This was a collaboration between the Bioscope, the BFI
and the Department of Greek and Latin, at my daughter’s alma mater, University
College London as part of Museums of Dreamworlds: Silent Antiquity in the
BFI National Archive. Introduced by the BFI’s Bryony Dixon, and presented
by Professor Maria Wyke from UCL it was a selection of films from 1901 to 1927
all of which drew their inspiration from the classical world of Greece and Rome
– very loosely in some cases!
As Professor Wyke said, silent film used classical art as
well as theatre and literature to prove itself and to legitimate this new media
as one of documentary substance as well as artistic merit. This went hand in
hand with a period of archaeological discovery as well as this new era of
storytelling in which characters from still popular myth and legend could come
alive on screen.
A century onwards it’s comic book legends that inform our
blockbusters and remakes of older films, mainstream film is less interested in
education than entertainment but there were films here that took joy in sharing
the incredible landscapes of antiquity whilst also sharing what we know of the
artistic and political culture of the time… even in the most comic of ways.
This film screening is associated with the AHRC-funded
research project Museum of Dreamworlds (2023-2027). The project asks “…how
did silent cinema design its Greek and Roman dreamworlds? What did cinema gain
from recreating the distant past? What did the past gain from being recreated
in moving images?”
Tonight, we found some answers and some more questions
and we also discovered how Helen’s fabulous face and fancy for the tailors of
Troy led to the war between Sparta and Troy: even now we know these stories so
well we can understand these jokes. Classical culture runs deep it’s moral
lessons still embedded in our Saturday matinee memories. The films were mostly from the BFI archive with the exception of one from Christopher Bird's collection as noted below.
Visit to Pompeii (1901) with John Sweeney
Directed by George A. Smith and Charles Urban, for the Warwick
Trading Company, UK this British travelogue documents, in long panning shots,
the state of the excavations at Pompeii in 1901 and the journey up to Vesuvius
in a railway carriage. For those of us who’ve been to the city it’s clear that
it is not frozen in time as 124 years later the digs are ongoing.
As ever it’s a joy to watch especially for the looks to
camera of wealthy tourist, local militia and workers hefting mounds of earth
away from the historical treasure below. The demographic may have changed but
we still wander round in a daze, amazed at the completeness, competence and,
most unnervingly, the familiarity of a city from two millennia past.
Dans l’Hellade / In Ancient Greece (1909) with
John Sweeney
 |
| The Death of Caesar, by Jean-Léon Gérôme |
Julius Caesar (1908) with John Sweeney
Cinema sought credibility from literature too and so we
have this adaptation of Shakespeare’s play directed by J. Stuart Blackton,
William V. Ranous for the Vitagraph Company and consisting of 15 tableau
representing the various moments of the play. One of these is a replication of The
Death of Caesar, an 1867 painting by the French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme,
which illustrates another visual inspiration for early cinema. It’s a
surprisingly energetic and effective summation of the film with come fabulous
mime from the actors as plots are hatched, the man is brought down and Mark
Antony battles to re-establish order even if it means the death of the noblest
Roman of all… Roman politics eh? Times change but not much.
 |
| Julius Ceasar is no more... |
Directed in the US by Alexander Korda – whatever happened to him!? – this was two frankly hilarious fragments – one some 20+ minutes and the other about five – which broke the real deal about the so-called Trojan Wars. Turns out it was Helen’s (María Corda) shopping habits that launched a thousand ships and not just her face. This is not to say that her face wasn’t important, it just got her more interested in self-actualisation through acquisition of princes and power dresses.
This was all too inconvenient for her husband, King Menelaus
(deadpan Lewis Stone in convincing wig) who is tired of public duty – all day
shaking hands!? – and just wants to go off fishing. What he also doesn’t want
is to go to out after a long day glad-handing but as the witty intertitles say:
the problem is that the wife wants to go to the theatre and the husband doesn’t
so… they go to the theatre. But Helen goes further and heads of with the
handsome Paris (Ricardo Cortez) to the shopping heaven of Troy leaving
Menelaus’ plans for a day by the river in ruins… reluctantly he starts building
the thousand ships and planning war…
There’s a light touch and some excellent comic timing and
even with just about a third of the running time we were engaged. The BFI holds
the only film stock in the world and as Bryony Dixon said, hopefully someone
has the rest in an attic or a garage!
 |
| Facing off against the Hydra! |
The Odyssey / L’Odissea (1911) with John Sweeney
Directed by Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, and
Giuseppe de Liguoro, for Milano Films, this spectacular was from the golden age
of Italian silent epics from the men who had previously directed L’Inferno
(1911) based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. The approach is similar with incredibly
detailed tableaux packed with dozens of props and actors – the camera doesn’t
move much but the actors do create the sense of scale needed. As with L’Inferno
the narrative follows the distinct stages of the literary source with Odysseus
(Giuseppe de Liguoro) undertaking his long journey home against a host of
mystical and heavenly obstacles.
There are some very impressive shots and effects with Zeus’ lightning bolts raining down on Odysseus’ ship, the men battling a giant cyclops, a three-headed monster devouring some of the crew and the ship floating through the sirens some of whom, as with the “nudes” in L’Inferno, male not female. Even so, Cecil B DeMille was watching… It’s great fun and illustrated again how much of these stories are still embedded in our minds.
Bending Her / Roaming Romeo (1928) with Cyrus
Gabrysch
Finally, a divine comedy directed by and starring our own
Lupino Lane as Belle-Hure and brother Wallace as Horatio Babaorum in a story
obviously inspired by the success of the distinctly less funny Ben Hur (1926).
They play two slaves on board a Roman galley who after some marvellous business
teasing their guard with feet and a broken oar, escape through a hole in the
side of the ship, swim ashore and steal the clothes of two conveniently bathing
soldiers. They very quickly get caught up in affairs at the local palace as
Belle romances the princes (Anita Garvin). It’s a hoot and Lane shows off his
remarkable athleticism and Chaplinesque charm, he and Wallace were of course
cousins of the great Ida Lupino and part of an acting dynasty like no other
even the Chaplins!
Such spoofs where a sure sign of the recognition
classical tropes had already established in cinema as what first presents as
tragedy and history eventually becomes comedy. Cyrus Gabrysch added to the
energies and the programme ended on a high with those who had come for the
history being surprised by the hilarity!?
A splendidly entertaining evening worthy of an emperor
and thanks go to the Bioscope Team as well as the BFI and UCL. If you want to
know more about Museums of Dreamworlds: Silent Antiquity in the BFI National
Archive you can find details on the UCL website and also on Instagram which
as Bryony has pointed out is the modern equivalent of early film: short reels
and focused subjects!
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