Socrates (1971)
Roberto Rossellini
Event Slider
Date
- 16:00 / Cancelled 16:00 / Sold out Sunday, 16:00
Location
Studio Centro de Arte Moderna GulbenkianPricing
10% – Cartão Gulbenkian and Cartão Gulbenkian Mais
An adaptation of several of Plato's dialogues, the telefilm Socrates follows the last years of the famous philosopher's life during the period of decadence of Athenian democracy.
In the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, in an Athens in turmoil over defeat and humiliation, the character of Socrates emerges at the age of 70, dedicated to philosophical research, followed by several young disciples.
The film follows the trial of the philosopher, accused of not believing in the Greek gods and of corrupting the youth with his ideas. Socrates’ defence, described in Plato’s Apology, is not enough to avoid conviction. Rejecting sentences of exile or imprisonment, and refusing to flee, Socrates accepts the punishment of death by suicide.
This film is part of a tetralogy on philosophical figures, which includes the feature films Blaise Pascal, Augustine of Hippo and Descartes, also shown in this film cycle.
Curator's text
In the 1970s, Rossellini saw television as a future, a possibility, a wider audience. Socrates is an educational film (the filmmaker preferred to say “pedagogical”) about a group of citizens who debate, discuss and vote, Athenians who, after their defeat by Sparta, deal with issues such as “the law” and “the corruption of youth”, the charge that condemned Socrates. Rossellini's Socrates, it should be said, is not quite the philosopher of Plato's writings: rather than Socratic theories, the film investigates the notion of the “disciple” (like the disciples of Christ, or those of Marx), and above all the idea that philosophy, as Montaigne said, teaches us how to die.
Power and Glory
This event is part of the film cycle ‘Power and Glory’, which includes films by Rossellini, Rohmer and Wiseman, curated by Pedro Mexia. Learn more
Credits
Original title
Socrate
Director
Roberto Rossellini
Duration
120 minutes
Genre
Drama
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