0731NOTOdysseus_Konchalovskiy

0731NOTOdysseus_Konchalovskiy

The Odyssey, television miniseries (1997) directed by A. Konchalovskiy on a screenplay by A. Konchalovskiy and Chris Solimine (Hallmark Entertainment productions). VHS release at 165 minutes.

starring: Armand Assante (Odysseus), Greta Scacchi (Penelope), Isabella Rossellini (Athena), Vanessa Williams (Calypso), Bernadette Peters (Circe), Eric Roberts (Eurymachus), Christopher Lee (Tiresias)

Clearly a narrative built upon Bond-like erotic interplay, as one female being after another endeavors to keep Odysseus from his wife's bed. The heroic nostos is much more about Penelope than about homeland.

Poseidon communicates directly with Odysseus: shipwrecked between Calypso and Nausicaa, Odysseus learns the god's "goal is not to kill you ... [but to teach that] without the gods man is nothing."

An overtly linear narrative arc:
Film opens with Penelope in childbirth and the delivery of Telemachus (consequently the day on which the Mycenaean embassy arrives with Agamemnon and Menelaus); as Odysseus departs, he swears fidelity to Penelope beside their tree-built bedroom; and the closing scene involves Athena winking at Odysseus that it's time to go in and meet Penelope beside that bed.

Interesting narrative developements due to flattening of the narrative: Aeolus is encountered early and much as in Homer; Circe (Bernadette Peters) detains Odysseus for 5 years, doping with Lotus the leader and his crew into thinking only 5 days of geisha-dom have passed; after Scylla/Charbydis devour his crew and he washes ashore, Calypso amidst her exotic harem delays Odysseus as long; the stop among the Phaeacians is perfunctorily brief, just long enough for Alcious to realize he's hosting the great hero and to admit he doesn't want to detain Odysseus longer.