''Nero, or The Fall of Rome'' ( it, Nerone, o la caduta di Roma) is a 1909 Italian short silent

Epic film Epic films are a style of filmmaking with large-scale, sweeping scope, and spectacle. The usage of the term has shifted over time, sometimes designating a film genre and at other times simply synonymous with big-budget filmmaking. Like epics in ...

directed by Luigi Maggi and

Arturo Ambrosio Arturo Ambrosio (1870–1960) was an Italian film producer who was a pioneering and influential figure in the early years of Italian cinema. Biography Ambrosio was a photographer who owned a shop in Turin. In 1904, after returning from a visit ...

, based on the eponymous 1872 drama by Pietro Cossa. This is one of the oldest surviving Italian epic films about

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...

.Review and link to watch the film:

Plot

One day emperor

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 un ...

leaves his palace accompanied by his wife Claudia Octavia and meets a charming patrician named Poppea. With the help of his

freedman A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), emancipation (granted freedom ...

Epaphroditus he finds her at a party she is attending and brings her back to his palace. Nero presents Poppea to the people as the new

empress An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

and repudiates his wife. Octavia asks him to restitute the empire which he had received as her

dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...

, but the emperor harshly chases her away. Later, Nero is convinced by Poppea to have Octavia killed. One of her maidservants swears revenge and goes to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

where she spreads the news of the assassination. The people, already tired of Nero's exactions and whims, decide to revolt against the emperor. Informed of the danger of an imminent popular

uprising Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

, Nero orders to set fire to the city, which he watches from a terrace, rejoicing and playing his

lyra Lyra (; Latin for lyre, from Greek ''λύρα'') is a small constellation. It is one of the 48 listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and is one of the modern 88 constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Lyra ...

. Abandoned by all and sentenced to death by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

, he is beset by visions of the massacres he ordered. He flees with Epaphroditus seeking refuge at the villa of the freedman Faonte. Discovered and chased into the woods together with Epaphroditus, he kills himself with his sword.

Cast

* Alberto Capozzi as

ne * Lydia De Roberti as Poppea * Mirra Principi as Claudia Octavia * Luigi Maggi as Epaphroditus * as a Senator / a Man in the crowd * as a Spy * Serafino Vite as a Man in the crowd * Leo Ragusi as a Man in the crowd * as a Senator

Reception

The film was a success both in Italy and on foreign markets. Nearly 300 copies were sold abroad at the time of the original release. The scene where Nero is beset by bad conscience, having a vision of the Christians he had sent to martyrdom (shown by a red-toned double exposure shot), had a strong impact on the audience. The reviewer for the ''Moving Picture World'' wrote on 6 November 1909 that the film possessed "such a marvellous realism of affect that as we sat and watched this colored part of the film, we seemed, as it were, to hear the cries of the victims".Maria Wyke, ''Projecting the Past: Ancient Rome, Cinema and History'', Routledge, New-York, 1997, p. 119. The film received the First Prize at the first edition of the World Competition of Cinematography in Milan ( it, Primo Concorso Mondiale di Cinematografia di Milano). A parody of ''Nero'', ''Tontolini Nerone'', was released in 1910.Elena Mosconi, ''L'impressione del film: contributi per una storia culturale del cinema'', Ed. Vita e Pensiero, Milano, 2006, p. 90, (in Italian).

Analysis

The film is composed of 13 one shot scenes, with 6 intertitles. It is characterised by lavish sets and costumes and a cinematography which is still very close to theatre representation, with a succession of '' tableaux vivants'' filmed by a static frontal camera. All but two sets are indoors sets very similar to theatre sets including painted backdrops giving an illusion of perspective. Two shots are filmed outdoors in a garden. Maria Wyke mentions ''Nero'' as "one of the first tentative experiments in the screening of Roman history made by an Italian production house", remarking that it bases its plot on "a vastly condensed synthesis of the Italian dramatic tradition for Nero - from grandiose production of

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is consider ...

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

'' L'incoronazione di Poppea'' (first performed in 1642) to recent stagings of Pietro Cossa's popular tragedy ''Nerone''". Regarding the cinematographic style, she writes: "Highly dependent still on the conventions of the Italian stage, almost every scene of ''Nerone'' (...) operates as a self-contained unit within which the actors playing Nero, Octavia or Poppea, planted before papier mâché backdrops and facing their unseen film audience, gesture majestically". Only the scene mentioned above on Nero's vision is regarded as a "celebration of the innovatory powers of cinema".

References

External links

*
(1909) Nero''
a
A Cinema History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nero 1900s Italian-language films 1909 films Italian black-and-white films Italian epic films Depictions of Nero on film Cultural depictions of Claudia Octavia Films directed by Arturo Ambrosio