**Part of the Best Picture Project**

50 years later, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Cleopatra is typically only remembered for its historical infamy, remembered not for the film itself, but rather the production itself and the impact its release had. It had one of the most expensive budgets of any film ever at 44 million (320 million when adjusted for inflation). The production itself was so bloated that by the end of its theatrical run, although it was the highest grossing film of 1963, the film itself was a bomb.

The bombing of Cleopatra signaled the death of the Golden Age of Hollywood, finally imploding in on itself after trying to defeat television by producing big bloated epics. The years that followed…

Don’t throw fingers at Brutus. “Cleopatra” is the film responsible for murdering the Hollywood studio system in the middle of the Roman forum. 

And as any Shakespearean worth their salt knows — Brutus might have been a mob rule extremist... but he made some points. 

As does “Cleopatra,” a film as bloated and unwieldy as an asp after swallowing a bird whole. But a bloated asp still has its venom, as does “Cleopatra,” which thrives and dies on its own blend of poison. 

The way that “Heavens Gate” marked the end of cinema auteurism, “Cleopatra” was the long, long goodbye to big budget studio productions. 

Much as the fabled Egyptian Queen died by putting a snake to her own breast,…

Rex Harrison: “You look more beautiful every day.” Elizabeth Taylor: “And you grow balder every day.” I’m 100% sure that this exchange happened between Julius and Cleopatra.

What we have here is a pompous, culturally brooding rumination, a four-hour package that feels like four hours... I cannot lie, this is one of the very few films that was exhausting to watch. And not in a rewarding way.

Mankiewicz, almost by accident, creates something resembling a masterpiece that unknowingly mirrors the collapse of old power itself, reflecting the very studio system that financed this grand, monumental production. The weight of history presses down relentlessly, but the execution is so dense, so heavy-handed, that you can practically feel how much has been…

Action! - All About Mankiewicz

Sometimes you get around to watching films you’ve been hearing about practically your entire life without even knowing you will. I had zero idea Mankiewicz was the director of the infamous film known for ruining one of the top studios, Fox, riddled with plenty of behind-the-scenes chaos in terms of business, the actors and so on. But here I am…

…and to be honest, it wasn’t as abysmal as I was expecting.

With so many 300 million movies being produced nowadays, you sit there and ask yourself where all the cash went, wondering if this is just part of an intricate, large money laundering scheme or something. Here it’s not the case. Sure, they may…

What catches my attention about this aesthetic is thinking that the obsession with painting one's face began thousands of years ago, in fascinating rituals and experimentations. Contrary to what many people think, lipstick did not originate in France; While the Egyptians were creating their formulas, in Mesopotamia — the region we know today as Iraq —, women of the ancient Sumerian civilization used to crush precious and semi-precious gemstones to use as makeup, applying the glittering powder to their lips and around their eyes to radiate status and beauty.

In Ancient Egypt, the famous kohl (that black paste made from galena and other minerals) which they wore around their eyes had functions that went far beyond vanity: it protected against…