I actually edited my original comment when I thought about the McKellen version, adding "period-specific". I'm not a fanatical purist—I like it when they depart from the time & place, at least if it's done well. Kurosawa's Shakespeare is a good example—see Ran, his King Lear, if you haven't yet. But there's nothing…

This is my favorite Shakespeare play, & it hasn't had a full, period-specific filmic treatment since Polanski's in the early '70s, so I'm all for it. This looks like it might be a bit over-stylized, but otherwise it's promising in terms of casting & the overall look. Cautiously optimistic!

Also, you wrote "Caesar of all [people? things?] is into three parts", while leaving divisum dangling, since it can't describe Caesar. In this context, Caesar is masculine nominative singular, while divisum, if masculine, can only be accusative case (otherwise, it's neuter, either nominative or accusative).

I'll let you know when I'm done dating Nathalie Emmanuel.

You know nothing, @avclub-c5c7dfe480dd211b50781620ea2fdaf0:disqus.

That one's not much of a stretch, really. Frankly, I'd be surprised if

A couple weeks ago I re-watched season 5, & noticed two pretty obvious hints that didn't register the first time around:
(1) When Maester Aemon is dying at Castle Black, Sam & Gilly are in his room
with him, & Sam says something about Aemon being the last
Targaryan. (Or maybe he says there's only one left, with Dany…

I think we'll get Winds of Winter next year, though I'd be surprised if GRRM beat the season 6 premiere in April. Based on how he's written the books already, it's possible that he's working on parts of Dream of Spring simultaneously, but who knows? I could see Dream of Spring coming out in maybe 2018 or 2019, but…

The Kubrick film. I haven't gotten around to checking out the series.

I said AMONG the best, didn't I?

Yup, that, too. For me, Priam begging for Hektor's body from Achilles is one of the best scenes in The Iliad itself, too.

Gotcha. You're right that for the Romans the issue wasn't so much about homosexuality as about who had the power in the pairing. (They also objected to hypocrisy & effeminacy.) Caesar's non-response could be read as not wanting to dignify slander.

Also, & the reason why Augustus succeeded where Caesar failed, he was GIVEN those offices. To me, that's his great genius—Augustus created a monarchy by building on the bones of the Republic, maintaining all the annual elected magistracies as well as the Senate & the various assemblies. He finessed it in a way…

Imperator was still only a military title, though. And anyway, you know that's not what it means in Hollywood terms. I haven't read the books, so I don't know if the distinction is clear there. When the Romans did create the office, the title was usually princeps ("first-taker").

This was my first thought, but I wanted to see if someone else made the point before I posted it. The Roman office of dictator was, by law, temporary, though it could be extended, as it was in Caesar's case (several times). But that power had to be conferred democratically (well, as democratically as the Roman…

I say this as a Latin teacher: Gladiator is not only a good movie, it's among the best ancient-Rome set movies, period. Yes, it takes some liberties with the history—they all do—but it really looked great (& mostly authentic), & had some really great performances & compelling action. Spartacus, which features what…

Likewise, making Patroklos into Achilles' "cousin", & having Briseis be cool with being Achilles' war booty & live-in rape victim. Oy.

Eric Bana was good. Brad Pitt was surprisingly good. The movie looked great—making the Trojan Horse out of scavenged ship parts was an especially inspired choice. Otherwise, Troy was fair, at best, & for anyone with an appreciation for classical studies, more than a little painful.

Well, there's not very good historical evidence that Caesar was anything but heterosexual. The Romans weren't like the Greeks—the male-male thing was frowned upon. Really the only reference to Caesar, um, going Greek, is innuendo about the time he spent with the king of Nicomedia, & even with that you have to…

I can't get past the fact that a series about a guy who didn't live long enough to become emperor is called Emperor.