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suggestive of the illumination she will ultimately impart to him. The
glaring oppositions between Christian and Roman are replayed in their
male vs. female roles, but by the end of the film, they are shown to be
reconciled in both love and belief: “The hypermasculine Roman . . .
is gradually tamed by the calm steadfastness and faith of the Christian
woman and finds something to believe in” (Fitzgerald, 35). Though the
film opens with Marcus and his soldiers marching into Rome on the Via
Appia, it closes with the happy couple riding out of town past the staff of
Peter at the site of the miracle, marking the space as forever belonging
to Christ.
Thanks to the meticulous research of academic advisor Gray, the historical
characters in Quo Vadis are authentically drawn, even when they
follow epic generic conventions of being “good” or “evil.” British actor
Peter Ustinov received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for
his performance as Nero, who comes across as the nastiest kind of tyrantemperor,
suffering from both delusions of musical grandeur and fits of
insane brutality. His scenes are punctuated with appalling temper tantrums
and pouting sessions, as he recites his ghastly poetry and imperious
dialogue: “The world is mine, and mine to end!” When he weeps for the
death of his friend Petronius, he saves the tears in a small glass “weeping
vase,” providing an indelible, and surprisingly comic, image of his megalomania
and self-love. Many viewers note that Ustinov’s overblown performance
injects some humor into the despotic ruler (Solomon, 2001a,
219–20), and gives the character a certain unexpected humanity that
allows the audience to believe Acte’s unconditional, and perhaps incipiently
Christian, love for him.
Nero’s wife, Poppaea, played with predatory allure by British actress
Patricia Laffan, is the epitome of the wicked Roman femme fatale, suffusing
the screen with her vanity, ambition, jealousy, and sexual appetite. As
a woman, she is associated with the natural world like Lygia, but Poppaea
is overtly bestial. The pair of cheetahs she keeps cozily leashed next to her
is a visual indication of her character: feline, seductive, and wild. Poppaea’s
clinging costumes in iridescent greens and blues also suggest a reptilian
aspect to her nature: one scholar calls her “a real lizard” (Solomon, 2001a,
220). The film repeats the ancient gossip that she was once a prostitute, in
the remark of Petronius: “A woman has no past when she mates with a
god.” But unlike Acte, Poppaea could not care less about Nero, except as
a means to further her desires. From the start of the film, her attraction to
Marcus is palpable, and when she is thwarted, like Nero she wreaks her
vengeance with great skill and cruelty.
24 QUO VADIS (1951)