Synopsis
A false accusation leads the philosopher Socrates to trial and condemnation in 4th century BC Athens.
Socrates
1971 ‘Socrate’ Directed by Roberto Rossellini
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TV
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Italy
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Italy
17 Jun 1971
- TV
Popular reviews
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Manages to articulate its punctual, intelligent dramatic structure with its more discursive, dialectical dimension, conducted with a script that is surely a consistent vessel for exemplifying socratic maieutics. For a film made in a post-fascist democracy, it's obvious that Rossellini's main question here is: what's the use of a democracy filled with undemocratic minds? If totalitarianism lies within every power struggle, the only way of moving beyond it is by humility and martyrdom, idealism must bring us closer to the truth and only then we will be able to move on.
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Socrate and his disciples abd Socrate and his times. A movie about thought, how it is organized and passed upon and also how it is received and reacted against. There are predictably for Rossellini a certain Christian tone to how Socrate and his persecution are framed even more predictable is the attention to his body language as he go through the performance of his teaching and martydom.
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they made the "i just wanna grill for god's sake!" dude into a movie. bunch of guys bein dudes. bunch of dudes hangin around the old spot, talkin shit. nagging wife but you love her. bunch of dudes bein guys. bunch of boys gettin drunk in a garage bein like, "we out here."
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The outlier among Rossellini's history films, forgoing the usual multi-year chronology in order to focus on the specific period from the reign of the Thirty Tyrants to Socrates' execution. Consequently, he takes more liberties with Socrates as subject than he does with others, liberally splicing snatches from various dialogues (or abridged versions of such) into a dramatically coherent frame - and this is, to its detriment, a political drama. Rossellini, for example, greatly increases the roles of Xanthippe and Socrates' children, and while this, at least by contemporary reckonings, should ostensibly deepen the film and our reception of it, he never really develops the family into anything but put-upon worrywarts, effecting nothing (perhaps they are there as audience surrogates, actually…
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Having grown up in a staunch religious organization, I feel qualified to talk about how fundamentalists think, and more particularly the brazen patterns of thought they perpetuate in repeating what they want to hear and confirming what they supposedly already know. The pattern can be shaped into a dialectic of question and answer between a philosophy teacher and his self-assured religious student: “Why are you dropping my philosophy course?” asks the teacher. “Because you’re looking for answers that I already have,” responds the student. “What answers do you mean?” “Well, in your class you’re discussing all kinds of theories of truth, but I don’t need to learn about any of those theories. I already have the truth.” “Interesting. And where do…
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Recommended by @FilmEnthusiast3 ✝️
Anything to do with philosophy is fascinating to me, so knowing this was from a director I had prior respect for as well as being based about one of the most popular philosophers in history, it was pretty much guaranteed I’d like it.
What is most fascinating is the depiction of Socrates as a Christ figure. A martyr who will stop at nothing to preach his truth and end up persecuted for it. Ironic considering Rossellini’s (and I believe Socrates’ as well) unbelief. Where Buñuel sees religion as a big joke, Rossellini sees it as society trapping the full beauty of it.
Anything Socratic is bound to fascinate me. “All I know is that I know…
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Rossellini draws out the parallels between Socrates and Jesus—great, radical thinkers who favor their moral state over their physical glamor, condemned to die by those they came to instruct—but as he frames Renaissance men like their paintings, so too does he frame Socrates' last days as Socratic dialogue, complete with just enough irony to disguise how harrowing the film is. Christ's execution seems so much more normal because his death is framed as heresy (what a thing to think), but the death of Socrates (sentenced for the same charge) seems so much worse, as his ideas are so explicitly philosophy where Christ's own is generally seen only as theology. It's a film, then, of a man killed for being intelligent, and as such it's the most unsettling I've yet seen from Rossellini, even over the sweat-and-shit stench of LOUIS XIV.
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NUESTRO CINE: Can you tell us about Socrates?
ROBERTO ROSSELLINI: I aim to create things that provide general information and guidance. We've made a twelve-hour series, 'La lotta dell'uomo per la sua sopravvivenza,' which is an approach to the history of humankind, from its emergence on Earth until landing on the Moon. It's the story of new ideas, the difficulty of getting them accepted, and the pain their acceptance brings. All human history revolves between, on one hand, the men who shape the future, the revolutionaries, who are very few, and on the other, those who feel nostalgic about the past and remain stagnant, the conservatives. The film is a sketch of History that I find useful for orienting ourselves,…
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Wish he did one of these for Aristotle as well. Would have solved my planning for the last week of class every other year.
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Socrates takes a deep dive into the life of one of history's most renowned philosophers. It remains a unique cinematic venture into the world of philosophical discussion and ancient Athenian life, though it fully enjoyable due to its lack of pacing and presentation.
The film does a good job of presenting Socrates' teachings and his trial, and the narrative is mostly faithful to the historical and philosophical records we have of this prominent figure. Jean Sylvère as Socrates provides a solid performance, capturing the character's wisdom and stoic demeanor.
The film's dialogue is dense and filled with philosophical jargon. The lack of adequate context or explanation for these ideas might leave some viewers feeling lost. The production values are also…
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