Description
Book Synopsis'Ancient Rome at the Cinema' is a lucid study of the worlds created in Roman historical epics. Based on analysis of the visual and narrative fabric of seven films set in Ancient Rome, 'Ancient Rome at the Cinema' demonstrates how cinematic versions of Ancient Rome have been able to captivate us, and inscribe their versions of the city and its history onto our imagination. Theodorakopoulos uses film theory and criticism to examine the ways in which historical drama creates the past through story-telling and visual effects. Particular emphasis is put on the tension between narrative and spectacle which is an inherent feature of cinema, and a long-standing preoccupation of film critics and theorists from the 1930s to the present. The book also examines the techniques and the rhetoric of realism which feature especially prominently in historical films. 'Ancient Rome at the Cinema' is a companion volume to 'Ancient Greece in Film and Popular Culture' by Gideon Nisbet (9781904675785, 2008, 2nd edition).
Trade ReviewTheodorakopoulos ist eine weitgehend koharente Auseinandersetzung mit wichtigen Erzeugnissen des Antikfilmgenres gelungen, wobei gerade die Heterogenitat der Beispiele aus dem Mainstream-Kino und dem Autorenfilm die Untersuchung bereichert. Durch ein gut strukturiertes Theoriekapitel, in dem die Autorin auf wichtige Theorien zum Medium Film, zum Historienfilm sowie zur Thematik der Metahistorie eingeht, werden die Betrachtungen zu den einzelnen Produktionen gut vorbereitet. Die Bezugnahme auf unterschiedliche Theorien aus den verschiedensten interdisziplinaren Bereichen an der Schnittstelle zwischen Medien- und Geschichtswissenshaften macht diese Publikation auch fur den Einsatz im didaktischen Bereich wertvoll. H-Soz-u-Kult
Table of Contents
- List of Illustrations vi
- Introduction 1
- 1 Narrative and Spectacle, Realism and Illusion, and
- the Historical Film 9
- 2 Ben-Hur: ‘Tale of the Christ’ or Tale of Rome? 30
- 3 Spartacus and the Politics of Story-Telling 51
- 4 The Fall of the Roman Empire: The Filmmaker as
- Historian 77
- 5 Gladiator: Making it New? 96
- 6 Fellini Satyricon: ‘Farewell to Antiquity’ or ‘Daily
- Life in Ancient Rome’? 122
- 7 Titus: Rome and the Penny Arcade 145
- Conclusion 168
- Notes 173
- Further Reading and Viewing 186
- Bibliography 190
- Filmography 196
- Index
