Olympias (Angelina Jolie) with a young Alexander (Connor Paolo) in ALEXANDER (2004)
Angelina is set to star as Cleopatra in a new film directed by Ang Lee. Of all the new PEPLUM projects I listed yesterday this one interests me the most. Not because Angelina was great in ALEXANDER but having Ang Lee directing a film set in Ancient Egypt with Angelina will be stunning.
I did not see ALEXANDER (and I will never do), but I have just received a stunning Danish blu-ray of ALEXANDER THE GREAT (1956). I consider it a decent film (flawed but intelligent), but it is a bit short on visuals.
ReplyDeleteThe film employs matte paintings in the wrong places. For example, there are quite a few nice matte paintings that are badly superimposed by a map. On the other hand, the film cries for a nice vista of the ancient Athens, which the film sadly lacks.
However, it seems as if such matte painting was indeed supposed to be included, as there is a still filling the screen just before we introduced to the assembly debating the political situation in Athens. In place of this clumsy photo (a medium, grainy shot of the Greek senate, revealing people not moving at all), there should have been a sweeping panorama of the ancient Greek capital.
I am toying with the idea of putting an appropriate matte painting in place of that photo in the film. (In my opinion, movies such as BEN-HUR, CLEOPATRA, QUO VADIS, SPARTACUS, etc. would be half as good without their beautiful and meaningful panoramas [matte paintings].)
My question is: is anyone aware of a nice matte painting (or any painting) of the ancient Athens in a movie (or elsewhere) available in good quality? (There are a couple of very nice matte compositions in BATTLE OF MARATHON, but they are of a poor quality in the movie as released on the DVD [I have the Spanish DVD].) Thanks!
In the meantime I did find a suitable painting (a beautiful rendition of the ancient Athens - featuring Acropolis -, which is also essentially copy-right free).
ReplyDeleteAJ was the only real good thing about this movie. The movie was full of flashbacks and gore. Would of been better had they had a much better script. When I want my fill of blood I watch this or CENTURION.
ReplyDelete