0072NOTAgamemnon_RattiganAsquith

The Browning Version, dir. by A. Asquith (Javelin Films, 1951; re-leased Criterion 2005); based upon Terence Rattigan's 1948 play.

*Rattigan crafts a humane and plausible (i.e. real-life) story of an Agamemnon and a Clytemnestra. This couple's loveless marriage results in human catastrophe without all the mythological trappings. The mythic paradigm of the House of Atreus is mapped onto a story about living people and their tragic fates.*

At right: Taplow is dressed down in front of his classmates. Later he will manifest the first act of kindness Mr. Crocker-Harris ever experiences.

Inscription behind Crocker-Harris:
πόθωι δ' ὑπερποντίας φάσμα δόξει δόμων ἀνάσσειν· εὐμόρφων δὲ κολοσσῶν ἔχθεται χάρις ἀνδρί, ὀμμάτων δ' ἐν ἀχηνίαις ἔρρει πᾶσ' Ἀφροδίτα. [Aesch. Ag. 414–419]

R. Browning trans. (1877) OGCMA0071AgamemnonBrowning:
“And, through desire of one across the main, / A ghost will seem within the house to reign. / And hateful to the husband is the grace / Of well-shaped statues: for — in place of eyes / Those blanks—all Aphrodite dies. ” Perseus link