Odissea (1968)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Perfect cast and a good story

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

...then stumbling upon it by pure chance on Youtube? That is how fabulous this version of the Odyssey is: so sure-footed, so unexpectedly faithful to the poem, so jaw droppingly gorgeous to look at that you are constantly re-checking the end credits for Fellini's name in there, surely, somewhere? I came on here, though, to answer the previous heartfelt pleas as to when this utter masterpiece can be seen again - someone this year has put it in four parts on Youtube. Search for 'The Odyssey Franco Rossi' And prepare to be quite, quite blown away

I agree with all the comments above that this 8 part miniseries is the best, by far, among all Odysee TV/ Film material made so far. Story intensity, poetic representation, climax, all are second to none. Bekim Fehmu and Irene Papas excel in their lead roles.I noted above that it's English version is not available. Of course, no English DVD either, so far. But, I did see this series on TV, in English, more than once. One of those times being, when VHSs were available and I did record it and still treasure it (Except for one episode that I missed recording). I hope, it's DVD becomes available and I can have it on DVD instead. In the meanwhile, if anyone interested, I sure am willing to share those VHSs.

Of all the versions of the Odyssey (or of any Greek mythological story for that matter), this in my opinion is the best of them all. Almost true to the original storyline - with some minor deviations and omissions, e.g. the absence of Scylla & Charybdis and the fact that Odysseus's fleet of ships is reduced to just one instead of the original 12- the realistic acting and authentic scenery and costumes all contribute to make this a truly memorable masterpiece, not just another sword-and-sandal Hollywood production B-flick. Notwithstanding the fact that the dialogue and subtitles are completely in Italian, if one is familiar with the storyline, he can still make heads and tails of what is going on and what the actors are saying (provided you have a good handy text of the Odyssey at hand). At least I did, and so much so that it has inspired me to study the Italian language to better appreciate the movie even more.

In all honesty, this series is as much a classic (as television goes) as the original poem is to the world's literature. Far from being crassly exploitative, it is a beautiful and respectful rendering of one of the western culture's defining texts.I was moved by the plight of Odysseus and his followers; touched by the drama of the fall of Troy (which was felt but not seen); intrigued by the way the gods played with the fate of mortals. (It should be mentioned that the gods appearing here are not ridiculous CGI creatures flitting around on their ankle wings, or poorly-cast fashion models in bikinis. As in Homer's work, they act through mortal agents or, rarely, are represented by classical statuary).It's a pity it's not available in DVD, especially given the vastly inferior and cheesy adaptations of the Odyssey that one can find in video stores.