Looking at Luc’s previous comments, I actually regarded this film as a “Rome blockbuster” in the golden age of Hollywood and looked forward to it. The result was quite unexpected.
Although there are full-screen robes and large sleeves and marble buildings, it was never possible to make such a movie in Hollywood back then.
One of the new ideas is the female perspective. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that there is a "female perspective" inscribed in the DNA of women in the world. Although many feminists love to talk about this, I just say that this film reflects the times from the perspective of a woman. Hipatia didn't care about the sex of the body at all. She threw the rags stained with menstrual blood in front of Orestes, and shattered the youth's wishful thinking with the ugliness of the body. She believes that only spiritual pursuit is the only way to lead to perfection. This is the charm of the ancient Greek rational spirit.
When I talk about the novelty of the female perspective, I mean the use of female characters to play an epic blockbuster. This was rarely seen in the Hollywood blockbusters of the year (except for a limited number of movies such as "Cleopatra" and "Joan of Arc"). The bronze-like complexion and crystal-clear sweat of men are, according to Roland Barthes, an eternal part of Roman mythology. But "City Square" tells not the history of men showing hormones, but the herstory of women's pursuit of harmony and perfection.
The second new idea is the portrayal of Christians. The stories that took place in the huge Roman Empire are always reminiscent of religious legends such as "Binxu", "Ten Commandments", and "Holy Robe Qianqiu". In fact, there were also believers of Manichaeism, Judaism and Roman polytheism who lived in the Roman Empire that year. Those Hollywood religious stories reflect nothing more than the Christianized Western society’s imagination of its own history. In the early years, the visualization of these folk tales, like "Confucius" and "Wu Xun Zhuan", used some folk oral moral stories to connect with the public and complete the reproduction of mainstream social values.
And "City Square" not only does not beautify the Christians, but also exposes their narrow and brutal side in history. Of course, polytheism is not much better, but after all, Roman polytheism has gone with the wind, and the criticism of Christianity is relevant to the present. In relation to the ethnic and religious conflicts in Europe today, Amamba's appeal can be said to be well-intentioned.
Checking the wiki, Hypatia in history died a hundred times more miserable than in the movie. It is said that he was taken from a carriage by Christians, dragged to the Caesareum church, skinned and chopped alive, and his limbs were burned alive. In the film, she was suffocated by Daus, which took care of the nerves of the audience.
In the courtship scene of Orestes, with the sound of the flute, the film stretched the lens to the "super-large panorama" of the universe. At first glance, it seemed strange. After watching a lot later, I realized that this is the director's contrast between the vastness and order of the universe and the freedom of the world. Big and disturbing. Including the conflict between polytheists and Christians, the angle of view from a high altitude was also used. Like Kurosawa Akira's "Ran", it is pitying the cruelty of the world. The difference is that Amamba did not add the subjective lens of looking up at the sky accordingly, and expressed his high-profile intentions a little irritably.
The CG technology in this film is used to carry the intention without departing from the real situation, which is considered relatively good. However, it is far more than these technical aspects that can hold up the title of "epic movie". The film's meticulous presentation of the life of the Romans is amazing. Food, sports, education, and entertainment all have fine expressions, which shows the development of Western Roman historiography. It is still very early for China to achieve this. It seems that the road to endure the harassment of bad costumes is still in the foreseeable future.
In my opinion, the only shortcoming of the film is that it overemphasizes the academic advancement of Hypatia. From the perspective of ancient scholarship, it is often a mixture of witchcraft, mathematics, and science, even among rational Greek philosophers. Overemphasizing the co-production of her achievements with today’s science and technology can certainly strengthen the use of today’s rationality to break religious obsessions, but it may bury the truth of history—is it possible that a witch who never sells her beliefs is not as noble as a female scientist Is it? In fact, scientific reason is the biggest cult today.
Rachel is said to be a graduate of Cambridge University. Despite this, perhaps the impression of being big-headed in "The Mummy" is too deep. I always have the indecent association of butcher embroidery for her acting in this kind of intellectual role. . In fact, she did well on her quiet side, but she always acted like a female high school student at a loss when she explained her opinions in front of others. This may be a deliberate design, but in history, it is said that Hipatia was "lazy to meet strangers, but he was also generous in front of a group of men"!
The symbol of the Egyptian Coptic Church appears many times in the film. I can't help but imagine whether the European religious circles will be able to relax a little bit because this movie criticizes the Coptic "heresy"? wait for verification.
I have always believed that there are just as many movies as there are audiences. From the fact that this movie has gained popularity in the European box office, it can already be seen that the quality of European audiences is high. The women's movement, post-modern historiography, and multiculturalism have blossomed in the film market, enough to accommodate this unique "humanistic epic". The reflection on religious paranoia shows that the director is not only concerned about the ethnic conflicts in Europe, but also has his own firm stand like Hypatia. This movie that criticizes religious bigotry was born in Spain, where religious trials have been the worst in history. Isn't it a wonderful coupling?
What about us? Could it be that others have seen the thorns in their eyes, but we still can't see the beams in our own eyes?
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