![]() His effects might come off as a tad goofy or awkward to modern viewers, but, at their time, they were revolutionary and shaped the appearance of many classic Hollywood filmmakers. In the second part of the 20th century, the antiquity film was given a new direction by the designs and visual effects of Ray Harryhausen. This anecdote, how immoral it may be, does serve as an example of how, yet again, the representation of the ancient past goes whatever (tragic) lengths possible to give the modern viewer a sense of its subject matter. The film went as far as to have multiple elephants unfortunately killed in the production process. ![]() It was commissioned by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and was mainly produced for fascist propaganda reasons. Cabiria features incredible sets filled with extra’s, and with its release, the ‘genre’ of the epic film was invented.Īnother early film about this story is Scipione l’Africano (1937, Carmine Gallone), which, in its English version, becomes Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal. This war put ancient Rome against the power of Carthage, and is probably most known for Hannibal’s famous elephant trek through the Alps. Griffith and is set during the Second Punic War (218-201 BC). ![]() The best and most known example of this is Cabiria (1914, Giovanni Pestrone), which influenced the work of renowned filmmaker D.W. During this period of Italian film history, there was a tendency of creating immense and incredible productions, with films featuring spectacular set design. Its origins can already be found in the early Italian cinema of the 1910’s. The mechanic of pairing the past to a large cinematic scale or scope isn’t exclusively modern. What I described as the ‘large-scale movie epic’, are those films that take the ancient past as subject matter and transform them into these big blockbuster movie events, characterised for example by an incredible scope of action, a wonderous setting, and, more and more in digital times, a reliance on practical or computer-generated visual effects. My goal here is mainly to give a short overview of a tendency that I think is noteworthy and, above all, interesting. Note that I will only talk about a mere handful of films, though there’s a vast amount of ‘antiquity films’ that could be discussed here. ![]() For this post, let’s look at one of the most popular forms of ‘resurrecting’ the ancient past: that of the large-scale movie epic. ‘Antiquity’ is a broad term, of course, and doesn’t exclusively restrict itself to Greek and Latin history: there’s many thriving cultures or interesting periods we can talk about, like Ancient Egypt, Scandinavia, Mesopotamia, Asia, Mayan culture, but also, for example, Biblical times. Having studied ancient Greek & Latin literature myself, this time period holds a special place in my heart, and I thought it appropriate to devote a blog post to ‘antiquity films’. (The question remains, though, for how long.) The medium of film (or TV) plays no small role in prolonging the power and nature of history. In the ± 120 years that cinema has existed, there’s been a vast amount of period/costume dramas, for example, or other films projecting a fragment or vision of the past on the big screen.Īn interesting period to look at is that of antiquity, otherwise known as ancient history. On the other hand, however, it should also be noted that the past is still here. Modern evolution is regularly seen as a malevolent attempt to replace or ‘destroy’ the place of the historical past in our modern society, and this view is quite often completely justified. We live in a time that has often been described as a period of rapid technological evolution, heightened consumerism and where work ethic has become more important than ever before. ![]()
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