Those who remember Ralph Fiennes on stage in David Hare’s 2022 Straight Line Crazy centering on Robert Moses’ life would remember how physical a performer he truly is. Their portrayal of Fiennes as the notorious New York City planner and bureaucrat was equally impressive, as it involved him transporting himself around the stage which was filled with a map of the city, illustrating the Moses philosophy of conquering landscapes. The performance was so explosive, the actor so driven, that one wondered if he would ever jump off the stage and land in the audience. Surely this was a joke but at the time, due to Fiennes’s aggression, his presence felt like it posed a threat to people around him.
In Pasolini’s 2003 film, The Return, based on the story of ‘The Odyssey’ by Homer, Ralph Fiennes portrays Odysseus, who was the ancient King of Ithaca and famed for his epic tale of returning home after the Trojan War. In this movie, the story continues from the last part of the epic, where an older Odysseus, having no clue where Ithaca was for a decade, returns only to find the Kingdom his wife Penelope (played by Juliette Binoche) preferred was taken over by countless suitors. Grasping who he was, a ruined beggar-clothed man seems near impossible because it is at least how history goes, so when Iliad and Fiennes’ Odysseus United, it was comical for the entire audience to watch. Both these characters demonstrated perfect madness in a Middle Eastern region where everyone had expectations of him. ‘Server 520: I read burning sausage means extreme anger, anger ridden from lack of patience throwing daggers at the wall’
High respect, Ralph Fiennes was destined to be a Burning Sausage; regardless of the stereotype built about his character, framing him as only an expression of anger. He understood the role and comprehended his power of stillness to its core.
In his star performances this year: that angst-ridden Lawrence in the Conclave and now this one, Fiennes pours his heart out into the character of Cardinal Lawrence. He also had this to say: “I’m just a more aggressive actor than Lawrence compared to Fiennes or any other portrayal of simply ‘being a fighter’.” This subtle anxiety – Ventura Calles’ characterization, which comes from wanting to survive even if it means waiting, is established right at the beginning. It’s baffling how we could be sitting here watching a man refuse to end the misery and yet, be so impatient that we absolutely cannot wait for someone to take revenge. A character we have observed for decades is finally up close and personal, except that he is entirely different from everything he seems to be. This, unfortunately, does not give the audience satisfaction.
With Travel, the audience who has waited centuries for Screen Wars finally got to see the most raw portrayal of trauma. At this point, It was evident that Travel wasn’t playing with the world or anyone in it. He was the only person isolated with no idea what one thinks or looks like, and he fought a war only to meditate on his return. But memories were too strong to move on, or perhaps they were too deceptive to not even recognize. After Ben selected narratives saw too much sorrow and internal conflict, he could feel nothing by then.
Finally, facing Penelope, he finds it hard to explain who is she seems not to know him either, but the context of their interaction implies that perhaps she has some deeper knowledge about that strange image in front of her.
If only the remainder of this otherwise dull film was at the level of Fiennes’ and Binoche’s performance. Pasolini, I suppose, wanted to strip the story to its most essential elements, and with such an approach came the demand for tragic simplicity. Homer’s verse is, of course, absent but with it, any true sense of action is as well. In The Return, people tend to just face each other and talk without much feeling whenever they speak. Pasolini, the namesake of the director, adapted some classics in the 1960s and 1970s and he too approached these sagas in a similar bare and literal way. (As far as I understand, these two men are not relatives; Uberto, a former producer, turns out to be a nephew of the legendary Luchino Visconti!) But Pier Paolo had a painter’s eye and a poet’s soul; in the rudeness, he discovered an extraordinary beauty of his own. Thus, Uberto’s rare bursts of activity are rather few — except when Fiennes happens to be onscreen, which is admittedly frequent. The Return does not work as a study guide for The Odyssey and does not work on its own. But at least it makes us remember that Ralph Fiennes is an exceptional actor.
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