Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra (1976 TV--Alec Guinness) 6 of 7

Play by George Bernard Shaw, adaptation (reduction) for TV by Audrey Maas.

Geneviève Bujold ... Cleopatra
Alec Guinness ... Julius Caesar
Iain Cuthbertson ... Rufio
Clive Francis ... Apollodorus
Michael Bryant ... Brittanus


Director: James Cellan Jones

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Bernard
• Shaw
• Caesar
• Cleopatra
• Alec
• Guinness
• Geneviève
• Bujold
• Michael-Bryant

[chris812125]

They should not have made Cleopatra like such a scared baby.

[GreatGrumbledook]

CAESAR: "Do you hear? These knockers at your gate are also believers in vengeance and in stabbing. You have slain their leader: it is right that they shall slay you. If you doubt it, ask your four counsellors here. And then in the name of that right shall I not slay them for murdering their Queen, and be slain in my turn by their countrymen as the invader of their fatherland? Can Rome do less then than slay these slayers, too, to shew the world how Rome avenges her sons and her honor."

[Rayarena]

@Niteowl128 I think that my comment was misinterpreted. I didn't mean to say that they were anti-Egyptian, rather that they proudly stuck to their Macedonian bloodline and tongue--this after hundreds of years in Egypt. In fact, I heard in some documentary that Cleopatra was the first Ptolemy to speak Egyptian. This doesn't mean that they were anti-Egyptian. Cleopatra for example tried to built a great empire and secure Egypt's independence, obviously, this would have been good for Egypt.

[Niteowl128]

@Rayarena Where did you get this information? I have read a number of books on Ptolemaic Egypt and have never heard they were anti-Egyptian. The Ptolemies never identified as Egyptians, and neither did their contemporaries. And how cut throat that family was, I wouldn't be surprised if the royal bloodline had Nile water in their veins.

[laugher986]

cleopatra isnt a baby shes actually pretty tough...they make her look like a wimp

[Niteowl128]

@chris812125 If you were uncertain about what reaction Julius Caesar was going to have after finding out you ordered someone to be murdered, I bet you'd be pretty scared too.

[jhaisia]

im actually studying her she had no egyptian blood in her aint that some shit

[jhaisia]

wait a minute so cleopatra wasnt even egyptian...wtf..she was white damn aint that some shit...its egypt suppose to be controlled by egyptians and her nationality is 0% egyptian....wow find somethin new every fckin day

[jhaisia]

@wwdancwe690 thats pretty stupid to say Cleopatra was 100% egyptian not greek!!!

[Rayarena]

@Niteowl128 Of course the Ptolemies depicted themselves as Egyptians, they were ruling a foreign country and couldn't afford to be so brash and publicly rub their foreignness in the eyes of their subjects. However, in private, they were notorious for keeping their Greek ways such as their language and bloodline.

Sorry, but the experts are conjecturing that the remains are those of Arsinöe IV, but they don't know for sure.

[Niteowl128]

@Rayarena, The Ptolemies were not as Xenophobic as you think, especially since in all of their monuments and hieroglyphics they depict themselves as Egyptians, not as Macedonian Greeks.Cleopatra being the only one in her entire 300 family history to speak Egyptian is unproven and is conjecture. They have just discovered Arsinöe IV's remain in Turkey. Her skeletal remains indicate that she had African lineage, so it would not be surprising if the same can be said about Cleopatra VII

[Rayarena]

@Niteowl128 All of Cleopatra's paternal ancestors are accounted for & they were all Macedonians. I believe that the unknown factor is the mother. How likely is it for a xenophobic family like the Ptolemies who didn't even speak Egyptian until hundreds of years later [Cleopatra was the first, I believe to speak Egyptian as well as several other languages] to intermarry? She could have had some African in her, but there is no evidence, just wishful thinking on the part of afrocentrics.