intermundia

Did you guys know that Ancient Greek basically has a word for the Kubrick Stare? The shot in movies where someone extremely pissed or deranged tilts their head down, and looks up beneath their eyebrows?

ὑποβλέπω (inf. hypoblepein) means 'look up from under the brows at,' and can mean to eye suspiciously, angrily, or menacingly. In the Iliad, the epic dialect uses ὑπόδρα ἰδὼν (hypodra idōn) meaning basically the same thing, 'glaring from beneath his brows,' e.g. Achilles at the very beginning of the epic, while arguing with Agamemnon:

τὸν δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ὑπόδρα ἰδὼν προσέφη πόδας ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεύς
Glaring from beneath his brows, swift-footed Achilles replied

So I basically have always imagined Achilles doing a Kubrick Stare at Agamemnon at that moment, and it's helped me visualize the action of the epic. It also brings weight to Hayden's acting choices in RotS and elevates the scene to me. He's behaving very much like a hero of old, which is a very dangerous thing to be.

bluedaddysgirl