The Fly (1958)

While the movie did have elements of horror, it seemed more akin to a Greek tragedy than a "monster movie". The parallels to Antigone as mentioned in class are justified, as Helene Delambre tells her story to Francois Delambre and Insp. Charas and finally pleads with them to kill the fly as it is an abomination. Insp. Charas' killing of The Fly at the end of the movie, shows that like the play Antigone supports, there are some things that exist above the laws of man. All of the references to table manners throughout the movie (including the champagne that Andre sends through the teleporter to celebrate) and the fact that the creature is a fly (with all the images of decay, death and rotting food) make me believe this was a conscious effort by the writer and director to add another layer to the story. But what is the significance that Andre becomes a Fly, misses meals with his family most of the time, hides in his laboratory and drinks (beneath a cover) through his fly proboscis and Helene is shown so consciously serving tea in her perfect little tea set? I think these images were used to heighten the awareness that the rules of society (with all the etiquette it requires for the table) were being subverted by Andrea in his pursuit of knowledge. Not only did this pursuit take him away from his family and the rest of society when he locked himself up for weeks on his experiment (and also resulted in his son Phillippe always searching for his father like a modern day Telemachus - literally with a net at times) but took him down a path that perverted nature. Andre even takes the family's pet cat (some people feel their animals are a part of their family) and winds up killing it in the name of one of his experiments.

If you were to argue that society starts with the beginning of soap and cleanliness (Freud) then the image of the unclean fly seems perfect as one to oppose the clean table manners of society.

This is why the film seemed less like a horror film and more like a Greek tragedy. The family that was not whole at the beginning of the film due to the father's absence (and hubris) is restored only once the mother kills her husband. The last scene of the film has Francois take the role of his dead brother (he had admitted feelings for his brother's wife earlier in the film but had seemed to shut himself off from society's need for a family while pinning for his brother's wife) and the three: mother, new father and child walk off together as the screen fades to black. Society's norms have been restored by the death of the individual that didn't follow its rules. This is were the power of the film comes from; the other layers (including the guy with the Fly mask on) make for powerful images (what better creature to represent decay and uncleanliness than a fly?) and perhaps is what most people remember, but the film would have been just a "B" horror film without all the other wonderful layers the writer and director added to the story.