2024-07-15 10:03:24
After Caesar’s assassination, Octavianus, not Caesar’s son Caesarion, is named as the successor, and Cleopatra returns to Egypt. Marcus Antonius, one of Caesar’s confidants, meets Cleopatra in Egypt and falls in love with her. However, in order to secure his position in Rome, he marries Octavianus’s sister Octavia. When Cleopatra hears this news, she is furious. A year later, when they meet again, Antonius agrees to Cleopatra’s demand for a portion of the Roman Empire and divorces Octavia. Octavianus uses this as an excuse to declare war on Antony. When Antony’s ships are burned in the Battle of Actium, Cleopatra assumes that he is dead and orders the Egyptian army to retreat. As Antony follows her, the morale of the army drops, and Antony’s army is eventually defeated. Antony returns to the palace and commits suicide, dying in Cleopatra’s arms, and Cleopatra also commits suicide.
◆ subject:
This is the story of Cleopatra’s life, which stood in the midst of the breathtaking historical events from the era of Caesar to the triumvirate of Octavianus, Antony, and Lepidus, and until Octavianus emerged as the ultimate victor and laid the foundation for becoming the first emperor of Rome. Cleopatra, who devoted herself to her love for the most powerful men of her time, Caesar and Antony, and her political desire to take over Rome and the world, established herself as an indispensable protagonist in the history of her time.
◆ Points to note:
As it was a masterpiece with an unprecedented production cost of 44 million dollars (currently 320 million dollars), its scale and splendidness are extraordinary. In particular, the grandeur of several scenes with numerous extras, such as the costumes, art direction, and Cleopatra’s entry into Rome, is still admirable even today. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 4 categories: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Effects. The original theatrical edit by director Mankiewicz amounted to a total of 6 hours. It is such a massive work, and it is also a work that fully embodies the golden age of Hollywood, to the point that some critics say it is a scale that will never be seen again. The response after its release was mixed, but it is generally evaluated as a work that depicts the situation of the time well without distorting it.
◆ director:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz was born on February 11, 1909 in Pennsylvania, USA. He moved to New York City as a child with his German Jewish parents. After graduating from Columbia University, he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune in Germany. He then entered the film industry as a producer and writer for MGM and Paramount. At that time, he participated as a producer. <필라델피아 스토리(1940)>was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and received favorable reviews. He then made his directorial debut at 20th Century Fox in 1946, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1950 and 1951. <세 부인에게 보낸 편지>and <이브의 모든 것>He won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay and Best Director for his work. He has continued to work steadily since then, and the major works he has directed include <율리우스 카이사르(1953)>, <맨발의 백작부인(1954)>, <지난 여름 갑자기(1959)>, <클레오파트라(1963)>, <발자국(1972)> He died in 1993 at the age of 83.
EBS1’s ‘Sunday Cinema’, a program that shows carefully selected classic films, airs every Sunday at 1:20 PM.
Reporter Kim Kyung-eun Photo = EBS Sunday Cinema
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2024-07-15 10:03:24