The Cinematic Games Laced with Sienkiewicz, or “Quo Vadis” on the Silver Screen
Abstract
The paper concentrates on feature films based upon Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz - a novel about ancient Rome which contributed to the writer’s Nobel Prize for literature and has been translated into more than forty languages. These star-studded movies (Quo Vadis? dir. E. Guazzoni /1913/, Quo Vadis? dir. G. D’Annunzio, G. Jacoby /1925/, Quo Vadis, dir. M. LeRoy /1951/, Quo Vadis, dir. J. Kawalerowicz /2001/) usually employed standard patterns of historical melodrama: the love story between Roman patrician and young Christian woman named Lygia is set against the broader historical background of early Christianity and its persecution by Nero. Regardless of time period and country of production, each of these films included the climax scene of bloody games - with Christian martyrs dying at the arena theater. The paper focuses on diverse cinematic designs of this bloodshed spectacle; furthermore, it tackles upon the multi-layered contexts of the representations of key historical figures (notably Nero and St. Peter).
Supporting Agencies
Keywords:
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Jerzy Kawalerowicz, ancient RomeReferences
Banaszkiewicz, Władysław. Sienkiewicz w kinematografie. „Film na Świecie” 7 (1974).
Google Scholar
Gombrowicz, Witold. Dziennik 1953-1956. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1989.
Google Scholar
Irzykowski, Karol. Dziesiąta Muza. Zagadnienia estetyczne kina. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1982.
Google Scholar
Kurowska, Barbara, Mieczysław Kuźmicki (ed.). Quo Vadis Jerzego Kawalerowicza. Kulisy filmu. Łódź: Muzeum Kinematografii, 2001.
Google Scholar
Sienkiewicz, Henryk. Quo Vadis. Warszawa: Prószyński i S-ka, 1995.
Google Scholar
Authors
Anna Miller-Klejsakwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
University of Lodz Poland
Doktor nauk humanistycznych, absolwentka filmoznawstwa oraz filologii włoskiej; adiunkt w Zakładzie Italianistyki Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego; współredaktorka tomów zbiorowych poświęconych adaptacjom filmowym literatury włoskiej (Od Boccaccia do Tabucchiego /2012/) oraz polsko-włoskich relacji filmowych (Polsko-włoskie kontakty filmowe: topika, koprodukcje, recepcja /2014/). Autorka książek Resistenza we włoskim filmie fabularnym (2013) oraz Dekada ołowiu na ekranie. Polityczny terroryzm lat 70. we włoskim filmie fabularnym (2016).
Statistics
Abstract views: 35PDF downloads: 18
License
Copyright (c) 2017 Anna Miller-Klejsa
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Anna Miller-Klejsa, „Lost in Translation”, or What Lies Between the Words Covered With the Patina of History , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 108 (2019): Film Production and Distribution
