Antony and Cleopatra

  Antony and Cleopatra

by Immi Marsh      

I looked at the Antony and Cleopatra 1974 film directed by Jon Scoffield, with Janet Suzman playing Cleopatra and Richard Johnson as Mark Antony. The setting of the film is rather basic, often with a white or black backdrop, but it also strips it back to basics by highlighting the characters with no distracting surroundings and thus perhaps making it more dramatic, as the focus is only on the speech and actions. However the costumes are quite elaborate to make up for the lack of setting.

(Focus: power relations between men and women) Act 1 scene 2- Enobarbus and Antony in the film lie back casually, whilst drinking, and make light-hearted conversation about how a man’s departure or absence from a woman essentially kills her- highlighting Fulvia’s predetermined weakness as a woman, as she is now dead, supposedly from the absence of Antony in Rome. When Antony exclaims to Enobarbus that Fulvia has died they both laugh, which is particularly derogative to women, as though they were disposable, highlighting male superiority.

Then in the following scene of Act 1 scene 3, Cleopatra highlights the cunning side to her that she has to exhibit in order to maintain Antony’s love and affection, which highlights important power relations, seeing as the Queen who actually has power over many people has to put on a front of illness claiming she is ‘sick and sullen’ in order to keep him interested. In the film Cleopatra plays an extremely melodramatic role, as seen in Egypt’s typically more theatrical side, especially when she discovers that Fulvia is dead, she goes from being upset to jealous and then endeavours to seduce Antony. This cunning yet erotic side to her is exacerbated by the two of them communicating and walking around playfully between drapes hanging from the ceiling, as though hiding behind facades of how they truly feel.

Then finally, it can link to Act 2 scene 2 where Agrippa suggests that Antony marries Octavia to bring him and Caesar together as brothers. Scoffield films the two parties on separate sides to each other and then shows them coming together over a woman when Antony agrees to marry her. This highlights the woman’s place as passive and disposable as Octavia has no say in it, and it shows why Cleopatra feels she must be so manipulative in order to survive in a world where men believe that women would die without them.