Even the Nile has changed course. They were in fact Macedonian Greek, which makes Cleopatra about as Egyptian as Elizabeth Taylor. Cleopatra descended from a long line of murderers and upheld the family tradition, but was for her time and place remarkably well behaved. "Cleopatra was a mistress of disguise and costume," says Fletcher. LG. Copyright 2010. Addthis Share Tools. A first-century A.D. Roman would falsely assert that "ancient writers repeatedly speak of Cleopatra's insatiable libido." When Cleopatra emerged from the carpetprobably somewhat disheveled, but dressed in her best fineryand begged Caesar for aid, the gesture won over Rome's future dictator-for-life. Ptolemy XIII rebelled against the armistice that Caesar had imposed, but in the ensuing civil war he drowned in the Nile, leaving Cleopatra safely in power. Produced by Hallmark Entertainment, it stars Leonor Varela as the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, Timothy Dalton as Julius Caesar, Billy Zane as Mark Antony, Rupert Graves as Octavius, Sean Pertwee as Brutus and Bruce Payne as Cassius. She helpfully illuminated one of the poet Propertius's favorite points: a man in love is a helpless man, painfully subservient to his mistress. For the next 18 years Cleopatra governed the most fertile country in the Mediterranean, guiding it through plague and famine. Interesting! IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Available on Prime Video. Ultimately everyone from Michelangelo to Brecht got a crack at her. She died at 39. Not only did she command an army and navy, negotiate with foreign powers and preside over temples, she also dispensed justice and regulated an economy. Deny submit. The image of young Cleopatra tumbling out of an unfurled carpet has been dramatized in nearly every film about her, from the silent era to a 1999 TV miniseries, but it was also a key scene in the real Cleopatra's staging of her own life. . Its a timeline (via Tremulant Design)that shows what, Read More The Future According to MoviesContinue, 2006 was a terrific year for movies. But unlike her forebears, Cleopatra actually bothered to learn the Egyptian language. Upon hearing of Antony's claim, Octavian wages war against the two lovers. The holes in the story keep us coming back for more. By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. A year later Octavian marched an army to Egypt to extend his rule, claim his spoils and transport the villain of the piece back to Rome, as a prisoner. By trading with Eastern nationsArabia and possibly as far away as Indiashe built up Egypt's economy, bolstering her country's status as a world power. She endures for having seduced two of the greatest men of her time, while her crime was in fact to have entered into the same partnerships that every man in power enjoyed. Aware that Caesar's diplomatic intervention could help her regain the throne, Cleopatra hatched a scheme to sneak herself into the palace for an audience with Caesar. In spending time together, Antony and Cleopatra fall in love. Defying his Roman beliefs against polygamy, Antony marries Cleopatra in Antioch, claiming that her son, Caesarion, is heir to not only Egypt, but also Rome. The poet Horace, writing in the late first century B.C., called her "A crazy queenplottingto demolish the Capitol and topple the [Roman] Empire." Arsinoe and Ptolemy are pursued by Roman forces. The 55-minute soundtrack is composed by Trevor Jones and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. This is the story of the real Cleopatra, told through lavish reconstructions and testimony from the world's leading historians. Privacy Statement Cleopatra (1963) Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 - March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress, businesswoman, and humanitarian. She lost her kingdom once; regained it; nearly lost it again; amassed an empire; lost it all. In February 2007, a recently discovered coin bearing a portrait of Cleopatra went on display at Newcastle University in England, sparking renewed interest in the queen and a debate about whether she was really as beautiful as we imagine. Julie Nathanson (voice) Cleopatra (Late 69 BC - August 12, 30 BC) was one of the most famous queens during Ancient Egypt and the last active pharaoh, only survived by her son, Caesarion as pharaoh. She agrees and asks that her son be allowed to rule Egypt. The struggle with her teenage brother over the throne of Egypt was not going as well as Cleopatra VII had hoped. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. A national membership group of museum friends who share a love of American art and craft and our commitment to celebrating the extraordinary creativity of our nations artists. Print; Object Details Location Currently not on view ID Number GA.15831 catalog number 15831 . Over the next two millennia, countless paintings and dramatizationsincluding Shakespeare'sAntony and Cleopatraand John Dryden'sAll for Lovefocused on the fantastic details of her suicide after Octavian defeated Antony. A paranormal investigator examines locales around the world that are said to be haunted. Florence Nightingale referred to her as "that disgusting Cleopatra." 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In possession of a first-rate education, she played to two constituencies: the Greek elite, who initially viewed her with disfavor, and the native Egyptians, to whom she was a divinity and a pharaoh. Your Privacy Rights Adapted from Cleopatra: A Biography, by Stacy Schiff. Cleopatra stood at one of the most dangerous intersections in history: that of women and power. Todd and his team face the grandeur as well as the hardships of Alaska that included an threatening winter that will halt operations along with their opportunity to strike gold. She had a child with a married man, three more with another. Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery. Director Ben Reid Writer Ben Reid (drama writer) Stars Ellie Goffe Gabriel Lo Giudice Terry Scotchmer I keep looking up (not down) from the caption expecting to see the associated photo. I'm passionate about these things and virtually nothing else. Her 3,000-pound masterwork, "The Death of Cleopatra," commemorated another powerful woman who broke with convention and then the sculpture disappeared. Cleopatra (69 - 30 BCE), the legendary queen of Egypt from 51 to 30 BCE, is often best known for her dramatic suicide, allegedly from the fatal bite of a venomous snake. And the glory of the once-great Ptolemaic empire had dimmed. To read the official historians, it is as if with his return the Italian peninsula burstafter a crippling, ashen century of violenceinto Technicolor, the crops sitting suddenly upright, crisp and plump, in the fields. The latest news, articles, and resources sent to your inbox weekly. After prolonged negotiation, Antony's troops defected to Octavian. By allying herself with Roman general Mark Antony, Cleopatra hoped to keep Octavian, Julius Caesar's heir and Antony's rival, from making Egypt a vassal to Rome. Antony leads Cleopatra's fleet into the legendary Battle of Actium. Here, Edmonia Lewis portrayed Cleopatra in the moment after her death, wearing her royal attire, in majestic repose on a throne. From the Roman point of view, she "enslaved" them both. ", Amy Crawford "She could reinvent herself to suit the occasion, and I think that's a mark of the consummate politician.". Copyright 2023 So too did the Ptolemaic dynasty. 2023 JustWatch - All external content remains the property of the rightful owner. (The king's advisers demurred. Cleopatra ultimately allied herself with Antony, with whom she had three children; together the two appeared to lay out plans for an eastern Roman empire. Cleopatra was one of many works that Margaret Foley completed while suffering symptoms of a brain illness. Nearly a century later, the Roman poet Lucan labeled her "the shame of Egypt, the lascivious fury who was to become the bane of Rome.". A center of intellectual jousting and philosophical marathons, Alexandria remained a vital center of the Mediterranean for a few centuries after Cleopatra's death. WowId love to see some of these films, I never knew Cleopatra had been played so much! She is left to put a vintage label on something we have always known existed: potent female sexuality. Cast silver, jewel encrusted tableau showing Roman soldier in full regalia seated opposite Egyptian woman reclining on couch, and fanned by standing servant; small tripod table to right of couch, holding bowl of fruit or flowers and urn on shelf below. Cleopatra VII ruled Egypt for 21 years a generation before the birth of Christ. We will remember that Cleopatra slept with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony long after we remember what she accomplished in doing so: that she sustained a vast, rich, densely populated empire in its troubled twilight. It was Cleopatra's curse to inspire its great poets, happy to expound on her shame, in a language inhospitable to her. The career that had begun with a brazen act of defiance ended with another; for the second time she slipped through a set of enemy fingers. There are no TV airings over the next 14 days. Then it began to dematerialize. A father and son bring a group of greenhorns to Porcupine Creek, Alaska, to mine for gold in this reality series. Copied Alexandria's magnificent lighthouse, library and museum are all gone. All on rectangular plinth. She nonetheless survives as a wanton temptress, not the first time a genuinely powerful woman has been transmuted into a shamelessly seductive one. Cleopatra was a Macedonian and she would have looked European. Julius Caesar arrived in Alexandria days after Pompey's murder. This film reveals the truth behind the legend. Stacy Schiff won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1999 biography, Vra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov): Portrait of a Marriage. Cookie Policy She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s, and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. Currently you are able to watch "Cleopatra - Smithsonian Documentary" streaming on fuboTV. Though Octavian desecrates Brutus' corpse by severing and displaying his head, creating a rift between him and Mark Antony. It has forever been preferable to attribute a woman's success to her beauty rather than to her brains, to reduce her to the sum of her sex life. Add it to your Watchlist to receive updates and availability notifications. She was raised in the palace of one of history's most ruthless royal families and had to use every skill in her arsenal--her brains, her charm, and her body--in order to survive. he was stabbed and decapitated. Ancient sources make it clear that Cleopatra and Antony did love each other and that Cleopatra bore Antony three children; still, the relationship was also very useful to an Egyptian queen who wished to expand and protect her empire. All rights reserved. Terms of Use For ten generations her family, the Ptolemies, had styled themselves pharaohs. Octavian arrives in Alexandria, demanding that Cleopatra join him in Rome as his prisoner. (2 episodes, 1999) Series Casting By Octavian refuses, but allows Antony to have an Egyptian burial. During her lifetime and in the century after her death, Roman propaganda, most of it originating with her enemy Octavian, painted Cleopatra as a dangerous harlot who employed sex, witchcraft and cunning as she grasped for power beyond what was proper for a woman. Egypt became a province of Rome. Cleopatra has Arsinoe strangled in her cell. A Roman could not pry apart the exotic and the erotic; Cleopatra was a stand-in for the occult, alchemical East, for her sinuous, sensuous land, as perverse and original as its astonishment of a river. Roman general Julius Caesar comes to Alexandria to collect Egypt's tax debt. Offering Claudette Colbert the title role in the 1934 movie, Cecile B. DeMille is said to have asked, "How would you like to be the wickedest woman in history?". The Renaissance was obsessed with her, the Romantics even more so. Yes, I would like to receive email from the Smithsonian. For nearly a century, The Death of Cleopatra was lost, like much of . She may be one of the most recognizable figures in history, but we have little idea what Cleopatra actually looked like. When you go to a movie suspecting one thing, and yet you get something else? She died at 39. A beautiful seductress who used her sex appeal in order to manipulate the most powerful men in the Roman Empire. With her, she brings the couple's infant son. Just before her return to Egypt, Cleopatra soon learns that Caesar has been assassinated at the hands of Brutus, Cassius and other senators. Though Cleopatra bore him a son, Caesar was already married, and Egyptian custom decreed that Cleopatra marry her remaining brother, Ptolemy XIV. I can only imagine how many times shes been depicted on stage and not to mention symbolized in film. Zoom. Cleopatra would unsettle more as sage than as seductress; it is less threatening to believe her fatally attractive than fatally intelligent. Blood and Betrayal. We remember her, too, for the wrong reasons. You might consider strapping on this LEGO facehugger. Streaming, rent, or buy Cleopatra - Smithsonian Documentary - Season 1: Currently you are able to watch "Cleopatra - Smithsonian Documentary - Season 1" streaming on fuboTV. He barricaded himself in the Ptolemies' palace, the home from which Cleopatra had been exiled. She lost her kingdom once; regained it; nearly lost it again; amassed an empire; lost it all. Apple TV & Privacy Hope you enjoy my musings! Want to learn more about the painting you found while clearing out the attic? Judy Farr, Martin Hitchcock and Frank Walsh were nominated for an Emmy in 1999 for outstanding art direction for a miniseries or a movie for their work on Cleopatra. You forgot a very important one. Against a powerful enchantress there is no contest. Caesar comes under fire from the Roman Senate and his critic Brutus due to a crisis in Pontus. Soundly defeated, Cleopatra could negotiate only the form of her surrender. With all domestic threats removed, Cleopatra set about the business of ruling Egypt, the richest nation in the Mediterranean world, and the last to remain independent of Rome. Pharaoh Cleopatra VII was a brilliant leader, says Joann Fletcher. She barricaded herself in a vast seaside mausoleum. She elicited scorn and envy in equal and equally distorting measure; her story is constructed as much of male fear as of fantasy. In the process, both Cassius and Brutus commit suicide. Season 4 12.11.2019 Edmonia Lewis was the first sculptor of African American and Native American (Mississauga) descent to achieve international fame. With it went Egypt's unusual legal autonomy for women; the days of suing your father-in-law for the return of your dowry when your husband ran off with another woman were over. ", Cleopatra's beauty (or lack thereof) was irrelevant to the Romans who knew her and the Egyptian people she ruled. Serious movie or not, you forgot Julia Taylor! For more information, visit the Smithsonian's, International media Interoperability Framework. There was a revolutionary surgery that was able to heal most of Darth Vaders limbs, but while he was under the knife, he requested that the robot doctors make one little adjustment in addition to, Read More Post-Op Vader Out for a StrollContinue, Anyone still thinking of what they want to go as for Halloween? Octavian had rescued Rome from great peril. For answers, be prepared for a little detective work. Learn how your comment data is processed. To solidify her grip on the throne, she dispatched her rebellious sister Arsinoe as well. If the name is indelible, the image is blurry. The siren call of the East long predated her, but no matter: she hailed from the intoxicating land of sex and excess. Octavian prevailed. By the Roman definition she had at last done something right; finally it was to Cleopatra's credit that she had defied the expectations of her sex. She was a carnal sinner for Dante, for Dryden a poster child for unlawful love. 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