On the cover: Peter Ustinov as Nero in a scene from the film Quo Vadis (1951)

Chair: Alessio Francesco Palmieri-Marinoni

Beginning in the 1910s, the historical film genre emerged in cinema and enjoyed great success for more than half a century. Its distinctive feature was the extraordinary attention devoted to costumes.

Films such as Quo Vadis? (1913), The Last Days of Pompeii (1913), and Cabiria (1914) paved the way for the genre known in Italy as “Peplum” – or “Sword and Sandal” in the English-speaking world – which reached its peak in the 1960s with Ben-Hur, Cleopatra, Spartacus, Titus, and The Ten Commandments. In these films, history and mythology, drawn from the Greco-Roman world, merge with elements belonging to surrounding cultures (such as Egyptian, Assyrian, Etruscan, Mycenaean cultures, etc.).

The distinctive feature of this cinematic genre lies in its close relationship with the History of Costume. These films are characterised by meticulous attention to the historical period in which the story takes place and to the related clothing, while at the same time incorporating references to twentieth-century fashion.

SEMINAR STRUCTURE

• The myth of Rome in Romanticism
• Scenic hyperrealism: A. Boito’s Nerone and Quo Vadis?
• Between history and fashion
• Nero: a case study in cinema

RECOMMENDED READINGS

Di Chiara, F. (2016), Peplum: il cinema italiano alle prese col mondo antico, Donzelli Editore

Kinnard, R. (2017), Italian Sword and Sandal Films, 1908–1990, McFarland