Big Screen Rome - Amazon Web Services

ambivalent one, given the glittering aesthetics these films evince and the
expert studio strategies used to market them as awe-inspiring spectacles of
Rome’s power and luxury. Big-budget epic films allowed the prosperous
Hollywood film industry, in the prime of its life at the mid-century mark,
to exhibit the medium’s emergent technological capabilities; moreover,
these films were primarily designed to compete with and surpass the development
of their small-screen rival, television, in popular appeal and
entertainment value (Wyke, 24–32). What the epics offered to lure spectators
back into the movie theaters “was as much the wide-screen wickedness
of the Romans as the piety of their Christian victims” (Wyke, 31).
Thus, these films propose two separate identifications, one based on the
narrative and another on the visual enjoyment of the cinematic entertainment,
“a distinction that allows the audience to have its cake and eat it, to
be in two places at once” (Fitzgerald, 26). The historical epic film essentially
becomes a dualistic arena for spectacle that invites modern viewers
to align themselves with the privileged Romans cheering in the stands as
well as the Christian martyrs on the bloodied sand.
With a budget of over $7 million, and a running time of just under
three hours, MGM gave LeRoy the license to envisage and create the epic
film of his dreams. Filmed in brilliant Technicolor at Cinecittà in Rome,
with exterior scenes shot in the familiar golden countryside around Rome
and in the shade of the umbrella pines along the Palatine Hill, the movie
presents a well-constructed and delicate balance between the Roman and
Christian positions. The intelligent screenplay is a judicious adaptation of
the novel infused with historically correct dialogue, producing a series
of extraordinary roles that set a high standard for the representation of
character in later films of the epic genre.
Yet such ordinary aspects of the film as historical authenticity, script,
and character development are easily overlooked when weighed against
the film’s spectacular visual impact. The sets are strikingly rich and gorgeous,
but the film avoids the kind of over-the-top garishness sometimes
manifest in the set design of other historical epics (Solomon, 2001a, 217).
The film’s interior spaces are especially tailored to suit the mood of specific
scenes, from the gilded magnificence of Nero’s palace, to the elegant
Hellenic minimalism of Petronius’ salon, or the rustic utilitarian courtyard
of Plautius’ country house. And LeRoy delivers spectacle, just as
Nero promises at the opening of the film, with a gallery of stunning and
dramatic set pieces. Throngs of people pour into the Forum to watch the
pomp and ceremony of Marcus Vinicius’ triumphal entry into Rome.
At the victory banquet that night, lavishly attired guests are entertained
20 QUO VADIS (1951)