Earlier, I linked to a list of movies that had taken the Bechdel test—some passed, some failed. I am uber-pleased to learn that there’s at least one more movie coming to the U.S. next year that could pass and nay, end up at the top of the list.
Starring Max Minghella (Art School Confidential), Rachel Weisz (The Brothers Bloom), and Oscar Isaac (Body of Lies), the film is called Agora, and according to Variety, the U.S. distribution rights were bought by Newmarket Films (The Passion of the Christ) who will release it some time in the first half of next year.
The English-language story revolves around a fictional Egyptian slave (Minghella) who is in love with his master, a real historical figure named Hypatia of Alexandria (Weisz) who also happens to be the world’s first notable female mathematician and astronomer-philosopher. The backdrop to this romance is the rise of Christianity in Egypt and how it tore Egypt apart and set back its scientific discoveries.
It was screened both at Cannes and at the Toronto Film Festival and so far, the Tomatometer’s findings are mixed despite a $30 million gross in during its first month of release in Spain. The L.A. Times said it was “crammed with both stirring visual images and intellectual ideas” and a subsequent interview with director Alejandro Amenabar (The Sea Inside) reveals that:
[The] movie is definitely a condemnation of fundamentalism. It’s about the moment in history when the Christians were finished being persecuted and began to persecute others.
All I know is that any movie that features both epic street brawls and figures in neofeminism is definitely one to watch out for, and I’d even say a possible contender for another Academy Award for Weisz when the film becomes eligible in 2010.
Gordon McAlpin says:
Maybe she'll actually deserve her Oscar nod this time.
And I doubt this will pass the Bechdel test, because for that you need to have two women in the movie. Weisz looks like the sole female within miles of this movie's plot.
Gordon McAlpin says:
Maybe she'll actually deserve her Oscar nod this time.
And I doubt this will pass the Bechdel test, because for that you need to have two women in the movie. Weisz looks like the sole female within miles of this movie's plot.