‘An Almost All Greek Thing’: Cleopatra VII and Hollywood Imagination
‘An Almost All Greek Thing’: Cleopatra VII and Hollywood Imagination
This chapter explores the Hollywood creation of history's most famous woman — Cleopatra VII, queen of Egypt. Of Macedonian ancestry and very much a product of the cultural norms of Hellenistic Greece, Cleopatra ruled her rich kingdom with authority and zeal. But Hollywood, following centuries-worth of tradition, wrote Cleopatra's Hellenic heritage out of the picture, as much as her striking political acumen was overlooked too. Instead the Cleopatras of Hollywood cinema are exotic sex-sirens: beautiful, cunning, seductive, and, ultimately tragic. The chapter explores three of Cleopatra's Hollywood incarnations (of 1917, 1934, and 1962) and assesses the films' narratives of her life. In particular, it explores the queen's visualisation in terms of production design, sets, and costumes, questioning if Hollywood ever expressed or toyed with the historical queen's essential Greekness.
Keywords: Cleopatra VII, Egypt, Hellenistic Greece, Hellenic heritage, sex-sirens, production design, sets, costumes, Hollywood
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