Cinema and Classical Texts: Apollo's New LightCambridge University Press, 2009 M02 12 - 347 pages Apollo was the ancient god of light and the divine patron of the arts. He is therefore a fitting metaphor for cinematography, which is the modern art of writing with moving light. This book interprets films as visual texts and provides the first systematic theoretical and practical demonstration of the affinities between Greco-Roman literature and the cinema. It examines major themes from classical myth and history such as film portrayals of gods, exemplified by Apollo and the Muses; Oedipus, antiquity's most influential mythic-tragic hero; the question of heroism and patriotism in war; and the representation of women like Helen of Troy and Cleopatra as products of male desire and fantasy. Covering a wide range of European and American directors, genres and classical authors, this study provides an innovative perspective on the two disciplines of classics and cinema and demonstrates our most influential medium's unlimited range when it adapts ancient texts. |
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Achilles Aeneid Agamemnon American ancient Angelopoulos antiquity Antony Apollo appears artistic audiences auteur barge beautiful camera chapter character cinema classical classicists Cleopatra Cocteau culture Daphnis and Chloe death DeMille director epic especially Euripides example famous father fictional figure film film’s filmed filming filmmakers final find first French Freud German gods Greek myth Helen Helen of Troy Hercules hero heroism Heurtebise Hollywood Homer Horace’s Iliad images influence influential King literary literature Mankiewicz Menelaus modern mother Muses narrative narrator neo-mythologism novel Odysseus Oedipus Rex ofthe one’s Orphée Orpheus painting Paris Pasolini Patton perspective Petersen’s play Pleasantville plot Plutarch poem poet poetry Princess quotation Quoted references reveals Roman scene scholars scholarship screen screenwriters sequence Sophocles Sparta Spartans specific statue Stesichorus story television tells Terpsichore tradition translation Trojan Trojan War Troy Tyndareus viewers visual Western wife Winkler woman words writer-director Zeus