Troy and Women from Hollywood's Perspective

The movie "Troy" is now 30 minutes into playing out on AMC. Well done movie.

I'm also enjoying Brad Pitt in his portrayal of Achilles. He's a haughty, prideful, resentful young man who bears no loyalty to anyone except, perhaps, to his mother. I like his representation in this movie because he breaks from the static, predictable character acting of all his other movies I've seen since "Thelma and Louise."

Also interesting in this story is finally being able to see all the Greek characters I've read about in mythology and history taking their respective places in time juxtaposed to one another. Things finally come together. Relationships are made clear. I'll probably take the next 1.5 hrs to watch this story play out so that I can see how the history goes with all the parts and pieces put together instead of a bit here and a bit there. These are not people who were scattered across time, mere puppets acting out some mindless tasks. These were people full of feelings, cares, fears, needs for respect and association. They had desires to attain great things in many ways.

One thing I'm finding fascinating in this representation, however, is that Pitt seems to be telling us that Achilles was gay. Of course the Encyclopedia Britannica Junior was going to contain a very sanitized version of his life. But nothing else provided that perspective. It appears one of his lovers was his "cousin" (whose name I didn't catch) but as the story progresses, that concept is downplayed in deference to his finding Briseis and ultimately developing care for her.

From a historical analysis I saw many years ago on a PBS program, there was a discussion of Greek moralities and customs. Because so much emphasis was placed on family and the sanctity of the union, the virginity of the bride, men were allowed homosexual relationships until they were ready to wed. Once married, homosexual relationships were forbidden and the marriage bed was protected from desecration. So also were the young women protected from premature awareness and childbirth too early for the development and successful delivery of healthy offspring. Dalliances were discouraged.

I'm also finding the portrayal of the women and their roles in the household (even if it is the court) is fascinating. There seems to be a lot of liberty and freedom in many ways. Whereas, the knowledge I've been given before seeing this is that women were still subservient but not as much as other civilizations. There's no representation of how women played a role in political strategy and decision making. But then, women were the minor characters in this story. This was a story about how one woman caused a war and the focus was on carrying out the war.

Still, this story says women played a very minor role in life and governing. Why have women been treated as mere public eye candy and baby bearers? They are so essential is bringing about developing our cultures, telling the stories, being in partnership with the work and essential in planning. Yet, here again, they are shown as being the minor characters and mere tools in carrying out the larger scheme of life.

As in my youth, I viewed this movie and got curious about the facts - which were real and which fictional. I don't have a wonderful encyclopedia now. I have my laptop and access to information on the Web. So I went to the story of Achilles that can be found on Wikipedia. Interesting how this movie dovetailed so well with the facts on the encyclopedia.

Maria Anna Mozart - The Woman Behind The Talent of Wolfgang

Maria Anna Mozart
(30 July 1751 – 29 October 1829)
Musician

Maria Anna Mozart, beloved nicknamed Nannerl, was the elder and only sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As children, both were considered gifted musical prodigies and their father, Leopold, arranged tours to display their talents to the masses in the grandest capitals of Europe. Both children could play the most challenging pieces and could compose into notes any song they heard.


They enjoyed a pleasant childhood, indulging their musical creativity and creating their own childish kingdom. As Nannerl and Wolfgang’s musical genius progressed into composition, her adoring younger brother greatly praised and encouraged her work. At a concert, when he announces that the piece he has just played was written by his sister, Leopold is incensed. He orders Nannerl to never compose music again because in the 18th century, women did not become composers.

Thereafter, Leopold focused all his attentions on Mozart, not Nannerl. He refused to allow her to study the violin and composition. Leopold announces Nannerl must remain at home when he takes Wolfgang on tour and obliges her to give piano lessons to wealthy students to finance her brother’s Italian tour. Her dreams shattered, Nannerl complies, but falls into a deep depression.



Victoria, one of her students, becomes her protégé. Through Victoria, Nannerl’s passion for music is re-awakened. When Victoria’s father becomes interested in her, he rekindles her spirit. Her relationship with Mozart, however, is plagued by years of separation and the preference of their father for his son and not his daughter. Nannerl struggles not only with the loss of her hopes and dreams, but also with the ever-growing estrangement with her brother and her father who refuses to recognize her talents because of the laws of society which will not allow a woman to enter the wold of musical composition.

Even her choice of suiters were one-by-one turned away by Leopold. In 1784, she married the magistrate Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg (1736-1801) and moved to St. Gilgen. Nannerl returned to Salzburg to give birth to her first son and left the newborn there in Leopold's care.

Nannerl grew ever more distant from Wolfgang, especially after his marriage to Constanze Weber. They resumed corresponding briefly after the death of their father, but by then, their affection for each other had all but disappeared and Mozart's brief letters to her dealt almost exclusively with the disposition of their father's estate.

When Wolfgang dies, Nannerl re-awakens to life and makes it her purpose to honor her brother by collecting and assembling all his compositions and erecting monuments to honor his life.

After her huband’s death, Maria Anna returned to Salzburg and supported herself once again by giving piano lessons. She died on October 29, 1829, and was buried in St. Peter’s cemetary.

Reprinted from History and Women Blog

A Slice of History from Viva

Isn't this a great group of bloggers? Aren't you intrigued about what you'll be able to read from them?

I've been a member of the Historical Novelists list since 2002 (or so). They feed my love of history, research, and just good conversation. Being associated with them has enhanced my appreciation of history and how it shapes our present lives. Engaging in the conversations has illuminated some previously unknown facts and situations.

My writings run the gamut. My writing life began with providing publicity for the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce as well as the Business & Professional Women's Club. Those were in addition to writing legal documents and related matters as a transactional and litigation paralegal (oh yes, and as the South Coast Air Quality Hearing Board Legal Clerk). Those endeavors were soon supplemented with my becoming a freelance journalist/reporter and law clerk.

After a while, my writings took on more form as I began hosting and producing my own radio newscast on legal news for the visually impaired community in the Bay Area. My research areas also grew as I did freelance research on women's health issues for KRON.

While my poetry titles continued to grow from high school, I began to keep my manuscripts and perform them in the early 1970s. That was when my childhood neighbor's godfather revealed that he was a poet and songwriter -- Prince Patridge. He became my mentor. My poetry has also been performed by Mona Golabek on her program "The Romantic Hours" and a few pieces have been published on the Web. I long to have time to put together a collection as a manuscript for a chapbook or for a full book.

My fictional and inspirational writing began in the late 1990s and continues. Again, I have a very strong desire to aggregate many of those pieces for a book.

My life turned away from law and went in the direction of employment and recruiting, then management. Within the first two years of going independent (and a year after earning my California Accredited Consultant designation) I found myself being invited to submit proposals to be a recruiting and HR conference speaker based on my writings in those areas, and to contribute to an India university journal on management.

Desire became reality when I was published as a contributor to one of the CollegeRecruiter.com anthologies on getting a job.

My employment industry endeavors have been refined as the years have passed. My focus areas are in regard to diversity; women as leaders; hiring, retention, and promotion of personnel, especially minority women; ethics; and abuse.

Those areas are where my contributions to Clio's Children will be. The inspiration for focusing on this niche area sprang from being invited to be a speaker-presenter for Black History Month this year and then delivering the sermon in honor of Black History Month.

Being multi-racial, it was easy for me to see the value in sharing some of my research about significant contributions minorities have made to our lives and highlighting their accomplishments in spite of the many obstacles that my specialty populations have made.