Pygmalion

The pulse of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, about a man so in love with an illusion he can’t see the reality before him, thrums inside every person who’s obsessed with movies, but the Pygmalion dreams it’s drawn from are universal.

This premise was already tired by the time “She’s All That” came around — the movie was loosely based on “My Fair Lady,” after all, itself a take on “Pygmalion” — but teen comedies don’t always need to avoid tropes to succeed.

On January 29, 1999—exactly 15 years ago—a modern day adaptation of Pygmalion was thrust on an unsuspecting public.

The notion of handcrafting a flawless spouse was nothing new—the Pygmalion myth dates back to ancient Greece.

Pygmalion, king of Cyprus, was a sworn bachelor, and had shunned the society of women for many years.

But Gilbert never soared so high either in his philosophy or in his art as in Pygmalion and Galatea.

To this statue Venus, at Pygmalion's request, gives life; but she withholds the power of loving.

In "Pygmalion" we are asked to suppose that Venus is indignant with the sculptor for his lack of susceptibility to female charms.

Pygmalion, before his perfect statue, is not successful,—for it might live.