|
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spy or scapegoat?, Sep 27 2001
Utterly fascinating, romanticized look at the woman history views as one of the greatest femme fatales but who may very well have been a scapegoat. Tells the engrossing and tragic tale with excellent photographs and wonderfully dreamy, exotic background music of her origins from Dutch schoolgirl to her ascent and ultimate fall as the bewitching dancer, courtesan, and international "spy" Mata Hari. Born Geertrude Margarete Zelle, she had a happy childhood with a doting father. All that ended when the town's economy collapsed--he took off; shortly after her mother died. The parentless, seventeen-year old got a job at a school training to become a teacher but was scandalously released after an affair with the headmaster. The only option was marriage, and enter Rudolph MacLeod, a dashing army officer old enough to be her father. After the marriage the couple was stationed at Malaysia. It was here that Mata Hari was born. Unfortunately, Rudolph was a wife-beating, drinking, womanizing tyrant who became enraged at the attention his handsome wife attracted. Geertrude took solace in the enchanting Malay culture--their people, language, and dance, the latter which would change the course of her life dramatically years later. The natives called her "mata hari"--it meant "eye of dawn." Tragedy struck when their two children were poisoned by an enemy of Rudolph; their daughter survived but the son died, after which Geertrude came down with typhoid. The ordeal of being a beaten wife, losing her child, and surviving illness gave her inner strength and she divorced Rudolph, even if it meant never seeing her daughter again.The divorcee headed for the anything-goes city of Paris and found her calling in eastern dance when the dark-haired, exotic looking woman convinced a wealthy collector she was a Hindu princess and dancer; a performance was arranged and "Mata Hari" became the toast of Paris. She also took on the role of celebrated courtesan with extremely wealthy, highly positioned men which led to her becoming a "spy" when WWI erupted. At this time she inconveniently fell in love for the first time with a Russian pilot young enough to be her son. Through a complex series of machiavellian maneuvers, Mata Hari became a scapegoat as the perfect target to put on very public display as an example of wartime treason. In what has to be among the most dramatic endings to a dramatic life, Mata Hari was executed by firing squad toward the end of WWI. In true theatrical fashion, the smartly dressed woman bravely refused a blindfold, thanked her executioners, and smiled. She was only 41.
|
