiarize yourself withThe Odyssey.)
(Who needs gods when you have Ralph Fiennes?)
Instead, Pasolini introduces some slight modern psychology, tempering Odysseus rage with grief and indecision.
He doesnt know if he deserves his old life back.
If only the rest of this otherwise wan film were at Fienness and Binoches level.
Homers poetry, of course, is gone, but so too is any real sense of dynamism.
But it does remind us that Ralph Fiennes is an immortal.
