Alexander the Great was an objectively terrible person. The 4th century Bce Macedonian king and military leader came to power when his father was assassinated, and immediately had any rivals for the throne killed. When Alexander executed a man who had conspired against him, he had the man’s father killed as well, just to make sure he could not try to avenge his son. This might be explained away as a powerful ruler doing what was necessary to protect himself, but that does not excuse his murder of Cleitus – a man who had earlier saved his life – in a drunken rage. Alexander’s stated aim was to conquer the whole world, something that should surely make him a villain in any version of his story. Emperors who kill and take over other people’s land are usually the bad guys.
And yet, we are obsessed with him, and have been for over 2,000 years.
And yet, we are obsessed with him, and have been for over 2,000 years.
- 2/14/2024
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
When I was recently spending time with my 5-year-old nephew, he asked me, "When you were a kid, did you have your own phone?"
Startled by the question, initially I wasn't sure how to answer him. As a Gen Xer who grew up in the 1980s and '90s, my concept of a phone when I was his age was completely different from his today. "Nobody had their own phone," I replied. "Cell phones did not exist when I was your age."
As he opened his mouth wide in disbelief, I was reminded of reignited debates around Cleopatra's race that have emerged with Netflix's depiction of Egypt's last pharaoh in "Queen Cleopatra." This docuseries is part of the African Queens collection, with Jada Pinkett-Smith as executive producer. "Queen Cleopatra" stars Adele James - a light brown-skinned British actress who has a white mother and a Black father - as the famous monarch.
Startled by the question, initially I wasn't sure how to answer him. As a Gen Xer who grew up in the 1980s and '90s, my concept of a phone when I was his age was completely different from his today. "Nobody had their own phone," I replied. "Cell phones did not exist when I was your age."
As he opened his mouth wide in disbelief, I was reminded of reignited debates around Cleopatra's race that have emerged with Netflix's depiction of Egypt's last pharaoh in "Queen Cleopatra." This docuseries is part of the African Queens collection, with Jada Pinkett-Smith as executive producer. "Queen Cleopatra" stars Adele James - a light brown-skinned British actress who has a white mother and a Black father - as the famous monarch.
- 6/8/2023
- by Chinyere Osuji
- Popsugar.com
If you enjoyed Netflix’s docudrama Queen Cleopatra, you might be in the mood for a fully fictionalised dramatization of Cleopatra’s story, or for something else set around the same time period and following some of the same people. If so, we have got you covered!
We’ve given each of these series an “accuracy rating” to indicate how near or far they are to reality, but these should be taken with a bit of a pinch of salt, as a general guideline only. Real life ancient history’s relationship to TV and film versions of it is pretty much the same as the relationship between George Rr Martin’s Fire and Blood and the TV adaptation House of the Dragon. Fire and Blood is a pretend history, and it provides several different versions of events from different sources, with little to no indication which one is the “truth.
We’ve given each of these series an “accuracy rating” to indicate how near or far they are to reality, but these should be taken with a bit of a pinch of salt, as a general guideline only. Real life ancient history’s relationship to TV and film versions of it is pretty much the same as the relationship between George Rr Martin’s Fire and Blood and the TV adaptation House of the Dragon. Fire and Blood is a pretend history, and it provides several different versions of events from different sources, with little to no indication which one is the “truth.
- 5/13/2023
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
This post contains spoilers for the second episode of "Yellowjackets" season 2.
Well, it finally happened. After a full season spent alluding to potential acts of cannibalism that took place during the Yellowjackets' time in the wilderness, the second season of the hit Showtime series dove right in with a dark feast featuring long-dead Jackie (Ella Purnell) as the main course.
After Shauna's (Sophie Nélisse) ear snack last week, "Yellowjackets" finally broached the topic of cannibalism at the end of the new season's second episode, in a scene that makes the desperate measure seem at once disgusting, divine, and eerily understandable. It's a nearly wordless scene that begins when a strong smell wakes up the girls inside the cabin. They attempted to cremate Jackie's body, and the smell of her charred flesh hits their nostrils like the aroma of a backyard barbecue. "She wants us to," hungry, pregnant Shauna says...
Well, it finally happened. After a full season spent alluding to potential acts of cannibalism that took place during the Yellowjackets' time in the wilderness, the second season of the hit Showtime series dove right in with a dark feast featuring long-dead Jackie (Ella Purnell) as the main course.
After Shauna's (Sophie Nélisse) ear snack last week, "Yellowjackets" finally broached the topic of cannibalism at the end of the new season's second episode, in a scene that makes the desperate measure seem at once disgusting, divine, and eerily understandable. It's a nearly wordless scene that begins when a strong smell wakes up the girls inside the cabin. They attempted to cremate Jackie's body, and the smell of her charred flesh hits their nostrils like the aroma of a backyard barbecue. "She wants us to," hungry, pregnant Shauna says...
- 3/31/2023
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
One of the most fascinating elements of Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky" series is how each movie is a reflection of where the star was at that moment in his career. Over the course of eight films (including the two "Creed" movies in which he appeared), Stallone is critically examining his success, be it skyrocketing to ludicrous extremes (in "Rocky III") or direly on the wane (in "Rocky V"). Though his private life is another, far more complicated matter, it's rare to see a massive celebrity wrestle so honestly with his public persona. He's leveling with us because he knows how much we love The Italian Stallion. You're rooting for both Stallone and Rocky to come out on top every time. Well, almost every time.
This is a lesson Sly learned in the immediate wake of "Rocky." There's no more emphatic validation of one's artistic vision than delivering the year's top-grossing...
This is a lesson Sly learned in the immediate wake of "Rocky." There's no more emphatic validation of one's artistic vision than delivering the year's top-grossing...
- 2/22/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Click here to read the full article.
Harry Potter stars Alfred Enoch and Bonnie Wright are among those lending their voices to narrate the audiobook of Alan Rickman’s Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman.
In Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman, releasing on Oct. 18, volumes of diary entries written by the late actor running from 1993 to his death in 2016 are shared in which Rickman candidly details his life and career. From inside his home to the sets of films and plays including Sense and Sensibility, Die Hard, the Harry Potter franchise to Noël Coward’s Private Lives and the final film he directed, A Little Chaos, Rickman’s diaries offer insight into both his private and public life.
“Reading them is like listening to Rickman chatting to a close companion. Meet Rickman the consummate professional actor, but also the friend, the traveler, the fan, the director, the enthusiast; in short,...
Harry Potter stars Alfred Enoch and Bonnie Wright are among those lending their voices to narrate the audiobook of Alan Rickman’s Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman.
In Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman, releasing on Oct. 18, volumes of diary entries written by the late actor running from 1993 to his death in 2016 are shared in which Rickman candidly details his life and career. From inside his home to the sets of films and plays including Sense and Sensibility, Die Hard, the Harry Potter franchise to Noël Coward’s Private Lives and the final film he directed, A Little Chaos, Rickman’s diaries offer insight into both his private and public life.
“Reading them is like listening to Rickman chatting to a close companion. Meet Rickman the consummate professional actor, but also the friend, the traveler, the fan, the director, the enthusiast; in short,...
- 9/29/2022
- by Lexy Perez
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
We meet them even before Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds can exchange their first quip, and well ahead of Gal Gadot’s big entrance: Cleopatra’s eggs, beautiful and bejeweled golden idols that apparently have driven fortune seekers mad for millennia. In Red Notice’s opening prologue, we are informed that these three diamond-encrusted prizes were gifted by Marc Antony to Cleopatra ahead of their wedding at the end of the Ptolemaic Dynasty’s rule over ancient Egypt.
Lost to the sands of time after Cleopatra and Antony’s deaths, and the fall of Egypt to Rome, these eggs were allegedly thought to be myth until the first was discovered in the 20th century… and then the last in the 21st by no less than Deadpool in a safari outfit. It’s an amusing MacGuffin for the film, which has caused many to ask if these lost treasures are real.
Lost to the sands of time after Cleopatra and Antony’s deaths, and the fall of Egypt to Rome, these eggs were allegedly thought to be myth until the first was discovered in the 20th century… and then the last in the 21st by no less than Deadpool in a safari outfit. It’s an amusing MacGuffin for the film, which has caused many to ask if these lost treasures are real.
- 11/15/2021
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
This article contains spoilers for WandaVision episode 9.
Much of WandaVision’s ninth and final episode, fittingly titled “The Series Finale”, centers on a good old-fashioned synthezoid battle. In one corner, you have The Vision, lovingly recreated by Wanda Maximoff’s Mind Stone-infused powers. In the other corner is The White Vision, hatefully brought back to life by billions upon billions of the U.S. government’s dollars (and some fairy dust).
The two Visions’ battle takes them through every corner of the hex surrounding Westview, destroying oodles of property in the process. It seems as though the two Visions are so well-matched that this battle will never end. But that’s when our familiar red Vision decides to engage White Vision with Facts and Logic instead of pure might.
“Are you familiar with the thought experiment, ‘The Ship of Theseus?’ in the field of identity metaphysics?” Vision asks White Vision.
“Naturally,...
Much of WandaVision’s ninth and final episode, fittingly titled “The Series Finale”, centers on a good old-fashioned synthezoid battle. In one corner, you have The Vision, lovingly recreated by Wanda Maximoff’s Mind Stone-infused powers. In the other corner is The White Vision, hatefully brought back to life by billions upon billions of the U.S. government’s dollars (and some fairy dust).
The two Visions’ battle takes them through every corner of the hex surrounding Westview, destroying oodles of property in the process. It seems as though the two Visions are so well-matched that this battle will never end. But that’s when our familiar red Vision decides to engage White Vision with Facts and Logic instead of pure might.
“Are you familiar with the thought experiment, ‘The Ship of Theseus?’ in the field of identity metaphysics?” Vision asks White Vision.
“Naturally,...
- 3/5/2021
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
Warning: contains mild plot details for A Discovery of Witches Season 2 Episodes 2 & 3
Alongside the sulky real-life Elizabethan playwrights and gruff spymasters of A Discovery of Witches’ second season shines one leading light: Mary Sidney. Styled the Countess of Pembroke following her 1577 marriage to Henry Herbert, Mary Sidney was a celebrated figure in Tudor society with several published works to her name, and close connections to the royal court of Queen Elizabeth I.
Played in the series by Amanda Hale, Mary Sidney becomes Diana’s ally during her and Matthew’s Elizabethan time-walk. A beneficiary of the fashion for aristocratic women’s education in the mid-sixteenth century, the Countess is Diana’s intellectual equal, and makes a useful companion for the history of science professor. Born in 1561, Mary Sidney would have been around Diana’s age when they meet in 1590. She conducts alchemical experiments with ‘Mistress Roydon’, aids in her search for the Book of Life,...
Alongside the sulky real-life Elizabethan playwrights and gruff spymasters of A Discovery of Witches’ second season shines one leading light: Mary Sidney. Styled the Countess of Pembroke following her 1577 marriage to Henry Herbert, Mary Sidney was a celebrated figure in Tudor society with several published works to her name, and close connections to the royal court of Queen Elizabeth I.
Played in the series by Amanda Hale, Mary Sidney becomes Diana’s ally during her and Matthew’s Elizabethan time-walk. A beneficiary of the fashion for aristocratic women’s education in the mid-sixteenth century, the Countess is Diana’s intellectual equal, and makes a useful companion for the history of science professor. Born in 1561, Mary Sidney would have been around Diana’s age when they meet in 1590. She conducts alchemical experiments with ‘Mistress Roydon’, aids in her search for the Book of Life,...
- 1/13/2021
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
On February 14th, 1970, the Who, in their post-Tommy prime, played a concert at the University of Leeds that engineer Bob Pridden captured on an eight-track recorder – it would form the basis for Live at Leeds, one of the most powerful live albums ever made. On the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Pridden shares memories of recording that show and touring with the Who for decades, and then Rob Sheffield and Andy Greene join host Brian Hiatt to share their picks for the greatest live albums of all time,...
- 2/25/2020
- by Brian Hiatt
- Rollingstone.com
The Little Song ‘n’ Dance Show that Could, this over-achieving Jack Cummings production is a bright exception to the dull waning days of the MGM musical, due to many factors but especially Michael Kidd’s athletic choreography. And it’s been restored in both of its simultaneously-filmed versions, flat-widescreen and CinemaScope.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Two- disc Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1954 / Color / 1:77 widescreen + 2:55 anamorphic 16:9 (separate versions) /
102 min. / Street Date June 5, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Jane Powell, Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall, Marc Platt, Matt Mattox, Jacques d’Amboise, Julie Newmeyer (Newmar), Nancy Kilgas, Betty Carr, Virginia Gibson, Ruta Kilmonis (Lee), Norma Doggett.
Cinematography: George Folsey
Choreography: Michael Kidd
Film Editor: Ralph E. Winters
Original Music: Gene de Paul, Johnny Mercer
Written by Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich, Dorothy Kingsley from the story The Sobbin’ Women by Stephen Vincent Benet
Produced by Jack Cummings...
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Two- disc Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1954 / Color / 1:77 widescreen + 2:55 anamorphic 16:9 (separate versions) /
102 min. / Street Date June 5, 2018 / available through the WBshop / 21.99
Starring: Jane Powell, Howard Keel, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall, Marc Platt, Matt Mattox, Jacques d’Amboise, Julie Newmeyer (Newmar), Nancy Kilgas, Betty Carr, Virginia Gibson, Ruta Kilmonis (Lee), Norma Doggett.
Cinematography: George Folsey
Choreography: Michael Kidd
Film Editor: Ralph E. Winters
Original Music: Gene de Paul, Johnny Mercer
Written by Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich, Dorothy Kingsley from the story The Sobbin’ Women by Stephen Vincent Benet
Produced by Jack Cummings...
- 5/29/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
As the first part of season 3 is coming to a close, Shadowhunters’ last few episodes have focused on the main plot arc leading to what is expected to be an explosive finale, before the series comes back from its summer hiatus in September. Unsurprisingly, the main storyline revolves around Jace again, the series’ straight, white macho-in-distress.
This denotes not only a lack of creativity and will to challenge their own limits by the writers’ room, but has also meant the resurgence of problematic narratives that have followed the show since its inception and resurface from time to time, especially in connection to Jace and his relationship with Alec, Magnus and their romantic relationship.
While in name Jace and Alec are supposed to have a close, ‘brotherly’ bond, the show depicts a profoundly unequal, toxic relationship, aggravated by Jace’s disdain for Downworlders, his racist attitudes towards Magnus and a homophobic...
This denotes not only a lack of creativity and will to challenge their own limits by the writers’ room, but has also meant the resurgence of problematic narratives that have followed the show since its inception and resurface from time to time, especially in connection to Jace and his relationship with Alec, Magnus and their romantic relationship.
While in name Jace and Alec are supposed to have a close, ‘brotherly’ bond, the show depicts a profoundly unequal, toxic relationship, aggravated by Jace’s disdain for Downworlders, his racist attitudes towards Magnus and a homophobic...
- 5/9/2018
- by Martina Di Folco
- TVfanatic
There is a sumptuousness and exotic look and feel to the Ancient Egyptian culture that I have always been drawn to. The clothing, décor, architecture – it has always been utterly fascinating and their monarchies and dynasties are as rich as any in Europe. One of the best biographies I read in the last few years was Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra, which mined all known existing records about the Queen and attempts to weave together the most likely version of her storied life and death.
On the other hand, the 1963 spectacle of the same name merely adapted Plutarch’s version of events. Today, Cleopatra has become shorthand for a bloated misfire of a film and is always cited as the one that nearly caused 20th Century-Fox to crumble. The studio survived and has had the last laugh, making a fortune off the film ever since. Out now is the overdue Blu-ray...
On the other hand, the 1963 spectacle of the same name merely adapted Plutarch’s version of events. Today, Cleopatra has become shorthand for a bloated misfire of a film and is always cited as the one that nearly caused 20th Century-Fox to crumble. The studio survived and has had the last laugh, making a fortune off the film ever since. Out now is the overdue Blu-ray...
- 6/4/2013
- by Robert Greenberger
- Comicmix.com
The Joseph L Mankiewicz epic of Egyptian love has brains as well as beauty. But it's not just Elizabeth Taylor who's treated to great skirts and scrupulous grooming
Director: Joseph L Mankiewicz
Entertainment grade: C+
History grade: A–
Cleopatra VII was the last pharaoh of Egypt. She has been remembered often in fiction for her relationships with the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, and the general Mark Antony.
People
The film begins with Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison)'s defeat of Pompey and journey to Egypt. The boy pharaoh, Ptolemy Xiii, gives Caesar Pompey's signet ring, together with a big jar containing the rest of Pompey. Caesar is totally grossed out. Ptolemy's estranged sister and co-regent, Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor), gives the Roman leader a better gift: herself, wrapped up in a rug. This comes from the historian Plutarch. Spying on Caesar afterwards, Cleopatra sees him suffer what the ancients called "the falling sickness": an epileptic fit.
Director: Joseph L Mankiewicz
Entertainment grade: C+
History grade: A–
Cleopatra VII was the last pharaoh of Egypt. She has been remembered often in fiction for her relationships with the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, and the general Mark Antony.
People
The film begins with Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison)'s defeat of Pompey and journey to Egypt. The boy pharaoh, Ptolemy Xiii, gives Caesar Pompey's signet ring, together with a big jar containing the rest of Pompey. Caesar is totally grossed out. Ptolemy's estranged sister and co-regent, Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor), gives the Roman leader a better gift: herself, wrapped up in a rug. This comes from the historian Plutarch. Spying on Caesar afterwards, Cleopatra sees him suffer what the ancients called "the falling sickness": an epileptic fit.
- 3/31/2011
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
Fashion inevitably looks to history to interpret and re-interpret previous fashion trends. At the recent SAG Awards, I noticed 2 Egyptian-influenced dresses, worn by Toni Collette and Nicole Kidman: Toni Collette at SAG Awards, 2010: Nicole Kidman wearing Oscar de la Renta, SAG Awards 2010: As I'm never content to stay in the current era for long, let's go back 100 years to trace a century of Egyptomania... The Egyptian style has been adopted and interpreted by practically every generation. Cleopatra (69Bc - 30Bc) has always held special fascination for people. Documented by writers Plutarch and Casius Dio, the lady was "a woman of surpassing beauty, and at that time, when she was in the prime of her youth, she was most striking; she also possessed a most charming voice and knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to every one. Being brilliant to...
- 2/4/2010
- by Tove Hermanson
- Huffington Post
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