Talk:Quo Vadis (1924 film)

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1924! Not 1925[edit]

This movie was definitely made and released in 1924, not 1925.

IMDB is wrong in this case and also all Wikipedia entries except for the German one. The movie was released on Feb. 15th 1925 in the US , that's correct. But it was released in Oct. 1924 in Italy and Germany (and probably other European countries). I guess the relevant date is the one of the first release, not the last in USA. Here's the prove, a review of the movie in an Austrian newspaper released on Oct. 10th 1924!. Unfortunately I can't tell the exact dates of releases in the European countries (yet). I just wanted to explain this here, before I start to correct it everywhere (including IMDB). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Real-snake (talk • contribs) 12:56, 15 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Circus of Nero[edit]

When I saw this film at the NFT in London in the 1970s it was in a double bill with the 1912 version. I felt that this was in almost every way superior to the earlier version, which was a huge commercial success in its time but had dated terribly. The one exception was Emil Jannings' Nero, which I thought was frankly atrocious and compared very badly with the later screen Nero's of Charles Laughton and Peter Ustinov. Jannings looked the part, but he kept manically bobbing up and down every time he moved - you were certainly going to notice this actor, if nobody else, but there wasn't a speck of subtlety in anything he did. The photography was excellent and the art direction was outstanding, including a magnificent model of Neronian Rome which appeared in a long panning shot. What impressed me most of all was the huge three-dimensional set of Nero's Vatican Circus. This was constructed in full, with all sides of the Circus visible. The spina - the central barrier in a Roman Circus - was a simple row of tall decorates columns. This was not strictly accurate, but it did mean that spectators on both sides of the arena would have a proper view of what was happening on the other side - of huge importance during a chariot race. In a real Roman Circus the spina was low, as it appears in Ancient Roman representations and in the one Circus in Rome where the spina has survived. In 19th Century Academic paintings artists began to misrepresent this vital detail, showing high spinas spilling over with spectators, who were obviously putting their lives at risk by acting as if they were attending an orgy of sex instead of an orgy of blood, which is what was frequently witnessed. Unfortunately, a high spina has been featured in too many Roman movie epics, including both the silent and sound versions of "Ben-Hur". And, sadly, both the 1912 and the 1951 versions of "Quo Vadis". The 1912 version used a high spina to create the illusion that the Circus set was larger than it really was. And so did the 1951 version. It's a pity that MGM didn't follow the example of this 1924 version instead and give the audience a full three-dimensional Circus set with a low spina. It would have been far more spectacular - and far more accurate. A Golden Rule for art directors reconstructing a Roman Circus is: Keep the walls high and the spina low. Incidentally, the Circus sequence in this 1924 version drew the strongest reaction from the NFT audience when a Christian woman being dragged behind a Roman chariot struggled to her feet, jumped into the chariot, kicked out the driver and drove herself to freedom. Both the on-screen and off-screen audiences cheered and applauded. O Murr (talk) 21:45, 9 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Having had the opportunity to view the film again - (thank you, YouTube!) - I realize that the Circus of Nero in the film was not totally three-dimensional, as I remembered it. One part of it, opposite the Imperial Box, was never shown, so it was probably never constructed. But the illusion of a complete circus was very successfully created - moreso than in the 1912 and 1951 versions. Incidentally, the circus in Rome that I mentioned above is the early 4th Century Circus of Maxentius, near the Appian Way. Another circus with a well-preserved spina is the 1st Century Circus of Merida in Spain. O Murr (talk) 21:13, 4 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]