The New York Times by Dave Kehr
No admirer of Mr. von Trier's work should miss this compelling rarity.
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Denmark · 1988
1h 16m
Director Lars von Trier
Starring Udo Kier, Kirsten Olesen, Henning Jensen, Solbjørg Højfeldt
Genre Drama
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It is an adaptation of the Greek tragedy Medea from Euripides, a version where the Gods willing and intervations are absent. Medea is the tragic character that after helping Jason in the Voyage of the Argonauts (myth says that she has even sacrificed her own brother for Jason's success), she gets from him only betrayal, as he arranges to marry the King's of Corinth daughter. The king decides to exile Medea, as she is a danger for his daughter happiness, but Medea asks from him just a day… before she goes outside the borders. That day Medea gets her revenge…
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The New York Times by Dave Kehr
No admirer of Mr. von Trier's work should miss this compelling rarity.
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
It's not the best of von Trier, but the movie is shot in an unforgettable, haunting style that evokes both Bergman and the silent era.
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
In light of the aesthetic of ugliness that informs von Trier's Dogme films, it's easy to forget how subtly beautiful his work once was.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Achieves an abrading, intimate, primal force his later films only hint at. It's difficult to imagine the Euripides original ever being more eloquently adapted.
Medea works on von Trier's own imagistic terms. There are shots and sequences in this movie that feel unique.
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