I managed to miss all of the build up to this. Cannes last night was host to Agora, the Alejandro Amenabar-directed film on the fourth century philospher and mathematician Hypatia. Reviews are generally favourable. Here is The Holywood Reporter:
The heart of the film is Hypatia (Rachel Weisz in an unfaltering
performance), the fourth century AD philosopher and teacher who
lived in Alexandria during the Roman Empire. Married only to her
unquenchable intellect and passion for mathematics and astronomy,
she is loved by two men: her slave, Davus (Max Minghella), and her
student, Orestes (Oscar Isaac).
Politics in the film are weakest during the overtly political speeches and monologues, and best captured in the details. Like many, Davus seeks not spiritual salvation in the Christian uprising but freedom from slavery, despite the bloodshed. His first attempt at prayer is brilliant: Unable to remember the Lord's Prayer, he quickly falls into a mantra to God to keep Hypatia away from Orestes. For his part, Orestes will renounce paganism and convert to Christianity during his rise in Roman politics.
Politics in the film are weakest during the overtly political speeches and monologues, and best captured in the details. Like many, Davus seeks not spiritual salvation in the Christian uprising but freedom from slavery, despite the bloodshed. His first attempt at prayer is brilliant: Unable to remember the Lord's Prayer, he quickly falls into a mantra to God to keep Hypatia away from Orestes. For his part, Orestes will renounce paganism and convert to Christianity during his rise in Roman politics.
There is of course a modern parallel. The fight against fundamentalism. The LA Times goes into that:
Even though the film is set in a sword-and-sandal era, it has a more
modern air to it, perhaps because Amenabar felt the images should have
a sense of immediacy. "I tried to think of what it would've been like
to have been a CNN news crew who had traveled in time, back to the 4th
century AD. I wanted to inhale the atmosphere of Alexandria, the
competing factions and all the tumult and violence. So the way we would
place the camera would be like a TV crew shooting a violent mob scene
for real. I wanted what happened 1,600 years ago to feel just as real
-- and more importantly, just as cruel -- as if it were today."
See also a wire report at AP and a blog report at the Telegraph. I have resisted using a gratuitous shot of Rachel Weisz. Sigh.
UPDATE: Armarium Magnus has dealt with the subject of Hypatia in enviable detail.
As much as I like Ms Weisz and as much as I welcome the idea of a movie set in the Fifth Century (one that isn't fantasy about King Arthur anyway), this one looks like it's perpetuating Gibbon's myth that Hypatia was some noble martyr for science and wonderfulness.
Apparently the film says she was an atheist. As an atheist myself, I'd have no problem with that, except for the fact that a neo-Platonic atheist is a bit hard to swallow. And while there is no doubt she was a revered scientist, there is NO evidence that this had anything to do with her lynching, which was a purely political affair - vengeance against Orestes for his torture and murder of one of Cyril's followers.
An ugly incident it certainly was. But a triumph of fundamentalism over science it was not. The film also apparently begins with Hypatia rescuing manuscripts from the Great Library before it's torched by more wicked Christians. So another Emnlightenment myth is going to be given new legs.
I can't say I'm looking forward to this polemical hijacking of history at all.
Posted by: Tim O'Neill | May 19, 2009 at 08:12 AM