Agora
Cinema Nova, 06/12/2010
Status: Behind by 5 films
Holy crap! A Hollywood-style historical epic about science, politics and religion? It could only have been made in Spain. Writer-director ALEJANDRO AMENABAR (The Sea Inside) pits zealotry, extremism and mob mentality (that would be religion) on one side against independent thought, rational inquiry and reason on the other (hello, science!). Add a love triangle and I’m sold.
Hypatia (RACHEL WEISZ, The Brothers Bloom, The Constant Gardener, who I heart very much) is a philosopher and mathematician in Alexandria in 391 AD. People are taking to the streets either in protest or support as the Roman Empire is collapsing under the rising power of Christianity. Hypatia is completely disinterested in religion, preferring to pursue enquiry and contemplate astronomy. This isn’t awesome for her, however, as everyone is being forced to choose religious sides in the civil unrest. She refuses, which becomes even less awesome for her.
The love triangle part of it, which Hypatia is also completely uninterested in, is between her, her former pupil Orestes (OSCAR ISAAC, Robin Hood), now prefect of Alexandria and Davus (MAX MINGHELLA, The Social Network), her former slave now a lieutenant in the Christian thug-army. They make a nice little diorama.
Although it is in the nature of massive-scale epics to gloss over certain things, Agora at least seeks to insert ideas among the action. This doesn’t always balance nicely, but it sets the film well apart from other sword and sandal movies. They should all be made in Spain from now on.
