A Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome on Screen

A comprehensive treatment of the Classical World in film and television, A Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome on Screen closely examines the films and TV shows centered on Greek and Roman cultures and explores the tension between pagan and Christian worlds.

Written by a team of experts in their fields, this work considers productions that discuss social settings as reflections of their times and as indicative of the technical advances in production and the economics of film and television. Productions included are a mix of Hollywood and European spanning from the silent film era though modern day television series, and topics discussed include Hollywood politics in film, soundtrack and sound design, high art and low art, European art cinemas, and the ancient world as comedy.

Written for students of film and television as well as those interested in studies of ancient Rome and Greece, A Companion to Ancient Greece and Rome on Screen provides comprehensive, current thinking on how the depiction of Ancient Greece and Rome on screen has developed over the past century. It reviews how films of the ancient world mirrored shifting attitudes towards Christianity, the impact of changing techniques in film production, and fascinating explorations of science fiction and technical fantasy in the ancient world on popular TV shows like Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, and Dr. Who.

Auteur

Arthur J. Pomeroy is Professor of Classics and Head of School at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is author of several books on classical studies including Then It Was Destroyed by the Volcano: the Ancient World in Film and Television and is a recipient of the VUW Teaching Award for sustained excellence in teaching.

Contenu

Notes on Contributors ix Introduction 1 Arthur J. Pomeroy PART I The Development of the Depiction of Ancient Greece and Rome on Screen 15 1 Greece and Rome on Screen: On the Possibilities and Promises of a New Medium 17 Pantelis Michelakis 2 The Creation of the Epic: Italian Silent Film to 1915 37 Irmbert Schenk 3 From 1916 to the Arrival of Sound: The Systematization, Expressivity and Self?-reflection of the Feature Film 61 Maria Wyke 4 The Resurgence of Epics in the 1950s: Classical Antiquity in Post?-war Hollywood 91 Konstantinos P. Nikoloutsos 5 Hollywood Ascendant: Ben?-Hur and Spartacus 119 Fiona Radford 6 The Peplum Era 145 Arthur J. Pomeroy PART II Comedy, Drama, and Adaptation 161 7 Hollywood Meets Art?-House Cinema: Michael Cacoyannis's "Hybrid" Euripidean Trilogy 163 Anastasia Bakogianni 8 Greek Tragedy as Theater in Screen?-Media 187 Meredith E. Safran 9 Greece and Rome on the Comic Screen 209 Lisa Maurice 10 The Return of a Genre 233 Jerry Benjamin Pierce 11 Franco Rossi's Adaptations of the Classics 253 Arthur J. Pomeroy 12 I, Claudius and Ancient Rome as Televised Period Drama 271 Juliette Harrisson 13 Premium Cable Television 293 Monica S. Cyrino 14 Thinking through the Ancient World: "Late Antique Movies" as a Mirror of Shifting Attitudes towards Christian Religion 307 Filippo Carlà?-Uhink 15 Non?-western Approaches to the Ancient World: India and Japan--Classical Heritage or Exotic Occidentalism? 329 Anja Wieber PART III Film Production and Ancient World Cinema 349 16 Man to Man: Music and Masculine Relations in Ben?-Hur (1925 and 1959) 351 Stephan Prock 17 Visual Poetry on Screen: Sets and Costumes for Ancient Greek Tragedy 385 Alejandro Valverde García 18 Filming the Ancient World: Have Film Historians Made a Spectacular Omission of Epic Proportions? 403 Harriet Margolis PART IV The Ancient World as an Idea 427 19 High Art and Low Art Expectations: Ancient Greece in Film and Popular Culture 429 Alastair J. L. Blanshard 20 "Soft" Science Fiction and Technical Fantasy: The Ancient World in Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica and Dr Who 449 Otta Wenskus 21 The Ancient World is Part of Us: Classical Tragedy in Modern Film and Television 467 Anastasia Bakogianni 22 Ancient World Documentaries 491 Fiona Hobden 23 Mythology for the Young at Heart 515 Martin Lindner Index 535