Métamorphoses

Seen by your reviewer at the 2014 London Film Festival, 'Métamorphoses' transplants Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' to modern-day, working-class France (for those unfamiliar with Ovid - I'm not sure I'd ever heard of him - he was a poet from ancient Rome). A group of Roman deities wander the countryside meddling in human affairs - meddling that generally involves nudity and livestock.

I can't make up my mind whether or not I like this film; I will say it was engrossing. Despite the 'flashbacks within flashbacks within flashbacks' structure, writer/director Christophe Honoré manages to keep the storyline, such as it is, flowing neatly and the viewer does not get confused about where he is in the narrative.

Little of the nudity is particularly attractive; unfortunately Honoré has gone for people with natural, rather than film star (or indeed classical god-like), bodies! But my main concern is the treatment of the many animals in the film: a cow simply standing tethered in a field is one thing, but in the scene where a lion and lioness are trapped in a room and the lioness begins to attack the lion, one wonders whether that was spontaneous action or was she trained to do it - and if so, was anyone concerned for the animals' welfare?

Metamorphosis has a lot of nice earthy action in nature. Greenery is the same to any era, as is sex and human interaction between people young enough to deserve their carnal behavior. The stories of Ovid lend a legitimacy. But Honore adds a very homey French familiarity with the human body and it's activities missing from modern synthetic US cinema. I don't know if the film is really that good or I liked it so much because it has been too many years since my last roll in the hay.

Best international movie i have watched in a very long time, based upon one of my favorites, metamorphosis by ovid

In rural France, a hunter encounters a god in the woods. He gets turned into a deer and shot by his fellow hunter. Europa is a teen girl who picks up truck driver Jupiter. He tells her about the time he turned Io into a cow.

This is basically Roman mythology in the modern age. This movie faces many difficulty. Mostly, it is very static. The actors are amateurs. Jupiter should probably be older. He's like a dirty hipster in this. The main plot is rather static and meandering. The recollections only make it even more static in the narrative flow. Then it turns into a convoluted mess. It's hard to follow the characters and the stories. It's a lot of naked people doing who knows what. There is a fluidity in sexuality. That's the only compelling aspect in this movie after the initial Jupiter and Europe encounter. I just stop caring about the plot if there is one. I don't know much about the Greek myths. At least, I could figure out Mother! I don't know what's going on here.

The ancients constantly retold myths, telling them in what for them was contemporary setting, and adapting the morals and meaning as well. In fact Ovid changed and moralized a number of Greek myths for his audience. I found this collection to be quite fresh and well done and highly recommend it.