Prometheus (Zoltan Deme film)

Ancient sources of the movie

This film is based on the libretto of Salvatore Vigano that he wrote for Beethoven to compose his The Creatures of Prometheus. and it also uses some of the elements of the Aeschylus play Prometheus Bound. However, this movie is not a thorough adaptation of these pieces, instead, it is an interpretative creation presenting new approach to the final destination of the mankind, and it has own and modern ideas that emerged from contemporary and modern sources.

Modern sources of the movie

In 1972, Spacecraft Pioneer 10 took the ID card of mankind into the cosmos. A gold plated aluminum plate that indicates where humankind is located in the Universe, presents the outlook of the man and woman, and contains other information. 18 years later, a plate was found on the shore of the Malaga Island, similar to the one we sent into the cosmos but containing new marks on it. It was carried into a safe place and put under examination. Though hard to believe that we received an answer of any civilization may exist in the cosmos: however, the original illustration of Universe, of solar system, of man were cancelled on the plate and substituted with abstract new illustrations. Made by anyone, the meaning of these changes was evident: our Universe in the reality is not the Universe, but something else. Solar system is not a solar system, but somewhat else. Man is not man, but instead some sort of other creature. But what does this statement more precisely mean? This is what the author searches in this movie, turning back to the ancient centuries to understand and explain the message.

Philosophy and plot of the movie

Zoltan Demme revives in his movie the secrets of a 12th-century master painter noted as N.W., and Prometheus Crystallus, the nineteen years old young phenomenon in mathematics and astrology who was sentenced to freeze to death by the Inquisition. His heretic discoveries, as he states them in front of the Inquisition Court, include the following:"The grass, in the reality, is not grass! The tree is rather not a tree, but something else! We see something else, we examine something other than the real existence of things. We see what our eyes show, we examine what our mind reaches! But the true face, the real appearance of the world, we never spot or sense! Up there, the stars in the reality are not stars. Even they dont have light. Up there, the sun, in the reality, is not sun. It doesn’t even shine. But then what are the stars? And what is the sun in the reality? Something that we cannot perceive, because we do not have senses or instruments for perception! Its light, its warmth we perceive! But theyre hundredth-rate, thousandth-rate characteristics of the sun. As Greeks tell, the sun consists of small components, called atoms. But they too are hundredth-rate characteristics of the sun. Same thing with the mountains, trees, grasses! We sense only very, very insignificant elements of them! Color! Smell! Vital functions, and some other nullity! These very insignificant elements we regard as the world! But the true face of the world is fully different from what we sense!"...The entire movie is a journey to the real world that is unavailable for the regular senses and instruments of the human beings. Finally, the Inquisition Court put Prometheus to a winter cemetery and let him freeze to death among the crowd of people who are against his discoveries; and he dies without withdrawing a word of his above-the-human experiences, mathematical and astrological conslusions.

Filming locations and circumstances

The movie was shot partly in 2002 Hermosa Beach, California, in the shore areas, and partly in 1999, in Europe, in Hungary, in the marsh areas of the lake Balaton. High tech animation was added in 2011, and the movie was finished in 2012. However, as known, for the public Zoltan Demme allows to take a glance to his creations firmly just twelve years by twelve years, so the entire movie will be released only this year, together with a couple of new movies, books, and other creations of the author.