The Countess Robusta's
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Culture, art, literature, movies, book reviews, cricket, mental health, coffee and coffee houses, astronomy, and anything else in the world not related to sex. |
Culture, art, literature, movies, book reviews, cricket, mental health, coffee and coffee houses, astronomy, and anything else in the world not related to sex. |
I listen to this song daily as I work. The music is by Zach Hemsey, who is extraordinary in his own right. Usually when I listen to a song from YouTube, I don't watch the video, but this one is an exception.
The video is cobbled together from scenes from the second or third 300 movie (it doesn't really matter which). It has the comic book aesthetic that makes the movie seem more like animation than live action. There's no voiced dialogue, but I get the main idea of what the movie is about and who Artemisia is. And she is an absurdity.
I don't mean that as an insult or condemnation of the movie or whatever graphic novel inspired this work. She is an absurdity in the sense that she is extreme in her actions, dress, and eyeliner that moves out of the realm of reality and becomes absurd. In this case, this is a very, very good thing.
That's what those movies are about after all. 300 wasn't a documentary and it wasn't trying to be realistic. It was about extreme, sensuous, violent moments. It attempts (and succeeds) to be a nightmare. It looks like life, but it's too distorted and the events too bizarre to actually be life. Looking at Eva Green from a casting point of view, she appears to be several things:
Focus
This seems like it wouldn't be important. In fact, shouldn't actors, shouldn't all people, be able to focus on a task? Eva Green, however, can create a focus which shuts out everything around her, and couples it with a fierce determination and willpower. It is entirely believable that the woman in the above (highly doctored) photo could conquer an empire. She will always get what she wants, even if she has to destroy the world in the process.
Magic
She is no magician or witch, but she could definitely be Circe or Medea. She seems the type to be able to summon dark forces, or have such dark forces already present within her. Having the spikes along her spine aren't simply a cool design: they make an allusion to her character as being more than human. She can access animal power, the power of a reptile, a cold blooded killer. She could turn men into pigs for her amusement or kill her children to hurt her cheating ex husband.
Sexually Aggressive
Using the term "aggressive" may seem an understatement considering the above photo. Perhaps Masculine might work better. Eva Green projects a woman who can display femininity, and yet be entirely control of her sexuality. She cannot be abused or assaulted. This is, of course, part of the fantasy, and it is very appealing. In this moment, the character is in a very vulnerable position and yet she has a sword ready and the ability to shift her focus in order to control the situation, rather than letting the situation control her.
Amazon
The Greeks had a myth about a tribe of women warriors who cut off their right breast in order to use a bow and arrow more effectively. There is a story about a Greek warrior in battle with another Amazon, and it was long, hard battle. Eventually, he got the best of her. And in the moment he had his sword poised at her throat, in the moment before he killed her, he fell in love with her. And he realized that he had to kill her, because of the war, his duty to Greece, the usual. Despite loving her and realizing that he had finally found his equal, he killed her. Eva Green could create that Amazon warrior, and she projects, in the way only an actress like Eva Green could, that she could be on the other end of the sword. She could fall in love in an instant with a man who was her equal, but she could kill him anyway, to forward her cause.
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