Cleopatra Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cleopatra - Essay Example To draw the comparison of Cleopatra’s portrait figured in films during 1963 and late twentieth and early twenty-first century, it is quite essential to draw the reference and go through a thorough analysis for the first appearance and portrayal of the image of the oriental queen on the silver screen. Cleopatra was first unveiled as a queen on the silver screen, in the year 1917. The first role of Cleopatra was played by Theda Bara where she was projected as an enchantress and iconic figure of mysterious orient with all her mystical aura which culminated into a figure that was sexually manipulative, threatening to be married and abandoned men with all her exotic appeal. The press clubbed this exotic predator as â€Å"the torpedo of domesticity† Here the intention and the objective for the portrayal of the oriental queen were transparent and evident. She was projected as the mistress of oriental extravaganza and empress of a mystic land with an aura half-veiled around her . This iconic portrayal of the queen became analogous with her name until in the year 1934, Cleopatra was reincarnated as a modern brand queen in the epic of Cecil B De Mille. Cleopatra revisited the minds of her audience as a flirtatious queen gazing at the hollow pomp of the Caesar and is less threatening.