Cleopatra was light-skinned, Egypt tells Netflix in row over drama

Prieure de Sion · May 15, 2023

I would like to make three points from my point of view.

Firstly. It is very likely that Cleopatra looked rather European / Southern European. There are clearly more reasons for this than against. We have the head of the bust which looks rather European with the narrow lips, the remains of the hair colouring (red). In addition, the Ptolemaic ruling house was simply too incestuous to allow a "bastard" daughter on the royal throne. And a very important point - Julius Caesar should never have become involved with anything other than the daughter of a Macedonian bloodline. Nor then would it ever have even been considered that Cleopatra and Caesar's son could be an heir to Roman rule.

Secondly. Since the series claims the title of documentary, one should also be as historically accurate as possible here. It would therefore be incomprehensible for me to see a Gandhi documentary with an Asian - or Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King with a European white actor. But even in a film - which - as an example - includes Nelson Mandela, I don't want artistic freedom here. With fictional films, fantasy films, etc., none of this matters, of course.

But if I see historical persons in a film or a documentary - then they should also correspond to the historical models as far as possible. Otherwise you could have played "12 Years a Slave" with an Asian or European - no! Just because you think you have to include diverse actors everywhere - that doesn't prevent or defeat racism. If it is forced - it is rather ammunition for idiotic racists.

Thirdly. Far from the whole discussion - I watched the first 30 minutes - then I couldn't take it anymore. A poorly realised film documentary - for my taste. The experts speak far too often and for far too long, and they also repeat themselves constantly.

When there is finally a cinematic action with the actors and I think - yes, finally at least 5 minutes of acting - the scene is interrupted again by an expert who talks in between and I have to watch him speak! What's the point of that? One minute of film scene - 3 minutes of expert - 1 minute of another expert - again 1 minute of film scene - again interrupted by three experts... from my point of view, there is no "flow" in the documentary.

I was looking forward to historical actors, historical places, historical events - but the scenes are so short and too much space is given to the experts. They constantly talk in, they are constantly shown - there is constant switching back and forth between the documentary film and the experts. It made me restless and I couldn't watch any longer.

Too bad.

Ancient Coin Hunter · May 15, 2023

4 hours ago, Al Kowsky said:

Forbes reports that the Netflix "Queen Cleopatra" has scored the lowest possible audience score of 1% by Rotten Tomatoes 😬.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2023/05/14/netflixs-queen-cleopatra-appears-to-have-the-worst-audience-score-in-tv-history/?sh=36402bc05407