Willem Dafoe as Caravaggio. Kristin Scott Thomas as Katharine Clifton. Naveen Andrews as Kip. Colin Firth as Geoffrey Clifton. For Socrates, Beauty is on a par with Goodness and Truth in the trinity of perfect Ideas.
Love embodies the desire for beauty, for completion, the yearning for immortality.
Yet the residents of Olympus seemed unable, or at least unwilling, to resist such temptation. His History happens to be the main character's constant companion, even improbably surviving a fiery crash that all but consumed its merely human owner. On closer analysis, however, both the style and the message are in reality quintessentially classical. The passionate love described in this movie is, in such classical terms, definitely painful. But at the same time it is impossible to deny that it is portrayed as eminently beautiful.