Tea at Trianon: Greek Myths That Inspired Cinema

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Greek Myths That Inspired Cinema

From The Collector:

The story of Pygmalion has had such an influence on popular culture that most will recognize its themes, even if they are not familiar with the original myth. Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who became horrified by the prostitution of a group of women named the propoetides. He went into self-imposed isolation where he set about creating the perfect woman carved out of stone.

Pygmalion’s creation was so perfect that he fell hopelessly in love with it. He began to treat his work like his wife, dressing the statue up in fine clothing and sleeping next to it. Eventually, the Goddess Aphrodite granted Pygmalion’s greatest wish and the statue came to life.

The most famous cinematic adaptation of this myth is George Cukor’s 1964 film, My Fair Lady, based on the 1913 stage play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. In this story, linguist Henry Higgins plucks a common flower seller, Eliza, from obscurity and instructs her in the mannerisms of high society. Once she sheds her cockney accent and corrects her posture, Professor Higgins realizes that he has created the perfect lady and he falls in love with her. While the film wraps up on an ambiguous note, in Shaw’s original play, Eliza rejects Professor Higgins which subverts the happy ending of the myth. This feminist take on Pygmalion has been explored in several other films, most notably Ex-Machina and Her, which both tell the story of men falling in love with robots. (Read more.)