Ulysses

June 16, 1904. Jewish ad seller Leopold Bloom experiences the pettiness and the mysticism of human existence during 24 hours of wandering through Dublin. The movement of his mind as well as his physical transfer “out of the past and the future” mimics and parodies Homer’s famous epic, while the story splits into three parts: Telemachus, the son looking for a father who is lost in the labyrinth of streets, words and relationships, is poet Stephen Dedalus, while the unfaithful Penelope represents Leopold-Ulysses’ wife Molly. Strick finds the experimental-film means that correspond to the scientifically impersonal, mannerist eclecticism of James Joyce’ s novel (1922). The result is close to the atmosphere of Joyce’s work despite two main directorial compromises: abandoning his desire to translate the novel into film language as completely and faithfully as possible, and omitting certain episodes of the trio’s wanderings towards personal and national consciousness and subconscious. Sound and image montage creates the core of the film, based on a system of flashbacks, dreamlike sequences and the characters’ interior monologues. The film was nominated for a Best Screenplay Oscar and for a Golden Globe for Best English-Language Foreign Film,