Written by: - Mamdough Shalaby.
 |
| Bettany Hughes |
British archeologist Bettany
Hughes takes us to her own world, where the documentary (Hypatia and
Alexandria) begins while the camera shows her getting up the steps of Ashmolean
Museum in Oxford, she speaks to us as in
the stage prologue, where she says, I learned in this museum 25 years ago, It is the oldest museum in the world.
And she continues talking in
this one shot scene to determine the beginning of the modern history, where she
was told when she was a student that the history of the modern world begins
between 380 to 390 AD, and then determines the subject of her film, which will
focus on the latest phases of the ancient history, in the city of Alexandria.
Alexandria which be dreamed by Alexander the
Great, to be built throughout the men who success him in order to achieve his
dream of a city gathers scientists, architecture, art, and to contain on the
walls of its library the knowledge of the world.
This one shot scene is not one
shot as I said, it contains three shots, but the viewer's eye will not notice; because
the director cuts from Bettany to her again to approach a little each time, and
the director can implement this by slow zoom, but what he did by editing was
good.
In the heart of the community
of Alexandria,
the scientist and philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria was a witness to an
extraordinary time, she witnessed the end of the pagan era and the beginning of
modern history.
And the film cuts to the
second scene, where the director puts us on the surface of the Citadel of
Alexandria, while Bettany Hughes continues speaking to us, while the Sea of
Alexandria is shown behind, and a footage from the feature film (Agora) - which
dealt with the story of Hypatia- integrate to connect between what we hear in
the soundtrack by Bettany and what we see.
Alexandria, where ancient and modern
dovetail together in harmony and continuation, the ancient city still exists
under the streets of Alexandria and its Sea,
this scene ends by the title (Alexandria,
the greatest city) is printed on shot shows the famous lighthouse is taken from
Agora movie.
The film begins after the two
preface scenes, to introduce modern Alexandria in various shots and the voice
of Bethany tells us that the city of Alexandria, over 2300 years since founded
by Alexander the Great, was the focal point between east and west, and the old
city in spite of the modern one is hard to forget.
When the first shots begin on
the streets of Alexandria, we listen to the voice of Egyptian drum, that the
director (Nick Gilliam Smith) reminds his British viewers what seems to be
unmistakable theme for their ears to express the East and Egypt, while we see
Bettany is speaking to us during walking in the street, to tell us about this
place, where Alexander, Cleopatra, Mark Antony and Julius Caesar, are buried
beneath its ground and it's the place to
one of the seventh wonders of the world.
Then the movie continues. The
division of the film into scenes is not accurate to describe these scenes
because every scene tends to be sequence as it contains presentations of
footage out of the scene but relevant, therefore it is better not to divide the
film into scenes and let it flows in amazing.
The movie stops at the Alexander
the Great, where we see his statue from various angles, and the voice of
Bettany says that Alexander the Great who was born in Macedonia, fulfilled the unification of Greece and defeated the Persian
Empire, to establish the largest empire in history.
Then the film takes us way out
to the area of Saqqara in Giza,
to see Bettany there continues talking about Alexander, he was ambitious. In
the age of 24 years, the world was under his control, but the biggest prize for
him was Egypt, Bettany then
looks proudly to the pyramid of Saqqara.
Then we see Bettany walking in
one of the temples of Luxor.
It is quite justified
integration of sites because the director wanted to clarify the luxury of this
civilization, which Alexander put his hand on.
Egypt, which irrigated by the
Nile to thrive the engineering innovations on its banks, Egypt, which
Herodotus, the father of history, wrote that there is no place in the world is
like this great country in its achievements and its greatness.
The Alexander conquered Egypt
in 322 BC, but how Alexander managed to obtain all of this recognition from the
Egyptian people?
This question is answered by Egyptian
(Pakistani) archeologist, prof. Salima Ikram, who accompanying Bettany in Saqqara and gets down with her to the tomb of Apis.
Alexander visited the temples
of the Egyptians and gave money and gifts, the Egyptians therefore liked him.
In the tomb of Apis we will
see the splendor of the internal photographing at an inartificial lighting, and
we will see close up shots of Ikram and Bethany, that the film which lasts 52
minutes contains a few shots like these.
From this internal scene, Smith
takes us way out to a shot of the sun at full spin, using a filter on the lens
of the camera, then a shot of a palm frond, the light of the sun sparkling
from, moving to Bettany in the desert of Saqqara next two archaeological
columns, to continue commenting on Alexander, who was viewed by the Egyptians -
as a result of his proper treatment and appreciation of their culture - not as
an invader or a king, but a beloved God.
We will note in this shot, that
the director uses the zoom to close gradually to Bettany.
After that the scene changes
completely as we see Bettany on a bus's seat, its external window reveals a
traditional scene of the green land of Egypt where the camera reveals the
landscape during the movement of the bus, while Bettany contemplates, and
instead of talking to us, as usual, we listen to her voice commenting from
outside the scene.
Here we should point out that
the soundtrack in this film consists of three integrated levels, first the
direct speech of Bettany to her audience as a friend, and secondly Bettany's
voice as a narrator, and thirdly the dialogue when she talks with one of the
guests of the film, this diversification levels are vital and indispensable,
because the film full of details, and the result will be a disaster if the
director used one level.
In her narration, Bettany says
that the Alexander's plan to take control of Egypt, started by choosing the
place of his new city to be the capital, the director shows the map of Egypt
depicting the Nile River and its banks where we see three points represent
Memphis, Saqqara and Luxor, and then we see a colored spot in the far north of
the map at the city of Alexandria, Alexander wanted his city to be connected to
his hometown in Greece by sea, and to be in the heart of his empire.
After that we see the waters
of Alexandria, there are fishermen in the angry water, then we see Bettany walks,
where the Alexandria Citadel ( Qaitbay ) is seen behind, she holds a book,
cites some of lines about the island of Pharos, which she stands at it now,
then we see the eastern port and its fishing boats in a wide shot, and a pan
shot reviews the place.
And then we see Bettany
sitting on the surface of the Citadel and on her feet there is a map of
Alexandria, and in her hand a pen, and then she draws a line represents the
path which filled by Alexander to link Alexandria to the island of Pharos, and another
line in the East, to make the eastern port which was the greatest ports in the
history.
And because we are now in
Alexandria, the film presents it in
various exquisite shots, its eastern harbor, and its clean streets, with
an integrated shots taken from feature Agora movie, while we listen to the
narration that Alexander successors continued to work to achieve his dream of
building the city of Alexandria, to be a city of trade, architecture, culture,
and this section of the film ends by the appearance of the title (Alexandria, the
greatest city) again printed on a shot
of the historic lighthouse taken from the
agora movie.
A new section of the film
starts, to summarize what have been already talked about in the previous
scenes, it's not a repeat of what have been described, it serves as preparation
for a new section of the film, which shows footage of the pyramid of Cheops in
sunset and the director uses the dissolve between the face of the statue of Alexander
and the city of Alexandria in a wide shot.
Then this new section begins,
which deals with more specific details of ancient Alexandria,
through the ancient cemetery in the area of com Al Soqqafa, where Bettany
conversing with her second guest in the film, Mr Colin Clement from the Alexandria studies center,
who accompanied Bettany down to the cemetery.
Inside this tomb we see the
features of art and culture of the ancient city of Alexandria, which blend the
symbols of Greek and Romanian culture and gods with the culture of the
pharaohs, as shown in the cemetery statues and its wall sculptures, we watch a
sculpture of an animal's head represents the Pharaonic culture while he wears
Greek costumes.
After that we see Bettany in external
shot reveals antiquity remains consisting of broken columns lying on the
grassland.
I do not know the exact
location of these remains, but Alexandria
is rich with such remains in several locations, some in the heart of the
residential area surrounded by buildings on all sides.
In this shot Bettany continues
her amusing talk about Alexandria and the
founder, the city of Alexandria
is not like those of the ancient cities around the world, because its structure
does not belong to the first phase of bronze or classic structure to continue
through the ages.
Alexandria is a new city according to the archeological term of
the cities; it is created by a well educated man because Alexander when he was
thirteen years old he was taught by Aristotle.
Then we listen again to the
voice of Egyptian drum, while we see Bettany appears and enters the gate of the
Alexandrian Roman Theater, the place called Kom Al Dikka.
This is the official name, but
the people of Alexandria called the location of the Roman Theater, ( Mehattet Al
Ramll ), it's most common name, but it is important to say that the entrance of
the Roman Theater is near ( Mehattet Misr ), known as Martyrs squire.
When Bethany
enters the campus of this important archaeological site, she meets the third
guest of the film, she is Emanuela Kulicka, from the polish archaeological unit,
she provides for Bethany
one of the excavating achievements of her country mission, - that lasted many
years – which ended by the discovery of a lecture hall.
I have seen myself the
beginning of this excavation nearly seventeen year ago, during my day visit to
the Roman Theater, where I closed on curiosity to
an archeologist was sitting alone on the ground, removing the dust by his bare
hand and I asked him to know that he was a Polish.
We see the discovered lecture
hall in good condition and very clearly, it takes a form of a rectangle
consists of three steps to accommodate a thirtieth students who were studying law
and science in these halls. Bethany then asks about the lecturer place, then Emanuela
indicates to the steps overlooking the hall, then Bettany sits on this place,
and she says a note, that the place is very hot here, to be answered by Emanuela
that the lecture hall had been covered with a ceiling, its height of about four
or five meters stands on pillars of stone, its remnants still exist.
And a shot of the feature movie
Agora of the lecture hall integrates in wiping to see the complete identical
with the remnant.
Alexandria as a result of this
higher education was rich with ideas and the cutting edge's visions, and shots
from the movie Agora continue while we hear the voice of Bettany talks about
the level of knowledge at this time, Alexandrian scientists invented instruments,
to help them to aware of the scientific facts of the universe, as well as the
spherical of the earth had been known and that the earth revolves around the
sun.
Here the film references to Hypatia
of Alexandria, about a half of the film had passed, but this introduction is
indispensable, it establishes the main object, which can not be dealt in
isolation from the historical and cultural context in which the exceptional
scientist and philosopher such as Hypatia had witnessed.
 |
| Hypatia |
The scientist Hypatia of
Alexandria, whose the international cinema produced a feature film about her
with a Spanish capital and international stars, she deserves all this
attention, that in addition to being a philosopher, she also mathematician and
astronomer, and that her role was not limited to that, but she also invented
the astrolabe, a ring metal device, which we know how it works through the fourth
guest of the film.
She is Mrs. Hoda El-Mikaty, who
engaged in dialogue with Bethany
in the Planetarium at the Bibliotheca of Alexandria, and we note also the
splendor internal shooting at available lighting and the frequent use of the close
up in these interior scenes.
The library sequence didn't
come as a surprise because the film director presented it in the beginning of
the sequence where we saw Mrs. El-Mikaty accompanies Bettany at the external
gate entering the library altogether.
This sequence is ended by a
shot is taken to Bettany at the balcony of her room in the hotel which faces
the eastern harbor at night, this beautiful shot is used by Bethany to
emphasize the importance of scientific achievements and inventions, which we
received from the legendary city as the model of the Hypatia`s astrolabe which
appears between Bethany's hands.
And then a several clips enter from the movie Agora
explore ancient Alexandria and its buildings, this section of the film ends
with the same title (Alexandria, the greatest city) with the same shot of the
lighthouse taken from Agora movie.
A new section of the film
starts, where we see the modern Alexandria,
with its high buildings and streets, while shots from feature Agora integrate
with the same streets, and the talking about Hypatia continue.
The film contains an eloquent
language is closer to poetry, whether in the description of Hypatia or the Alexander,
or his city, which was a start of the era of the science.
The next section of the film
is dedicated to the science of medicine, which was one of the achievements of
this great city through Gaillard of Alexandria, Bettany talks to us while
traveling by Taxi through the streets of Alexandria,
but when she begins to offer the details she moves to a laboratory (mostly In
Britain) of veterinary anatomy.
We see the fifth Guest of the
film, he is the veterinary anatomist, Dr. David Bainbridge, who illustrates by
a living part of a horse's brain, he explains how Gaillard promoted the
scientific brain's study, and the science of medicine and anatomy were
developed by the Egyptians.
Egyptians have had experience
in embalming, and the extraction of parts from the person's body before
embalmed, Bethany
then interferes to say that they were extracting the brain from the nose of the
body, but Dr. David says that Herodotus said that, but it is a mistake because
the brain can not be extracted from the nose.
We return from this section to
Alexandria and its modern streets, with shots of ancient Alexandria taken from
Agora, in order to establishing a new section of the film without repeating the
same title as the film director used to.
This section deals with the
new Library, which represents the Alexandrian ambition to adding a copy of any
book in the world to the shelves of the library, just as the old library, which
disappeared completely.
The library's shots are great
and there are shots from Agora show the papyri placed inside the shelves of the
old library, the new library contains technology, science, literature and all knowledge,
in all languages, like Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Babylonian and Arabic.
And here I must stop to talk
about an issue had taken a great deal of interest in Egypt and perhaps in the
world, related to the speech of the former Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni in
the Egyptian's Assembly about the Hebrew books that found in the Library of
Alexandria in response to a question from one of the Islamists, he said he
would burn any Hebrew books, and he returned to apologize to the world when he
was a candidate for the UNESCO.
It is a matter of fact that
the presence of Hebrew books in the library does not represent an insult to the
Egyptian culture, because the Islam's references depends on the Hebrew heritage
which known as the Israeli texts, despite of the current situation of the
Arab-Israeli conflict.
The Hebrew heritage is a
religious reference for the Christian too; it is also a human heritage.
The library has remains of unique
papyri, and here the film begins to focus on papyri and the efforts to restore
and preserve them, these efforts is not limited only to the Library of
Alexandria, but in various places of the world.
We go with Bettany to the
courtyard of the library of the Christ church college in Oxford, and we see
Bettany passes the magnificent grassy courtyard to enter into this library, to
meet the sixth guest, Dr. Dirk , papyrologist who seen surrounding by the
remains of papyri restored.
Dr. Dirk says that the library
contains the remains of half a million papyri, including the remains of papyri
of Homer's two epic, some philosophical papyri, and a Greek tragedies and
comedy.
In fact, I myself, translated Menander's
Grouch from the English version of prof. Rosivach, this Greek play has been
discovered as a papyrus in Upper Egypt in the early fifties of the twentieth
century, and without this papyrus the world may have knew nothing of Menander but
the names of his 100 plays.
The laws of ancient Alexandria had not
allowed the books to leaving the country, and necessitate inspecting any vessel
entering the country to rewriting the papyri if found.
We see Bethany again in the library to tell us that
the number of printed books up to about half a million books, we see the giant computer
that contains all the electronic information from all Web sites. The ambition of the modern library is similar to the old library to
contain all the books, and then this section ends by the printed title (Alexandria, the great
city) at a shot of the lighthouse taken from Agora.
A new section of the film
begins, it is a very short using shots from agora with the voice of Bethany
summarizing the tragedy of Alexandria, which its golden age ended by
destructing its library and monuments, this section is very short serves as a
prelude to the most important sections of the film, which begins also by
emerging of the title (Alexandria, the greatest city) as usual.
This section begins with an
oriental sad music played by folk flute, and we listen to the voice of Bethany
tells us, that by the year 380 AD, Alexandria had thrived for seven centuries,
and it was able to provide ideas and thinkers like Hypatia - where we see a
portrait of her -.
Bethany continues saying that Alexandria was the greatest city after Rome, not by its martial forces but by the
strength of its scientific and cultural achievements.
Then we see a bright
Alexandrian church full of vivid paintings and we see Bettany inside talking about the emergence of
the Christian religion and the increasing of the follows of this religion,
which existed in the time of Hypatia.
Christianity emerged in Alexandria since the first century AD, the city is taken
to be a base to spreading Christianity in Africa,
and there was no fear of the prosperity of Christianity in the ancient city,
the early Christian fathers appreciated the achievements of the Greek and Romanian
civilization, such as the works of Aristotle and Pluto.
It was the era of tolerance
and coexistence between the followers of the pagan and the Christian religion,
but the conflict started between paganism and Christianity as something
inevitable, when the Christian began to claim to be - not only a faithful of a
spiritual doctrine of oneness of God - but also want to have the power.
Hypatia was a pagan but numbers
of her pupils were Christians, and the conflict began with the bishop Cyril, this
conflict led to a crisis, and Hypatia became a victim.
Then we see the historian and
archaeologist Justin Pollard, he is the seventh guest of the film, He worked as
a consultant in the feature Agora, we see a panel of Caesareum Temple
at the background of the shot, and he tells us that Christians looked to
Hypatia as a witch.
We hear the voice of Bettany
says that one of the Hypatia`s contemporaries wrote that she was accused
because of her invention of the astrolabe.
We see Bethany
in a street in Alexandria,
close to ( Sayed Darwish Theatre ), and we read a title tells us that the
location of the Caesareum temple was in this place.
In these exceptional
circumstances, Alexandria
was destroyed and Hypatia was killed, and her death was a death of a witch, and
there are no remains from the Alexandrian library, but only 1% of its papyri.
Then we see Bethany
in London near Victoria Embankment, we see an
Egyptian obelisk behind her, the one that it called Cleopatra's needle, it's
one of the remains of the city of Alexandria,
and we see the same needle in a shot taken from Agora, this needle was
transferred from Egypt
in 1878.
 |
| Cleopatra`s needle |
Then we see Bettany continues
to walk and stop next to another Egyptian statue stands in this important
region in London, Bettany ends her film on the
fact that ancient Alexandria
vanished, but it is worthy to be remembered and celebrated for its
achievements.
What a wonderful film, which
gathers historical informations, and scenes taken from reality dovetailed with
scenes from the film Agora, and the finest performance of Bettany Hughes.
The 52 minutes of the film
pass in amusement, because of the perfection, yet we can not miss any detail,
it's a sample of filming deserves to be watched, it's also a model of the
contemporary documentary films that has been established in Britain as a trade
mark.
We must consider more about
the quality of the documentary films in Egypt and the Arab world; They are like
the books to spreading the culture in the era of multimedia.
I found this extraordinary film
coincidently via the Internet, but you may watch it in the following link :-
Team film.
Presentation :- Bettany Hughes
Extraneous scenes - from the
movie Agora.
Written by: - Justin Pollard
(who participated in the production of the movie)
Photo: - Mike Craven-todd
Sound: - Mohamed Batout and
Martin Wilson
Music: - Audio Network
Graphics: - Ginger Huw
Online editor: - Ben Cull
Dubbing mixer: - Malcolm
Beattie
Director of production: -
Shahana Meer
Location fixor: - Mohamed
Hawash
Assistant Producer - Jack Maclnnes
Production manager: - Zoe
Turner
Offline editor Studio: -
Oliver Baker
Executive producers for lion
television: - Bill Locke, and Richard Bradley
Directed and Produced by: -
Nick Gillam Smith
-----------------------------------
I posted This article first in
Arabic at the following two links :-
All good wishes.
Mamdough Shalaby
