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The reception of Cleopatra VII is closely linked to the reception of Alexandria, her residence. Because 19th- and 20th-century European artists imagined Alexandria as an Oriental city, Cleopatra was styled as a royal woman who fits into this Oriental context. While 19th- and 20th-century European intellectuals and artists occasionally showed some awareness that Cleopatra was a representative of a Hellenistic monarchy, 20th-century films portrayed her in a (pseudo-)Egyptian style. Her image as a femme fatale was reinforced by the peplum films that were most popular in the 1950s and 1960s: in the conservative representation of women, Cleopatra was the antithesis of the ‘good’ heroine who had to wait for her male hero to rescue her and marry her.
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