Ptolemaic Egypt, 48 BC. Cleopatra is the joint ruler of the kingdom with her brother Ptolemy XIII, but his assistant Pothinus has Cleopatra and follower Apollodorus kidnapped and tied to a pole in the desert. When Roman General Julius Caesar arrives with his army, Cleopatra manages to return to Alexandria, hiden inside a rug, and seduce him. Thanks to his inclination, Roman soldiers defeat Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra becomes the sole ruler. In Rome, just as he was about to be declared emperor, Caesar is killed in an assassination, and thus Cleopatra returns to Alexandria. Roman proconsul Mark Antony meets Cleopatra in 41 BC, and they start a relationship. Octavian sends Roman soldiers to attack Egypt under the charges that Antony is disloyal to Rome and controlled by Cleopatra. At the Battle at Actium, Antony is defeated and commits suicide with a sword. Cleopatra kills herself with a snake bite.
Cecil B. DeMille's 7th sound film and the 5th film adapatation of the life of Cleopatra in the history of cinema, this historical drama did not age well and feels, just like most of DeMille's big epics, rather dated by today's standards, and even rushed, yet it still has enough charm and spark to engage the viewers. Most of the appeal is found in Claudette Colbert who is an unusual, yet still charismatic and energetic choice to play the famous last queen of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty. The best comparison could be made with Mankiewicz's twice as longer film "Cleopatra" filmed 29 years later: both follow the same story, yet while Mankiewicz was stronger in quiet drama and weaker in staging scenes of spectacle, DeMille is stronger in his sense for the epic, yet weaker when just following the drama which feels less exciting. The intro is stylistic (a woman stands in front of the camera in a semi-silhouette, seemingly topless, whereas the camera rotates around a statue of a bird with the pedestal holding all the opening credits engraved on it from all sides), while the opening sequence of a kidnapped Cleopatra being brought in carriages to be tied to a pole in the middle of the desert also has aesthetic shot compositions which surpass Mankiewicz. However, this is followed by a rather boring dialogue-heavy middle part of the film, when "Cleopatra" starts to run on 'autopilot' and everything becomes too routine and standard. There are still some interesting moments left, such as when Cleopatra shows her funny side in one scene with Antony (she is drunk and has a hiccup, but insists that "a queen can not have a hiccup"), or her tough side when she has a criminal executed by having him drink poison, yet the movie doesn't lift-off again all until the fantastic, excitingly staged sequence of the battle between the Roman and Egyptian forces in the finale (great images of attack carriages arriving over the desert horizon while the defenders are crouching on the lower side of the frame; dozens of spears passing by a statue; soldiers fighting and falling dead in the desert sand).
Grade:++
No comments:
Post a Comment