Myth and reality
By Nikos Kolovos
A Dream of Passion is another act of recognition and convergence between ancient Greek mythology, as shaped through classical drama, and modern Greek reality. In Greece of the Τ70s, an actress, who is to play EuripidesΥ Medea, visits the jail and talks with a contemporary American "Medea", who has killed her three children to avenge her husband. Dassin, inspired by EuripidesΥ play and using it as a foundation, makes the structural choice he had failed to do in The Rehearsal. He connects myth with reality; representational art with everyday life; Medea with Melina. He achieves this by working with the same theatrical motif on three different levels. The first is the level of the preparation of a performance, where a demanding director puts pressure on his protagonist to turn her into a tragic heroine. The second level is that of the imprisoned infanticide; a real Medea whose experience Maya wants to use in order to comprehend her role more profoundly. The last level is that of the actress Melina Mercouri, who has undertaken the role of Medea. She communicates with the words and passion of the actual "Medea", revealing that she is a Medea herself because she killed her unborn child and lives in a society dominated by men. These levels are governed by the same idea: the various Medeas of the myth and reality are not victims of their own fate, nor are they victims of an acquired mental illness. They become Medeas due to the social processes, where the male element determines, oppresses and distorts the female individual.
Although the filmΥs subject is very specialised, it summarises DassinΥs relationship to Greek culture because it contains ancient Greek text, the social differentiation (with the presence of the American language), MelinaΥs favourite and, almost, autobiographical monologue Π i.e. all the elements that influenced DassinΥs presence in his second home. These are the elements that influenced DassinΥs Greek filmmaking period. A Dream of Passion is DassinΥs comeback to the art of filmmaking. It is a "hymn to the woman, the admirable and exuberant Melina Mercouri, and the country, Greece [Ι] deeply rooted in its primordial culture". It is the film that happily but also poignantly sealed the settling of the American director in Greece.

From the article "An American Greek", published in the book Jules Dassin,
34th Thessaloniki Film Festival, 1993.