Netflix
Translated
Cleopatra is one of the most controversial films in the history of cinema. First because it was a disastrous production of those whose history is capable of occupying a whole book, in fact, it almost ruined Twenty Century Fox itself; second because it is one of those films that you hate or love and that leaves no one indifferent.
But, just as it is one of the most controversial films and not everyone can endure their four hours, it is also one of the most beautiful and sensual films that has given the cinema. A beautiful and erotic work in its staging that is worth to be treated as a work of art. The photography of Leon Shamroy is guilty of that erotic beauty that owns the film, but, the beauty of Elizabeth Taylor is equal or more of guilty.
For the role of Cleopatra the names of actresses of the likes of Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Joan Collins, and even camera tests were made to Joanne Woodward, but finally the chosen one was, quite rightly, Elizabeth Taylor. In one of the clauses of his contract it was agreed that the film was to be filmed in the spectacular Todd-AO format, invented by the actress’s third husband, Richard Todd, and was already employed with great success in mythical films like “La Around the World in 80 Days (1956) “or” Oklahoma (1955). “The format, like the spectacular Super Panavision 70, included a stereophonic sound of six tracks. In “Cleopatra” the format gets to highlight the beautiful soundtrack composed by Alex North for the film.
This choice of format forced by the Taylor made Cleopatra have one of the best color treatments in the entire history of the cinema and therefore one of the best staging of the violet eyes of Liz Taylor.
To these, they are united some nudes of the actress that reach the erotic perfection. Some nudes that reveal and insinuate enough so that today, in the middle of the era of the explicit, they are just as existent as they were then.
Today we have 243 wonderful minutes of the best that has ever been filmed, and that correspond to the final assembly that was good for the director who claimed that -Copopatra was conceived in an emergency, shot in a state of hysteria and ended with a blind panic-and that’s why the serene beauty and the unity of style that their images give off.
And so today Cinematte wants to pick up some frames where Cleopatra proves to be one of the great erotic characters that has given the film and Elizabeth Taylor one of the most beautiful women not only the cinema, but the planet in all its times. Without leaving you with some classic Erograms of those that mark the time.
Nude pictures of Cleopatra (1963) by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and the beauty of their frames
Elizabeth Taylor
