Moralising Undertones
by Babis Aktsoglou
Estrella-Fedra is the Spanish cousin of Susana, Bunuel's heroine who, according to the Mexican title of the film, had the demon in her (Susana, demonio y carne). They both represent the wild, animal dimension of eroticism, which terrifies the rationalistic and moralising tendencies of a puritan, male-dominated society; they both go to extremes in the erotic games they play with both father and son; they both get mercilessly whipped and they both meet a tragic end. What is more, the two heroines have something else in common, as far as direction is concerned: they are both parts of a film world governed by strict rules of censorship, where sexuality can only be implied. Oddly, this gives an intense sensual quality to both films. Bu_uel and Manuel Mur Oti inevitably resort to investing with sexual significance those parts of a woman's body that are allowed to be shown naked on screen, transforming them into festishes: legs, bust, shoulders, back, as well as the face itself are used as mediums for expressing a wild eroticism. There is not a more sensual scene than the one where Estrella, swimming like a siren in the sea, goes aboard Don Juan's ship, her soaked clothes cleaving to her body, or yet the scene of the night walk with Fernando on the beach, Estrella's body dripping with sweat. As for the whipping scene, this should be anthologised in any history of sadism on screen. After all, the interrelation of sex and violence is evident throughout the film, also illustrated in the scene where Estrella slaps Don Juan in the face in reaction to a simple ΤI love you'. Manuel Mur Oti uses the ruins of an ancient Greek temple as the symbolic setting for his drama, in a rather far-fetched attempt to connect his story to the ancient myth of Phaedra and Hippolytus. Other than the folkloric figures of the village women, dressed in black alluding to the ancient dramatic choros, and Fernando/Hippolytus's love of horses, Manuel Mur Oti's Fedra has little in common with Seneca or ancient mythology. The film is a melodrama, featuring the exaggeration and rhetoric of this genre, as well as its moralising undertones, which, in a rather artificial way, turn the (melo)drama into a tragedy. However, the film has a certain charm, with some impressive scenes, like the one where Estrella, dressed in white, walks through the group of enraged village women dressed in black Π a scene much more powerful than the one in Dassin's Phaedra, although we cannot really say if Dassin was aware of Manuel Mur Oti's film [which was released in Greece under its original title, whereas the French added the explanatory subtitle: A real prostitute (Une vraie garce!)]