Known in Latin as the Troades, Euripides’s The Trojan Women was said by Aelian’s Varia Historica (published in the third century A.D.) to have been performed for the first time in 415 BC at the 91st Olympiad. Ultimately, he won second place, losing to Xenocles, a now lost Athenian tragedian. The Trojan Women was part three of…
Month: January 2019
Thoughts on Andromache
It has been suggested that Euripides is obsessed with character, but that he is indifferent to plot. Each one of his tragedies might be said to be a character study into the pure hopelessness faced by human beings. The Andromache is an unusual play for a number of reasons. The unnamed Scholiast,…
Dr. Mabuse The Gambler (1922) Film Review
Dr. Mabuse The Gambler (1922) Director: Fritz Lang ★★★★☆ These early Weimar films are rife with mystery and shadowy intrigue. Dr. Mabuse is a lengthy dive into psychological depths of the time it was released (Part I lasts about 154 minutes and Part II is another 114 minutes). I may watch…
Tarzan The Ape Man (1932) Film Review
Tarzan The Ape Man (1932) Director: W.S. Van Dyke “Tarzan! Don’t go! Come with us. We’ll all go back together. Tarzan! Tarzan! Tarzan!” ★★★☆☆ Neither the first nor the last of the Tarzan films, 1932’s Tarzan The Ape Man represents the start of a string of six MGM films (and later…