I saw this movie at the tender age of 19 as a down and out college drop out in Los Angeles, in 1962. Given the repressed social environment of my early youth-the deep South-this movie opened up a whole range of insights and expectations of interpersonal and physical attractions within the context of taboo, forbidden relationships. The movie is shot through with the crackle of intellectual and erotic tensions and has, in my view, the single most sensuous scene ever filmed, and there are several from which to select. The musical soundtrack has few peers in film history. A highly under-rated film at the time, and it should be resurrected for contemporary audiences.
Review of Phaedra
