I have been watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand on Netflix, and today I finished watching the last episode of the first season. It’s lots of sex, nudity, cursing, violence, more nudity, and more violence. And it’s also a total guilty pleasure of mine. The gore galore has endeared Ron to the show as well, which is a real feat since he usually doesn’t enjoy watching period dramas with me. So if you can stomach the violence and don’t mind excessive nudity then it’s one the guys will enjoy watching as well.
But, if you’re looking for an interesting Roman biopic that’s more than sex and violence, check out this trailer for Agora starring Rachel Weisz (love her!). Weisz plays Hypatia, a real historical character and the first recorded female mathematician and astronomer. In Agora, Hypathia fights to save the knowledge of the Ancient World as her city of Alexandria is overtaken by religious strife and the rise of Christianity during the 4th century AD. Right now Agora has only been released in the US to limited audiences (I could only find one theater that’s showing it here in NYC). IMDb lists the DVD release date as October 19th.
I don't know what to say but thank you for bringing this my attention. I have never heard of this historical woman and I also adore Weisz. I will certianly be looking for this one. Maybe the Ritz theaters in the Philly area will carry it? They are known for arthouse and odd films.Magnificent trailer.
I have Spartacus on my Netflix list but haven't watched it yet; gore and sex sounds pretty darn fine though.
I hadn't heard of Agora but I'm kind of geeking over it now.
Rachel Weisz is the best actress ever!I just started my own blog. Please stop by if you can. Thank youMishahttp://books-love-affair.blogspot.com/
I have been waiting for this movie to come out forever. I saw it on a website from another country and I think it was already out (but don't quote me on that). I will have to see if my artsy theatre has it yet. Thanks!
We ordered the complete DVD set and it arrived yesterday. I'm from Canada and we don't get it up there. We have a vacation condo in Montana and my hubby watched a few episodes there and loved it. Can't wait to get hooked on it myself.Love your blog. I'm now a follower!Mirellahttp://historyandwomen.com.
I saw Agora when it first came out in NYC and loved Weisz' performance as Hypatia. Amenabar distorts some history in service to his art (the Library didn't end that way and Synesius wasn't a jerk), but that's what artists do. I don't go to the movies for accurate history. For people who want to know more about the historical Hypatia, I highly recommend a very readable biography "Hypatia of Alexandria" by Maria Dzielska (Harvard University Press, 1995). I also have a series of posts on the historical events and characters in the film at my blog – not a movie review, just a "reel vs. real" discussion.
I love Rachel Weisz! I've been meaning to watch Spartacus, too. I hadn't heard of this movie before, thanks for posting about it!
*Big sigh* I really, really wanna see this movie but for some reason, I don't see it opening here in Georgia. I too enjoyed Spartacus though I had to "work" through my irritation at some of the ridiculousness. However, all those barely clothed hot gladiators did much to win me over!
I'll pass on the blood and nudity.AGORA is intriguing. I'll have to look for it on DVD.
From my review:
Hypatia is depicted as a geometer and astronomer. She’s puzzled about the movements of the stars and planets. Her puzzlement is the standard one about all this junky mess of cycles and epicycles needed to reconcile the observed motions of the heavenly bodies with the mathematical requirements of a model based on perfect circular motion in a geocentric universe. This is much discussed in the film. Orestes himself remarks on how junky the model is. And one of Hypatia’s slaves, Davus, has built a model of the system, which earns Hypatia’s praise.
The word “cycle,” then, connects Hypatia’s biological sex, female, with her intellectual vocation, mathematics and astronomy.
It’s well worth seeing.