i also imagined odysseus to look much stockier and hairier … more like the agamemnon actor, if they had to pick someone around that age.
Really? I thought uhh… what ever his name is (Boromir ) was great as Odysseus. When they said it was going to be him playing the part of Odysseus I wasn’t too sure, but when I saw Odysseus in the film my first reaction was: that’s just how I’d imagined him!
I didn’t like Helena much either, she nearly spoilt the movie. I don’t think she’s not pretty or anything, but she is a bit bland, but worst of all she couldn’t really act. They were wrong to pick her, she hadn’t done many films before and she had a terrible accent anyway (sounded like a mix between a German, South African and American accent ). Anyway, she didn’t have to say much luckily, but I would still have preferred a more experienced actor with more character.
I have just seen this film too and I really enjoyed it ! My intention for seeing this film was not to brush up my history knowlege about those ancient greeks - I had done this afterwards inspired by this film - but to have just nice entertainment.
And this really it was!
Great battles, great feelings (both pleasure and pain) great pictures
the huge greek fleet approaching the troyian coast, this proud town of Troy (and it´s destruction) and a plot that seems conclusive to me (not knowing the exact course of the troyian war told by Homer at this moment)
And I was really pleased that I understood most of what the actors said, because I watched the english version of it even though I am not a native english speaker. So I care rather about a clear pronunciation than about the dialects of some actors (or actresses).
And by the way, was the acting performance of Helena really so bad.
First she had to look - as Helena - pretty nice, and so she did!
Second the conflict of her feelings to be the cause of that war, she displayed well I think.
Ok, the performance of Briseis I found more lively but this depends more on the roll than on the actress I suppose.
Et Copain, est-ce que je peux deviner que tu parles français?
At the risk of derailing the main point of the thread, I’ve often noted that gay male designers produce female models with the bodies of young men. There are a few grotesque statues of women by Michaelangelo, generally not paraded before first-year art history classes, which seem to have the same problem.
Well observed.
So I don’t see the beauty as academic, but rather aiming for something else entirely, though probably not on purpose most of the time.
Quite so, Annis; I’d certainly have to agree with you. I wouldn’t dare criticize lifestyle choices or the modes of thought which appear to go with them, but I think it’s important for women to know that this (the Helen in Troy) is not what beautiful is. Most men in my experience, of course, are not mature enough to make that distinction clear, or to venerate women properly to begin with; but even behind their cynical veneer, I doubt there is much which finds beautiful this repulsive fashion model extreme. I mean no offense to Diane Kruger personally, but she simply is not pretty, or a good actress, which just compounds the miscasting a thousand fold. Rose Byrne, conversely, truly was the shining star of the film; her warmth on the screen made the gratuity of Brad Pitt bearable.
Every time has its own ideal about beautiness and Diane Kruger represents the one which the public nowadays wants to see - otherwise she would not have been choosen. And as a matter of fact I can´t find nothing about her appearance in this film which indicates her as a representative of an “repulsive fashion model extreme”
Considering her acting performance she may stay behind those of Rose Byrne, I have to confess. Maybe it is this which takes a slight negative touch about her appearance.
Because beautiness is not only a matter of good looking but also how someone is able to express himself.
Ah, fantastisch! Ich kann Deutsch viel besser als Französisch, meine ich, weil ich die liebste teutonische Sprache in Hochschule gelernt habe, seit sechs Jahren. Also, toll! Aus welchem Teil Deutschlandes kommst du?
Every time has its own ideal about beautiness and Diane Kruger represents the one which the public nowadays wants to see - otherwise she would not have been choosen.
Not at all; I’ve not yet met a single heterosexual man who finds appealing Fräulein Kruger’s appearance in the slightest. If this majority does not want to see it, then they correctly speak for what is indeed the contemporary “ideal;” and moreover, they lead towards hints on the fundamental truth of beauty itself. Beauty is not an artificial construct; it is as eternal as a Platonic Idea.
And as a matter of fact I can´t find nothing about her appearance in this film which indicates her as a representative of an “repulsive fashion model extreme”
I think she looks worse than a fashion model; she looks like a mannequin. Though she certainly fits the “repulsive…extreme,” if I may quote myself; she is skinny and unappealing physically; her face lacks feature, generally, and certainly bears nothing striking. Her lips are thin, her eyes are rather far-apart-looking (a feature in Indian women which I actually find particularly stunning; but with Diane Kruger’s bone structure, it just isn’t at all inspiring); I don’t quite understand her nose, which I find too small (I prefer a classical Roman or Greek nose anyday), or her jaw, which appears too square. And none of these are in actuality faults or blemishes; it’s not even the combination which detracts from her loveliness, or lack thereof; it’s simply an absense of essense, that certain je ne sais précisement quoi. I love the color of her eyes, but I see no enchanting spirit behind them, no draw at all of the venifica we would come to expect from “the most beautiful woman who ever lived.” She just seems blank – much liker her performance, which brings us to…
Considering her acting performance she may stay behind those of Rose Byrne, I have to confess. Maybe it is this which takes a slight negative touch about her appearance. > >
Because beautiness is not only a matter of good looking but also how someone is able to express himself.
Truly! Personality is everything, and even in still photos it is quite visible, as well as in motion picture and in person. That spirit, that animus, jene besondere Seele, die diese Fräulein nicht hat, oder die durch das Gesicht dieser Dame nicht scheint, that is what is fundamentally essential to a person’s beauty; for beauty is not found upon the face, aber im Herz, in corde, nel cuore, dans le cœur, in the heart.
But if beauty is a Platonic ideal of which Helen of Troy is the embodiment, wouldn’t she have to be recognisably beautiful to everyone, whatever their sex, orientation, or culture?
I don’t see why she should be an embodiment of anything except sex-appeal. After all, the only thing that’s important is that Paris wants her enough to start a war for her.
Hey,Du kannst ja richtig gut Deutsch ! Also ich komme aus der Pfalz, das ist ne kleine Region im Südwesten von Deutschland, nahe der französischen Grenze. Und wo kommst eigentlich Du her ?
Now I will switch to english again, because beside the talking about the greek and roman world and their ideals I want to improve my english as well!
In some points beaty is eternal as a Platonic idea. Beaty and symmetry of the body and face goes side by side as well as the body of a beatyfull woman - and man of course - has to be proportioned in a special ratio. But other things may change in the course of time. Long before the the greek the ideal figure of a woman has to be plump not to say fat as the sculptures of that pre greek time show us. And not long ago in former centuries the color of the skin from european women has to be white to correspond to the idea of beaty of that time. In these days we tent more to a sun-tanned skin.
And concerning Helen as “the most beautiful women ever lived” for me it´s hard to say how close Mrs. Kruger to this idealistic description come to ! But she fit´s well beside Mr. Bloom.
And at least to see the film as a whole her part in it is not as important as the one´s of Hektor or Achilles so it is - for this film - not to important if she is really the right one for the part of Helen or not!
Well, just stop discussing Helen, who cares?
The most important thing is that they cast Achilles right… Achilles is a half god, so he needs a god’s body… hehehe, they got that bit right !
) was great as Odysseus. When they said it was going to be him playing the part of Odysseus I wasn’t too sure, but when I saw Odysseus in the film my first reaction was: that’s just how I’d imagined him!
- but to have just nice entertainment.
!