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During the latter years of the reign of the tyrannical Roman emperor Nero, Marcus Vinicius, one of Nero's officers, falls in love with a young Christian named Lygia, attempting to enslave her. Lygia's protector, the noble and burly Ursus, works to save her from Vinicius' clutches. Pursuing Lygia, Vinicius finds himself at a catacomb prayer meeting led by the apostle Peter and finds his conscience stirring-- just as Nero orders Rome burned. A landmark in epic film, Enrico Guazzoni’s grand-scale masterpiece laid the foundations for what colossal Italian spectacles would become. The film had tremendous influence on Giovanni Pastrone’s Cabiria (1914) and D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916).
Uma experiência maçante e entediante em alguns momentos. É um perfeito exemplo, por mais que óbvio, do quão indispensável a linguagem é para uma obra. Aqui, a ausência da própria provoca um sentimento ruim no telespectador mais acostumado (como eu) aos filmes mais contemporâneos.
A utilização dos textos também é má executada, praticamente narrando os acontecimentos seguintes e não necessariamente desenvolvendo bem os diálogos. Aqui, o telespectador não é conduzido por conta própria aos desfechos, mas eu acho que talvez seja um pouco exigente demais da minha parte esperar algo de um projeto de 1913.
No final das contas, eu não assistiria de novo, mas é um filme marcante para aquele momento.
Early feature-length epic, and it is highly ambitious. A bit disjointed in the narrative, and title cards are still describing the scene (necessarily given the mediocre level of visual storytelling), but there are a number of impressive scenes for 1913 - especially once we get past the Vinicius-repeatedly-trying-to-kidnap-Lygia section that takes up a lot of the first half and into the Christians-being-persecuted section.
I definitely understand the argument that this film inspired many of the future epics of cinema (especially the Biblical epics of the 50's and 60's) but to me it only really captures that feeling in the last 20 minutes or so.
It certainly has the scope of an epic, the characters, the extras and the large, sweeping plot are all evidence of this, but visually it's so boring and uninventive. It fails to live up to the material as there's no visual flair to make it memorable in anyway.
First half isn’t that exciting - an over-reliance on title cards strains any excitement of the story into a powerpoint - but when the functional images lacking much of any vantage point and extremely awkward headroom give way to crosscutting, pans and vfx, the spatial construction becomes a much more reliable dramatic construct, and the film gets life. Occasional baroque style images, and a flames sequence of chaotic disparate fleet and engulfing smoke on the stately architecture quickly turns the form visceral and commentating. The colosseum is very exciting until it becomes a devastating show of the construction of spectacle - the suffering of the people for banal, mid level approval from authority - the panning camera with intercut crowd eruption, and the restraint in who you hold on for destruction. The larger picture on empiric decay in the messiness of love intermingled with tyranny and how that personifies in class relations isn’t communicated and is dramatic fodder at best.
The art of the epic has its rather humble beginnings here. There are some impressive shots and this is told in a grand scope, but the narrative is lacking, which would push me to like it more. Still, this is quite respectable, especially for its time, and the influences on the likes of Griffith's Babylon sequences of Intolerance and the 1951 Quo Vadis are quite clear.
Well, that concludes the pre-1914 features that I wanted to see. Hopefully things pick up for 1914!
Quirked Up Roman Boy has a creative block and commits arson.
One of those movies that exists in a weird in-between, specifically between the stage production feeling of the early silent era and the massive period epics of the coming decades. Sure, it means the camerawork is still pretty stiff, but I gotta say the sets and performances are neat for the time.
A crescente busca por tecnologias (ou a impetuosa vontade de romper com esses limites) que pudessem superar as ambições da nascente indústria italiana, além do gradativo desejo de exportação desses filmes, enfim convergência no superespetáculo da ficção romana. Essa relação mais teatral com o cinema que os italianos tinham partiam de uma esterilização narrativa em prol do cuidado detalhado da composição visual. Entendo planos como palcos (em alguns momentos, o proscênio) tridimensionais onde seus atores encenam a lendária e mítica Roma, não existia necessariamente uma preocupação muito grande em entender o cinema como cinema, de fato, mas como espaços imóveis onde a ação seria encenada; um lugar menos finito que o teatro. Dois momentos no quais…
Still in the realm of films over 100 years old, I wouldn't think that I would have seen something I could define as an 'Epic'. Taking place in ancient Rome during the reign of Nero, "Quo Vadis?" Follows the persecution of the Christian people. For the year it is very expansive and covers a lot of ground in the time it's given. Which is saying a lot considering the roughly 2 hour runtime was unexpected for me.
Perhaps the strongest aspects of "Quo Vadis?" are the costumes, sets, and some striking imagery. Particularly the burning of Rome and the colosseum scenes. I feel some of the intertitles could have written with more clarity, but they served their purpose well enough. The great sets and design combined with the ambitious runtime show "Quo Vadis?" To be a precursor to the modern epics of today.
Não vou mentir, foi uma experiência bem difícil assistir um filme silencioso de quase duas horas. Até porque tem pouco que te cative aqui em questão de edição, ou composição das imagens. Assim como outros filmes italianos da época, ele ainda carrega essa ideia de performance teatral. Esses planos fixos, onde cenas são performadas do início ao fim são tão similares em composição, que o filme parece progredir quase que única e exclusivamente através dos letreiros.
A história acompanha o Imperador Nero em sua empreitada contra o cristianismo em Roma. Através de uma história de amor, bem conturbada, “Quo Vadis?” explora temas de amor, lealdade e redenção através da fé. Ao mesmo tempo em que coloca o paganismo e cristianismo como…
