Signed in as:

You are browsing courtesy of:

Sign in to an additional subscriber account

Login

This account has no valid subscription for this site.

In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Classics and Cinema

Forthcoming Articles Expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section

Ancient Greek Polychromy
Aristophanes' Birds
Plautus's Casina
Find more forthcoming articles...

Feedback

Print
Export Citations
Cite
Email this content

Share Link

Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780195389661/obo-9780195389661-0053.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

9780195389661-0053

Introduction

“Let Dickens and the whole constellation of ancestors, who go as far back as Shakespeare or the Greeks, serve as superfluous reminders that Griffith and our cinema alike cannot claim originality for themselves, but have a vast cultural heritage; and this causes neither one any difficulty in advancing the great art of cinema, each at their moment of world history.” Thus wrote Sergei Eisenstein, the great Soviet filmmaker, theoretician of cinema, and one of the most influential artists in the history of film, in his 1942 essay “Dickens, Griffith and Ourselves.” Eisenstein regarded Charles Dickens as one of the 19th-century precursors of cinema and here examined his influence on D. W. Griffith, the American film pioneer. Griffith has often been credited with inventing most of the grammar of film language. Since the cinema’s birth in 1895, classical Antiquity has played a major part in the history of storytelling in moving images. Films either present their mythical, literary, and historical material in ancient settings or they transpose classical themes and historical or narrative archetypes to contemporary or even future times. For most of the 20th century, classical scholars and teachers neglected the presence of Greece and Rome on the screen, although there were some honorable exceptions. (Examples are cited under The Pioneers: Antiquity and Cinema.) Since the 1990s, however, classical scholarship has increasingly focused on this area of reception, which is now outpacing all others. Two statements published in The Classical Review, one of the profession’s foremost book review journals, illustrate the change that occurred in less than a decade. In 1999, a reviewer began with the following statement: “The combination of classics and film studies is not a common field of interdisciplinary research” (Classical Review, new ser., 49: 244–246). In 2005, a reviewer observed: “Successfully—and fruitfully—the study of classics and cinema has asserted itself as a leader in the field of reception studies” (Classical Review, new ser., 55: 688–690, at 688). Further evidence may be found in the fact that a highly regarded publisher—Edinburgh University Press—launched the book series “Screening Antiquity” in 2015, which has by now published nine volumes, distributed by Oxford University Press. The hope expressed in 1958 by Paul Leglise, that his approach to Virgil’s Aeneid (see The Pioneers: Antiquity and Cinema) would lead to future research of a comparable nature on other classical authors has now been fulfilled to a greater extent than he may have imagined. Nevertheless, the study of classics and cinema and related media (television, computer videos) is still evolving. It is a broad and demanding field that requires a double expertise from its practitioners: a sound knowledge of all aspects of the ancient cultures on the one hand; close familiarity with film history, technology, theory, aesthetics, and economics on the other. These are preconditions for all serious interpretive work on cinema and Antiquity.

The Pioneers: Film—Art and Psychology

In 1915 and 1916, respectively, American poet Vachel Lindsay and psychologist Hugo Münsterberg published the first books of film criticism and appreciation (Lindsay 2000, Münsterberg 2002). In 1955 French art historian Pierre Francastel introduced the term “pre-cinema” at the second Congrès International de Filmologie (“Études comparées: Compte rendu,” Revue internationale de filmologie, nos. 20–24 [1955]: 62–65). He was by no means the first art historian to take the cinema seriously. So did, and in significantly greater detail, the German art and film theorist and psychologist Rudolf Arnheim (Arnheim 1957 and Arnheim 1997). Sergei Eisenstein, in his voluminous writings about cinema and its artistic predecessors, frequently turned to all visual arts (architecture, painting, photography) and to literature (epic, drama, other poetry, the novel) in connection with cinema. Eisenstein 2010 is representative.

Arnheim, Rudolf. 1957. Film as art. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Short but influential book; English version of Film als Kunst (Berlin: E. Rowohlt, 1932). Several reprints.
Find this resource:
Arnheim, Rudolf. 1997. Film essays and criticism. Translated by Brenda Benthien. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Substantial collection of essays and film reviews covering four decades (1925–1965), adapted from Kritiken und Aufsätze zum Film (Munich: Carl Hanser, 1977). Some overlap with Arnheim 1957. This edition contains a complete a list of Arnheim’s writings on cinema.
Find this resource:
Eisenstein, Sergei M. 2010. Selected works. Vol. 2, Towards a theory of montage. Edited by Michael Glenny and Richard Taylor. Translated by Michael Glenny. London: Tauris.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Hefty volume collects major essays written 1937 to 1940. “Montage” (a special kind of editing) is perhaps the key term in Eisenstein’s understanding of cinema; he frequently addresses it elsewhere, too. Originally published by the British Film Institute in 1992.
Find this resource:
Lindsay, Vachel. 2000. The art of the moving picture. New York: Modern Library.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
First book of American film criticism by a poet and painter. Originally published 1915. This reprint is based on the expanded edition of 1922.
Find this resource:
Münsterberg, Hugo. 2002. Hugo Münsterberg on film: The Photoplay: A Psychological Study and Other Writings. Edited by Alan Langdale. New York: Routledge.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Fundamental book about the psychology and aesthetics of viewing films. Originally 1916. This edition collects all of Münsterberg’s writings on cinema and supersedes various other reprints.
Find this resource:

The Pioneers: Antiquity and Cinema

Neither Lindsay 2000 nor Münsterberg 2002 (both cited under The Pioneers: Film—Art and Psychology) has lost its value. Classical film philology made an auspicious although at first generally neglected, even rejected, debut much later. Pierre Francastel, mentioned under The Pioneers: Film—Art and Psychology, provided the impulse for Leglise 1958, the first sustained cinematic study of part of the Aeneid. (Leglise gave a preliminary presentation at the 1955 congress.) Leglise 1958 was followed, if on a significant smaller scale, by Viarre 1964 on Ovid. The latter book’s scathing review by British classicist E. J. Kenney (“Discordia semina rerum,” The Classical Review, 17 [1967]: 51–53) is representative of the original hostility of classical scholars to any cinematic approach to Antiquity. Fortunately, tempora mutantur. The author of Fondermann 2008 loosely follows in the footsteps of Francastel and Leglise (without being aware of their model). Mench 2001 (originally published in 1969) applies Eisenstein’s principles (see The Pioneers: Film—Art and Psychology) to the Aeneid. The original (1978) edition of Solomon 2001 was the first book ever written on the subject. Malissard 1982 intriguingly considers the scenes on Trajan’s Column as filmic narrative. Many of the theoretical writings by Sergei Eisenstein repay classical scholars’ interest; some have provided classicists with either inspiration (Mench 2001) or a model (Winkler 2020, cited under Rome). Winkler 1991 introduced the expression “classics and cinema” into academia. For early educational perspectives see Teaching Antiquity with Film: Some Pioneers.

Fondermann, Philip. 2008. Kino im Kopf: Zur Visualisierung des Mythos in den “Metamorphosen” Ovids. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
DOI: 10.13109/9783666252822 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Study, not too well known, of the inherently visual nature of classical literature as exemplified in Ovid’s epic. Detailed table of contents but no index or illustrations.
Find this resource:
Leglise, Paul. 1958. Une oeuvre de pré-cinéma: L’Eneide; Essai d’analyse filmique du premier chant. Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Debresse.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A short book, unduly neglected today, that applies the concept of pre-cinema to Book 1 of Virgil’s Aeneid. The author regards the Aeneid as demonstrating “un rythme filmique d’une extraordinaire et éclatante pureté” (p. 25).
Find this resource:
Malissard, Alain. 1982. Une nouvelle approche de la Colonne Trajane. Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt 2.12.1: 579–606.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Malissard’s article, one of several on this topic, is based on his dissertation Étude filmique de la colonne Trajane: L’écriture de l’histoire et de l’épopée latines dans ses rapports avec le langage filmique (University of Tours, 1974), regrettably never published.
Find this resource:
Mench, Fred. 2001. Film sense in the Aeneid. In Classical myth and culture in the cinema. Edited by Martin M. Winkler, 219–232. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Article by a classicist that was generally overlooked when originally published in 1969, here revised and corrected. The Film Sense is the title of an essay collection by Eisenstein.
Find this resource:
Solomon, Jon. 2001. The ancient world in the cinema. 2d ed. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Comprehensive overview of films set in classical, biblical, Egyptian, and Near Eastern Antiquity.
Find this resource:
Viarre, Simone. 1964. L’image et la pensée dans les Métamorphoses d’Ovide. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Long study of Ovid’s epic contains chapter titled “Le spectacle de mouvement,” which includes a section on the work’s relation to film (“Une parenté avec le cinéma”). Viarre examines Ovid’s tale of Jason and Medea (Met. 7) and various shorter passages.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M., ed. 1991. Classics and cinema. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
First academic essay collection on the subject, revised and expanded (but not entirely superseded) by Winkler 2001 (cited under Greece and Rome: Films with Ancient and Modern Settings: Works in English).
Find this resource:

General Overviews

The works listed in this section present useful orientations to Antiquity on the screen in their different ways, tracing the history and themes of films made in Europe, especially Italy—the birthplace of ancient epic cinema—and the United States. Most include whole chapters on, or at least shorter discussions of, biblical and other ancient films (Babylon, Egypt, Persia, Near Orient). Solomon 2001, España 2009, España 2017, and Aziza 2009 are good starting points in their respective languages. So is Wieber 2002, if considerably more briefly. Elley 1984 is now a classic. Richards 2008 contains solid discussions of American and British films. Elliott 2014 addresses developments since Gladiator (2000).

Aziza, Claude. 2009. Le péplum, un mauvais genre. Paris: Klincksieck.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
The sword-and-sandal genre (the term here used to include historical epics and more) gets a brief but affectionate presentation and defense in question-and-answer format.
Find this resource:
Elley, Derek. 1984. The epic film: Myth and history. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Intelligent survey, including the Bible and early Middle Ages. Extensive black-and-white illustrations from films about classical, biblical, and medieval times. Although outdated, still useful as supplementary course text. Out of print.
Find this resource:
Elliott, Andrew B. R., ed. 2014. The return of the epic film: Genre, aesthetics and history in the 21st century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Essays on different aspects of epic films, mainly ancient and medieval. Topics include Rome and America as empires, the importance of color and CGI, and the Harry Potter films.
Find this resource:
España, Rafael de. 2009. La pantalla épica: Los héroes de la Antigüedad vistos por el cine. Barcelona: T & B Editores.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Affectionate and detailed narrative history of epic cinema on over 400 pages. The best starting point in Spanish. Some elegant black-and-white illustrations.
Find this resource:
España, Rafael de. 2017. De héroes y dioses: 50 películas sobre la antigüedad. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Short book offers brief appreciations of fifty films from 1908 to 2012. No illustrations. Bibliographical references to works in Spanish are especially welcome.
Find this resource:
Richards, Jeffrey. 2008. Hollywood’s ancient worlds. London: Continuum.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Well-judged presentation by major film scholar. Valuable first chapter places films in their 19th-century cultural contexts. Highly suitable as main text for undergraduate courses.
Find this resource:
Solomon, Jon. 2001. The ancient world in the cinema. 2d ed. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Many black-and-white illustrations. Useful as main or supplementary text for courses.
Find this resource:
Wieber, Anja. 2002. Auf Sandalen durch die Jahrtausende: Eine Einführung in den Themenkreis “Antike und Film.” In Bewegte Antike: Antike Themen im modernen Film. Edited by Ulrich Eigler, 4–40. Stuttgart: Metzler.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-476-02842-6_2 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Introductory overview.
Find this resource:

Bibliographies

Verreth 2014, Juraske 2006, and Juraske 2007 are detailed bibliographies, but all scholarly works included in this online bibliography contain references, often extensive ones. Verreth 2014 also has a long filmography. Duplá Ansuategui 2011 is more recent but not comprehensive. Valverde García 2013 is on the Euripidean films of Michael Cacoyannis. All books listed under Reference Works contain filmographic information as well.

Duplá Ansuategui, Antonio. 2011. Materiales para una bibliografia sobre el cine “de romanos” en el siglo XXI. In El cine “de romanos” en el siglo XXI. Edited by Antonio Duplá Ansuategui, 111–121. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain: Universidad del País Vasco.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Introductory bibliography, not only on films with Roman subjects.
Find this resource:
Juraske, Alexander. 2006. Bibliographie “Antike und Film.” Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft 59:129–178.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Title explains content. Followed by supplement (Juraske 2007).
Find this resource:
Juraske, Alexander. 2007. Nachtrag zur Bibliographie “Antike und Film.” Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft 60:129–146.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Contains addenda to Juraske 2006.
Find this resource:
Valverde García, Alejandro. 2013. Actualización bibliográfica sobre la filmografía de Michael Cacoyannis. Estudios Neogriegos 15:191–206.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Overview and bibliography, especially on Electra, The Trojan Women, and Iphigenia.
Find this resource:
Verreth, Herbert. 2014. De oudheid in film: Filmografie.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Nearly monograph-length filmography, extremely detailed, with bibliography. Covers more than Greece and Rome on film. In Dutch. Available online.
Find this resource:

Reference Works

The essential research tools described here together provide the necessary information about nearly all surviving or traceable films. Most of these works include filmographies and plot summaries. Note that specific details about casts, credits, or plot elements may vary. When in doubt, verify cast or crew names and film titles by consulting at least two or three sources; check story elements through autopsy of film in question. In addition, the Internet Movie Database is a useful starting point, generally reliable except in the categories “Trivia” and “Goofs.”

On European and American Films

Dumont 2009 is fundamental. Smith 2004 is not limited to films about Greece and Rome. Barnier and Fontanel 2010 deals with historical figures who have become regulars in the cinema. Michelakis and Wyke 2013 deals with on a variety of early films on Antiquity, including Egyptian and biblical aspects.

Barnier, Martin, and Rémi Fontanel, eds. 2010. Les biopics du pouvoir politique de l’Antiquité au XIXe siècle: Hommes et femmes de pouvoir à l’écran. Lyon, France: Aléas Cinéma.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On film biographies of the powerful, including Alexander, Brutus, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and Octavian.
Find this resource:
Dumont, Hervé. 2009. L’antiquité au cinéma: Vérités, légendes et manipulations. Paris: Nouveau Monde.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Indispensable and exceptional tome (coffee-table size), with detailed information on all aspects of Antiquity on screen, including TV documentaries. Excellent illustrations. Updated 2013 edition accessible online as a flipbook.
Find this resource:
Michelakis, Pantelis, and Maria Wyke, eds. 2013. The ancient world in silent cinema. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Case studies of various classical themes, characters, and plots in the cinema’s first phase, including Homer, the Passion, two versions of Ben-Hur, Cabiria, and more obscure films. Highly recommended but, by necessity, not exhaustive in the treatment of its subject.
Find this resource:
Smith, Gary A. 2004. Epic films: Cast, credits, and commentaries on over 350 historical spectacle movies. 2d ed. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Expanded and updated from Epic Films: Cast, Credits, and Commentaries on over 250 Historical Spectacle Movies (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1991), which it does not entirely supersede. Information provided in the earlier edition may appear abbreviated in the later. Both editions have valuable and partly different black-and-white illustrations.
Find this resource:

Specifically on Italian Films

Between them, Aubert 2009 and Casadio 2007, both very reliable, cover the entire history of Italian films about Antiquity until the mid-1990s. Lucanio 1994 provides basic information and some analysis about the US releases of Italian epics, not all of them set in Antiquity. Cammarota 1987 is useful for mythological and neo-mythological films. Lapeña Marchena 2009 also includes history films. D’Amelio 2014 deals with a famous example of stardom.

Aubert, Natacha. 2009. Un cinéma d’après l’antique: Du culte de l’Antiquité au nationalisme italien. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On silent films and their cultural climate. A primary resource with detailed information and background studies.
Find this resource:
Cammarota, Domenico. 1987. Il cinema peplum: La prima guida critica ai film di Conan, Ercole, Goliath, Maciste, Sansone, Spartaco, Thaur, Ursus. Rome: Fanucci.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Thematically arranged survey, mainly by hero. Brief filmographic and bibliographic information; black-and-white illustrations.
Find this resource:
Casadio, Gianfranco. 2007. I mitici eroi: Il cinema “peplum” nel cinema italiano dall’avvento del sonoro a oggi, 1930–1993. Ravenna, Italy: Longo.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Annotated filmographies with plot summaries. Not only on mythical heroes, despite slightly misleading main title. Arranged by theme and, within this, chronology. Indispensable.
Find this resource:
D’Amelio, Maria Elena. 2014. The hybrid star: Steve Reeves, Hercules and the politics of transnational whiteness. Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies 2.2: 259–277.
DOI: 10.1386/jicms.2.2.259_1 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Title says all about topic dealing with neo-mythological (and a few other) films from the highpoint of Italian hero epics. Author contributes entry “Stardom” to Oxford Bibliographies Online Cinema and Media Studies.
Find this resource:
Lapeña Marchena, Oscar. 2009. Guida al cinema “peplum”: Ercole, Ursus, Sansone e Maciste alla conquista di Atlantide. Rome: Profondo Rosso.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Detailed narrative of characteristics and chronology of epic heroes, with special emphasis on their cinematic Nachleben. Appendix collects valuable reminiscences by filmmakers (too brief for aficionados).
Find this resource:
Lucanio, Patrick. 1994. With fire and sword: Italian spectacles on American screens, 1958–1968. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Annotated filmography, not exclusively on Antiquity and with some gaps in its data. Lengthy introductory essay; appendix on international English-language films.
Find this resource:

Propaedeutics

A vast array of scholarly and didactic literature on all aspects of cinema is available. Newcomers to classics and cinema may find works listed here especially useful but should consider them only as starting points. Textbooks on film appreciation, for instance, tend to vary widely in emphasis and individual appeal.

Introductions to Cinema Studies

Wood 2012 is exactly what its title announces. Thompson and Bordwell 2019 and Mast and Kawin 2011 are examples of useful overviews of film history, if not detailed enough for specialists. Monaco 2009 is a comprehensive first orientation to all aspects of cinema and can readily be supplemented by Braudy and Cohen 2016. Rhodes 2016 surveys the influence of the most popular term for films. Bordwell, et al. 2006 provides background on the studio system that produced the gigantic Hollywood epics. Mulvey 1989, on cinematic spectatorship, especially of male viewers, may be juxtaposed to Sobchak 1990 on epic cinema. Bordwell 1997 deals with visual ways of storytelling, important for modern analogies to ancient narratives in word and image. Mast 1982 and Wood 2002 both interpret a particular director’s body of work in ways that can be models for classicists.

Bordwell, David. 1997. Narration in the fiction film. London: Taylor & Francis.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Advanced theory of filmic narrative. Example of the wide-ranging studies by this major, if controversial, scholar.
Find this resource:
Bordwell, David, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson. 2006. The classical Hollywood cinema: Film style and mode of production to 1960. London: Routledge.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On Hollywood in the studio era, the Golden Age of American filmmaking concerning Antiquity. Originally published in 1985.
Find this resource:
Braudy, Leo, and Marshall Cohen, eds. 2016. Film theory and criticism: Introductory readings. 8th ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Collection (well over 900 pages) of classic and modern essays. Contents are updated and changed with each edition.
Find this resource:
Mast, Gerald. 1982. Howard Hawks, storyteller. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Model interpretation of major Hollywood director’s films. Mast was one of the most highly literate of American film scholars. His background was in English literature.
Find this resource:
Mast, Gerald, and Bruce Kawin. 2011. A short history of the movies. 11th ed. Boston: Longman.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
College textbook, anything but short at nearly 800 pages. An abridged edition appeared in 2012.
Find this resource:
Monaco, James. 2009. How to read a film: Movies, media, and beyond: Art, technology, language, history, theory. 4th ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Thorough overview, with an annotated list of books on film and new media and with recommendations for online resources. The verb in the title points to the affinities between textual and visual interpretations.
Find this resource:
Mulvey, Laura. 1989. Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. In Visual and other pleasures. Edited by Laura Mulvey, 14–26. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-19798-9_3 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Much cited essay on spectatorship from feminist and psychoanalytical perspectives. Originally published in 1975, often reprinted. Especially applicable to epic films.
Find this resource:
Rhodes, Gary D. 2016. “Movie”: How a single word shaped Hollywood cinema. Film & History 46.1: 43–52.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Title summarizes content.
Find this resource:
Sobchak, Vivian. 1990. “Surge and splendor”: A phenomenology of the Hollywood historical epic. Representations 29:24–49.
DOI: 10.1525/rep.1990.29.1.99p0328p Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Sophisticated analysis of spectacular features and clichés in epic cinema.
Find this resource:
Thompson, Kristin, and David Bordwell. 2019. Film history: An introduction. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
College textbook (around 800 pages) by two well-known film scholars.
Find this resource:
Wood, Michael. 2012. Film: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780192803535.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This introduction may be too short for many, but it can provide good starting points for in-class discussions, particularly with its final section (“Deaths of the Cinema”). Contains concise but useful bibliographical references.
Find this resource:
Wood, Robin. 2002. Hitchcock’s films revisited. Rev. ed. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Classic study of a classic director, from which much can be learned about sophisticated film analysis. Wood had been a student of F. R. Leavis at Cambridge. It shows—to advantage.
Find this resource:

On Historical and Epic Cinema

History is not historical cinema, historical films are not history, and teachers and scholars must be aware of the differences (and similarities). The claim “Correct in every detail!” is often loudly advanced (e.g., by studio publicists) or silently assumed (e.g., by students and general viewers), but it cannot be fulfilled even by specialists, much less by screenwriters or directors. Bertelli 1995 and Ramosino, et al. 2004 are more earnest than Fraser 1996 about historical mistakes. Pasinetti 1953 and Coleman 2004 reflect on the problems that historical advisers regularly encounter. Campanile 2007, Solomon 2007, and Winkler 2009a argue against Dryasdusts, Gradgrinds, and Beckmessers. Hirsch 1978 and Fraser 1996 provide good introductions to epic and historical cinema, as do several of the books listed under General Overviews and Books Notable for Their Illustrations. Hall and Neale 2010 covers the entire history of the Hollywood epic from 1894 to 2009. Rosenstone 1998 is fundamental for our understanding of how the moving images about history in the furthest-reaching mass medium (at least until recently) affect our sense of the past. Paul 2013 offers detailed analyses.

Bertelli, Sergio. 1995. I corsari del tempo: Gli errori e gli orrori dei film storici. Florence: Ponte alle Grazie.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On historical “errors and horrors” in period films, not only ancient ones. Informative, sometimes amusing. Ironically, but unsurprisingly, not error-free. Originally published in 1989.
Find this resource:
Campanile, Domitilla. 2007. Film storici e critici troppo critici. Studi Classici e Orientali 53:323–362.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Spirited defense, with detailed bibliography, of historical films against their all-too-critical critics, concluding that “historical films owe nothing to historians” and that historians dealing with films owe the cinema an understanding of how it works. Dated 2007 but published 2011.
Find this resource:
Coleman, Kathleen M. 2004. The pedant goes to Hollywood: The role of the academic consultant. In Gladiator: Film and history. Edited by Martin M. Winkler, 45–52. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Various trials and tribulations lead to a Harvard classicist’s wry and rueful retrospective on her experiences with Gladiator.
Find this resource:
Fraser, George Macdonald. 1996. The Hollywood history of the world. Rev. ed. London: Harvill.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Likable romp through the topic by a famous historical novelist and screenwriter. Originally published in 1988. Illustrations (color, black and white) from the Kobal Collection.
Find this resource:
Hall, Sheldon, and Steve Neale. 2010. Epics, spectacles, and blockbusters: A Hollywood history. Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Written by two British film scholars, this is a historical survey of Hollywood’s most spectacular genre (and the one most popular worldwide). Co-author Neale in particular has published extensively on the theory of genre cinema.
Find this resource:
Hirsch, Foster. 1978. The Hollywood epic. South Brunswick, NJ: Barnes.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Brief introduction to the genre, now outdated but still useful. Some discussion and black-and-white illustrations of ancient epics.
Find this resource:
Pasinetti, P. M. 1953. Julius Caesar: The role of the technical adviser. Film Quarterly 8:131–138.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Professor of Italian and comparative literature at UCLA describes his involvement with Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s film Julius Caesar (1953). A thoughtful article that deserves to be better known.
Find this resource:
Paul, Joanna. 2013. Film and the classical epic tradition. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542925.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On films based on Homer, the Argonaut myth, Roman history (The Fall of the Roman Empire and its unofficial remake, Gladiator), and Ben-Hur are supplemented by chapters on literary and cinematic epics, spectatorship, and epic parodies.
Find this resource:
Ramosino, Luisa Cotta, Laura Cotta Ramosino, and Cristiano Dognini. 2004. Tutto quello che sapiamo su Roma l’abbiamo imparato a Hollywood. Milan: Mondadori.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Do we really owe all our knowledge of Rome to Hollywood? Well, at least a lot of it, according to this book.
Find this resource:
Rosenstone, Robert A. 1998. Visions of the past: The challenge of film to our idea of history. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
The title puts it succinctly: In the cinema and video age, history can no longer be explained or written about in long-established ways. A pioneering study with implications for ancient historians, teachers, and scholars alike. Originally published in 1995.
Find this resource:
Solomon, Jon. 2007. The vacillations of the Trojan myth: Popularization and classicization, variation and codification. International Journal of the Classical Tradition 14:482–534.
DOI: 10.1007/s12138-008-0016-z Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Classicist traces changes in the myth of the Trojan War from Antiquity until Troy (2004). Important for demonstrating that the concept of myth has always been fluid.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 2009a. Fact, fiction, and the feeling of history. In The Fall of the Roman Empire: Film and history. Edited by Martin M. Winkler, 174–224. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444311075.ch9 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Author shows that ancient and modern historians, like creative artists in word and image, are aware that creating “the feeling of history” (a phrase coined by director Anthony Mann) is crucial for all their works. Mann’s 1964 film The Fall of the Roman Empire is a case in point. Extensive references.
Find this resource:

Essay Collections, Monographs, and Selected Articles

Works listed here range from essays on a variety of subjects or on thematically related films to detailed studies of individual films. Books, especially the edited essay collections, address a wide variety of Greek and Roman topics, indicating the breadth of the field, and they usually contain extensive references. Works include studies of films set in Antiquity and of films with classical archetypes or topoi in modern settings; first, in English, below, in other languages. See also Studies of Films with Modern and Futuristic Settings.

Greece and Rome: Films with Ancient and Modern Settings: Works in English

Winkler 2001, Day 2008, Raucci 2008, Cyrino 2013, Knippschild and García Morcillo 2013, and Cyrino and Safran 2015 all demonstrate different approaches to their topics. So now does Pomeroy 2017, a good overview and orientation for newcomers. Pomeroy 2008 includes television. Winkler 2009b and Winkler 2017 are the author’s Summa theologica cinematographica to date. Blanshard and Shahabudin 2011 examines ten of the best-known films. James 2013 demonstrates the virtually endless screen adaptability of classical themes, here taken from one famous version of a myth.

Blanshard, Alastair J. L., and Kim Shahabudin, eds. 2011. Classics on screen: Ancient Greece and Rome on film. London: Bristol Classical Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Ten chapters on one film each attempt to trace the development of genre and related cinematic conventions from Cleopatra (1934) to Gladiator (2000).
Find this resource:
Cyrino, Monica S., ed. 2013. Screening love and sex in the ancient world. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Sixteen essays on a variety of erotic (et al.) themes in European and American films with modern settings and in film and television productions set in Greece and Rome.
Find this resource:
Cyrino, Monica S., and Meredith E. Safran, eds. 2015. Classical myth on screen. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Seventeen essays on various epic-mythic topics, chiefly in films with postclassical settings. Cover image of Hyde Park Achilles, presumably publisher’s choice, is missed opportunity (because unrelated to book’s content).
Find this resource:
Day, Kirsten, ed. 2008. Special issue: Celluloid classics: New perspectives on classical Antiquity in modern cinema. Arethusa 41.1.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Special journal issue. Essays on a variety of films in ancient and modern dress.
Find this resource:
Garcia Morcillo, Marta, Pauline Hanesworth, and Oscar Lapeña Marchena, eds. 2015. Imagining ancient cities in film: From Babylon to Cinecittà. London: Routledge.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On portrayals of Greek, Roman, Near Eastern, and fictional (Atlantis) cities on the screen.
Find this resource:
James, Paula. 2013. Ovid’s myth of Pygmalion on screen: In pursuit of the pexrfect woman. 2d ed. London: Bloomsbury.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Expanded edition of 2011 book is an eye-opener about the variety of the Pygmalion theme in modern settings. Indispensable, if not exhaustive enough for some.
Find this resource:
Knippschild, Silke, and Marta García Morcillo, eds. 2013. Seduction and power: Antiquity in the visual and performing arts. London: Bloomsbury.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Second volume in Imagines series. Twenty-one essays, a third of which deal with, or touch upon, the cinema. Noteworthy is the contribution by Eric Shanower on Age of Bronze, his graphic novel of the Trojan War.
Find this resource:
Pomeroy, Arthur J. 2008. “Then it was destroyed by the volcano”: The ancient world in film and on television. London: Duckworth.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Despite the subtitle, not a survey but specific studies. Main title is actress Joan Collins’s explanation of the fall of the Roman Empire.
Find this resource:
Pomeroy, Arthur J., ed. 2017. A companion to ancient Greece and Rome on screen. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Large volume surveys its topic in twenty-three chapters by international contributors, examining film history, genres, cinema and television productions, science fiction, documentaries, animation, and adaptations for juvenile audiences. Useful as supplementary course text.
Find this resource:
Raucci, Stacie, ed. 2008. Special issue: Recreating the classics: Hollywood and ancient empires. Classical and Modern Literature 28.1.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Mainly on Roman subjects. Special journal issue published in 2010.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 2009b. Cinema and classical texts: Apollo’s new light. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511575723 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Theoretical reflections on classical film philology are followed by several case studies. Includes discussions of films with postclassical settings. Detailed bibliography.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 2017. Classical literature on screen: Affinities of imagination. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/9781108123358 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Companion volume to Winkler 2009b.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M., ed. 2001. Classical myth and culture in the cinema. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Revised and expanded edition of Classics and cinema (Winkler 1991 [cited under the Pioneers: Antiquity and Cinema), which had been the first book of scholarly essays on the subject. Includes interviews with director Michael Cacoyannis and actress Irene Papas.
Find this resource:

Greece and Rome: Films with Ancient and Modern Settings: Works in Languages Other Than English

Castillo, et al. 2008; Lochman, et al. 2008; Duplá Ansuategui 2011; Santana Henríquez 2012; and Quiroga Puertas 2014 demonstrate different approaches to their topics by a variety of international scholars. Cano Alonso 1999 traces ancient-to-modern connections in comedy. Tovar Paz 2006 is limited to mythical themes. Lillo Redonet 2010 is on heroes. Invitto 2006 considers myth alongside philosophy and psychoanalysis. The Spanish journal Ámbitos dedicated nearly an entire issue to the classical world and cinema (González, et al. 2012). Antela-Bernárdez and Sierra Martín 2013 is a concise volume on major topics. Camerotto, et al. 2008 presents Italian perspectives.

Antela-Bernárdez, Borja, and César Sierra Martín, eds. 2013. La historia antigua a través del cine: Arqueología, historia antigua y tradición clásica. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Nine chapters on various topics, mainly Greek, including women (Antigone, Hypatia, Alexander’s women). Also covers politics (dictatorship versus democracy, fascism).
Find this resource:
Camerotto, Alberto, Clelia De Vecchi, and Cristina Favaro, eds. 2008. La nuova musa degli eroi: Dal mythos alla fiction; Atti degli incontri di studio per il bicentenario del Liceo classico Antonio Canova, Casa dei Carraresi, Treviso, 30 novembre 2007–8 febbraio 2008. Treviso, Italy: Liceo Classico Antonio Canova.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Eight essays, six of which deal with cinema, including films depicting Homer, Hercules, and Medea. One essay is on Sebastiane (1976). Especially noteworthy is the contribution by filmmaker Alessandro Bozzato on “the director’s eye.”
Find this resource:
Cano Alonso, Pedro Lúis. 1999. De Aristóteles a Woody Allen: Poética y retórica para cine y televisión. Barcelona: Gedisa.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Short book about poetic and rhetorical traditions in comedy on the large and small screen.
Find this resource:
Castillo, Pepa, Silke Knippschild, Marta García Morcillo, and Carmen Herreros, eds. 2008. Congreso Internacional Imagines: La Antigüedad en las artes escénicas y Visuales; Universidad La Rioja, 22–24 de octubre de 2007. Logroño, Spain: Universidad de La Rioja.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Nearly 800 pages of conference proceedings in various languages. Not limited to the cinema. First in a series. Available for online purchase.
Find this resource:
Duplá Ansuategui, Antonio, ed. 2011. El cine “de romanos” en el siglo XXI. Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain: Universidad del País Vasco.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Brief essay collection. Despite the title, subjects include films with Greek themes.
Find this resource:
González, Dámaris Romero, Gabriel Laguna Mariscal, Mónica María Martínez Sariego, et al. 2012. Special issue: El mundo clásico en el cine. Ámbitos: Revista de Estudios de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades 27 (January–June 2012).
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Six essays on various topics including Helen of Troy, Romulus and Remus, Mucius Scaevola, gods, and portrayals of classicists on screen.
Find this resource:
Invitto, Giovanni, ed. 2006. Fenomenologia del mito: La narrazione tra cinema, filosofia, psicoanalisi. San Cesario di Lecce, Italy: Manni.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Fifteen essays, not exclusively about Antiquity, on aspects indicated by book’s title. Especially noteworthy are contributions on two Italian art house films: Nostos—Il ritorno (1989), Franco Piavoli’s poetic retelling of the Odyssey, and the short Aracne (1999) by Eva Cocca.
Find this resource:
Lillo Redonet, Fernando. 2010. Héroes de Grecia y Roma en la pantalla. Madrid: Evohé.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On hero films.
Find this resource:
Lochman, Tomas, Thomas Späth, and Adrian Stähli, eds. 2008. Antike im Kino: Auf dem Weg zu einer Kulturgeschichte des Antikenfilms. Basel, Switzerland: Skulpturhalle Basel.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Large-format companion to museum exhibition contains conference proceedings. Numerous illustrations in color and black and white. Texts in German (mostly) and French. Difficult to obtain.
Find this resource:
Quiroga Puertas, Alberto J., ed. 2014. Texto, traducción, ¡acción! El legado clásico en el cine. Almería: Editorial Círculo Rojo.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Short essay collection, mainly on films with Greek topics. Contains epilogue on importance of classics and cinema in academic humanities.
Find this resource:
Santana Henríquez, Germán, ed. 2012. Literatura y cine. Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Nine essays, without illustrations, on classical literature and myth in the cinema and on television (I, Claudius).
Find this resource:
Tovar Paz, Francisco Javier. 2006. Un río de fuego y agua: Lecciones sobre mitología y cine. Cáceres, Spain: Universidad de Extremadura.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Slim but worthwhile volume on myth and film. No illustrations, no index.
Find this resource:

Greece

The following works are mainly on films set in ancient Greece but occasionally also address classical Greek themes in modern settings. On the latter see also Studies of Films with Modern and Futuristic Settings. Berti and Morcillo 2008 is the first essay collection solely dedicated to Greek themes on film. Kyriakos 2013 surveys Greek cinema. Alonso, et al. 2013 is a “sequel” to the book by the authors on Rome (see Alonso, et al. 2008, cited under Rome). Cavallini 2005 and Myrsiades 2009 include non-cinematic material. Winkler 2007a is an introductory survey of myth on film. Nikoloutsos 2013a deals with portrayals of women. Michelakis 2013 largely supersedes MacKinnon 1986. Valverde García 2015 examines a particular tragedy and its adaptation. Rodrigues 2012 is a welcome reminder of the pervasiveness of Plutarch on our screens. Green and Goodman 2013 is a tribute to a beloved master of animation.

Alonso, Juan J., Enrique A. Mastache, and Jorge Alonso Menéndez. 2013. La antigua Grecia en el cine. Madrid: T & B Editores.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Detailed study of various major (chiefly mythic-epic) themes.
Find this resource:
Berti, Irene, and Marta García Morcillo, eds. 2008. Hellas on screen: Cinematic receptions of ancient history, literature and myth. Stuttgart: Steiner.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On various topics. Editors’ introduction and three essays deal with films about Alexander the Great.
Find this resource:
Cavallini, Eleonora, ed. 2005. I Greci al cinema: Dal peplum ‘d’autore’ alla grafica computerizzata. Bologna, Italy: D.u. press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Tantalizingly slim volume, ranging from auteur cinema to CGI.
Find this resource:
Green, Steven, and Penny Goodman, eds. 2013. Animating Antiquity: Harryhausen and the classical tradition. New Voices in Classical Reception Studies 1.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Six articles on Ray Harryhausen, master of stop-motion animation in such films as Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Clash of the Titans (1981). Thematic issue of electronically published journal, available online.
Find this resource:
Kyriakos, Konstantinos. 2013. Ancient Greek myth and drama in Greek cinema (1930–2012): An overall approach. Logeion 3:191–232.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Useful survey concludes with extensive lists of films, mythical characters, and themes.
Find this resource:
MacKinnon, Kenneth. 1986. Greek tragedy into film. London: Croom Helm.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Brief survey, useful mainly for its theoretical approach, which is adapted from film versions of Shakespeare via Jack J. Jorgens, Shakespeare on Film (1977).
Find this resource:
Michelakis, Pantelis. 2013. Greek tragedy on screen. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239078.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
First systematic and theoretically informed appreciation of its topic. Includes extensive references and some rare illustrations alongside more familiar ones.
Find this resource:
Myrsiades, Kostas, ed. 2009. Reading Homer: Film and text. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Essays on the Homeric epics, on Troy (2004), and on two thematically related films with American settings.
Find this resource:
Nikoloutsos, Konstantinos P., ed. 2013a. Ancient Greek women in film. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Essays on the portrayals of historical (Gorgo, Olympias, Cleopatra) and various mythic women, among them Helen of Troy, Medea, and Penelope.
Find this resource:
Rodrigues, Nuno Simôes. 2012. Least that’s what Plutarch says: Plutarco no cinema. In Plutarco e as artes: Pintura, cinema e artes decorativas. Edited by Luísa de Nazaré Ferreira, Paulo Simôes Rodrigues, and Nuno Simôes Rodrigues, 139–272. Coimbra, Portugal: Centro de Estudos Clássicos e Humanísticos.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Monograph-length survey, with filmography, about films adapted from or inspired by Plutarch’s Parallel Lives and some other writings. First part of title is from a song in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), a musical-comedy adaptation of the rape of the Sabine Women (from Plutarch’s Romulus) via Stephen Vincent Benét.
Find this resource:
Valverde García, Alejandro. 2015. Una tragedia griega contra los abusos de poder: Las Troyanas (1971) de Michael Cacoyannis. In El poder a través de la representación fílmica. Edited by Óscar Lapeña Marchena and Dolores Pérez Murillo, 325–341. Paris: Université Paris-Sud.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Article places The Trojan Women in the context of its director’s background of modern war and imperialism. One in a welcome series of publications by Valverde García on Cacoyannis.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 2007a. Greek myth on the screen. In The Cambridge companion to Greek mythology. Edited by Roger D. Woodard, 453–479. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Introductory survey.
Find this resource:

On Individual Films and Themes

The entries listed in this section are all suitable as main or supplemental course texts. Winkler 2007b, Winkler 2015, and Cartledge and Greenland 2010 are essay collections that apply a variety of critical approaches. Lane Fox 2004 is a historical consultant’s behind-the-scenes report. Borchardt 2006 is a producer’s account of a unique film version of the Iliad. Vasunia 2010 is a timely reminder of the films about Antiquity that do not come from Europe or Hollywood. Boschi 2012 examines films about Jason and the Argonauts. André and Lécole-Solnychkine 2013 deals with ancient and filmic architecture. Valverde García 2014 and Valverde García 2017 turn to unduly neglected topics. Nikoloutsos 2013b rekindles interest in an underrated epic film, as does Nogueira Coelho 2013 (on an epic-comic film).

André, Laury-Nuria, and Sophie Lécole-Solnychkine. 2013. Paysages et topoi dans le péplum contemporain: De l’esthétique de la ruine à sa résurrection virtuelle. Anabases 18:109–127.
DOI: 10.4000/anabases.4425 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On ruins rebuilt on screen, especially Alexandria’s in Agora.
Find this resource:
Borchardt, Antje. 2006. Lebendige Antike. Vol. 11, Mythos, nicht Märchen: Über den Versuch, Homers “Ilias” literarisch zu verfilmen. Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany: Hennecke.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Very short volume contains producer’s lecture on Singe den Zorn (2004), a feature-length art-house adaptation, in German verse translation, of selections from the Iliad, filmed on the site of the excavations at Hisarlik, Turkey. Several intercut talking-head comments by various experts lessen the film’s emotional power. DVD is available from production company Retsina-Film online. The latter provides additional information.
Find this resource:
Boschi, Alberto. 2012. I predatori del vello perduto: Sei versioni cinematografiche del mito degli Argonauti. Dionysus ex Machina 3:357–390.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Detailed article (whose title alludes to Raiders of the Lost Ark) on Italian, German, and American Argonaut films. Journal is accessible online.
Find this resource:
Cartledge, Paul, and Fiona Rose Greenland, eds. 2010. Responses to Oliver Stone’s Alexander: Film, history, and cultural studies. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Essays on the 2004 film. Includes director’s response to responses. No illustrations.
Find this resource:
Lane Fox, Robin. 2004. The making of Alexander. Oxford: R & L.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Oxford University historian and biographer of Alexander the Great here describes his experiences in what was marketed as “The official guide to the epic film Alexander.” Foreword by the director.
Find this resource:
Nikoloutsos, Konstantinos. 2013b. Reviving the past: Cinematic history and popular memory in The 300 Spartans (1962). The Classical World 106.2: 261–283.
DOI: 10.1353/clw.2013.0030 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On an underrated epic film, of special interest after 300.
Find this resource:
Nogueira Coelho, Maria Cecília de Miranda. 2013. A Vida Privada de Helena de Tróia nos loucos anos 20 em Hollywood. Classica [Brazil] 26.2: 191–223.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Article on Alexander Korda’s The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1927), now largely lost, with detailed references.
Find this resource:
Valverde García, Alejandro. 2014. El nacimiento de la tragedia griega en la pantalla: Prometeo encadenado (1927) de Gadsiadis. Thamyris 5:127–148.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Welcome study of Dimitris Gadsiadis’s film version of Angelos Sikelianos and Eva Palmer’s historical stage production, at Delphi, of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound.
Find this resource:
Valverde García, Alejandro. 2017. Orestes (1969) de Vassilis Fotópulos: La deconstrucción fílmica de un mito en clave pacifista. Dionysus ex Machina 8:86–103.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On pacifist film version of Aeschylus’s Oresteia. Journal is accessible online.
Find this resource:
Vasunia, Phiroze. 2010. Alexander Sikandar. In Classics and national cultures. Edited by Susan A. Stephens and Phiroze Vasunia, 302–324. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199212989.003.0017 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Valuable cinematic and cultural analysis of Sikandar, a 1941 epic Indian film about Alexander the Great (and itself a loose remake of the 1923 silent Indian film Sikandar).
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M., ed. 2007b. Troy: From Homer’s Iliad to Hollywood epic. Oxford: Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Various essays on the 2004 film, with listing of films and television productions depicting the Trojan War (excluding documentaries). Includes contribution by the late Manfred Korfmann, excavator at Hisarlik.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M., ed. 2015. Return to Troy: New essays on the Hollywood epic. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Continuation of Winkler 2007b was prompted by director’s cut of Troy released in 2007. Contains an interview with director Wolfgang Petersen, behind-the-scenes descriptions of the film’s production, and on-set photographs.
Find this resource:

Rome

Junkelmann 2004 is comprehensive on American films. Cano Alonso 2014 offers another detailed overview. Wyke 1997 addresses Italian and American historical epics with emphasis on their political and social backgrounds. Alonso, et al. 2008 and Joshel, et al. 2001 address different themes from various perspectives. Cyrino 2005 deals with the most famous English-language films. Lindner 2007 focuses on power, Wrigley 2008 and Theodorakopoulos 2010 on the city of Rome. Solomon 2016 and Scodel and Bettenworth 2009 trace adaptations of Ben-Hur and Quo Vadis through film history. All works listed are suitable as supplements in advanced courses, depending on individual instructors’ emphases.

Alonso, Juan J., Enrique A. Mastache, and Jorge Alonso. 2008. La antigua Roma en el cine. Madrid: T & B Editores.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On a variety of well-known and lesser-known American and Italian films about Rome. Numerous illustrations.
Find this resource:
Cano Alonso, Pedro Lúis. 2014. Cine de romanos: Apuntos sobre la tradición cinematográfica y televisiva del mundo clásico. Madrid: Centro de Lingüística Aplicada Atenea.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Large volume, accompanied by CD-ROM, on the history of Romans on cinema and television screens, with extensive filmographic information. Special emphasis on Cabiria (1914) and on the lives of Jesus and early Christians.
Find this resource:
Cyrino, Monica Silveira. 2005. Big screen Rome. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On the best-known historical epics and comedies. Designed for course use.
Find this resource:
Joshel, Sandra R., Margaret Malamud, and Donald T. McGuire Jr., eds. 2001. Imperial projections: Ancient Rome in modern popular culture. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Chiefly on cinema (and television: I, Claudius). Detailed introduction by two of the editors and Maria Wyke.
Find this resource:
Junkelmann, Marcus. 2004. Hollywoods Traum von Rom: “Gladiator” und die Tradition des Monumentalfilms. Mainz, Germany: Von Zabern.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Specialist in Roman military and gladiatorial history contrasts facts and fictions in American epics about Rome. Excellent color and black-and-white illustrations.
Find this resource:
Lindner, Martin. 2007. Rom und seine Kaiser im Historienfilm. Frankfurt: Verlag Antike.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Detailed study of Roman emperors and some other rulers in historical films. No illustrations.
Find this resource:
Scodel, Ruth, and Anja Bettenworth. 2009. Whither Quo Vadis? Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On five films of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s 1895 novel.
Find this resource:
Solomon, Jon. 2016. Ben-Hur: The original blockbuster. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Love’s labor’s won! Appropriately (and pleasingly) gargantuan tome of over 900 pages on all aspects of the Ben-Hur phenomenon. Attractive color illustrations (but too few for addicts). Extensive quotations from sources, detailed references.
Find this resource:
Theodorakopoulos, Elena. 2010. Ancient Rome at the cinema: Story and spectacle in Hollywood and Rome. Exeter, UK: Bristol Phoenix.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Despite its exaggerated title, mainly a study of four American epic films, Fellini Satyricon, and Titus.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 2020. Ovid on screen: A montage of attractions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/9781108756891 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
First systematic study of Ovid’s affinities with the cinema and of his influence on film history. Subtitle pays homage to Eisenstein.
Find this resource:
Wrigley, Richard, ed. 2008. Cinematic Rome. Leicester, UK: Troubadour.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On the city of Rome, mainly during postclassical eras, in Italian cinema. Contains essays on Quo Vadis (1951, American but filmed in Rome) and Fellini (Satyricon, Roma).
Find this resource:
Wyke, Maria. 1997. Projecting the past: Ancient Rome, cinema and history. New York: Routledge.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On American and Italian films about Spartacus, Cleopatra, Nero, and Pompeii. The Cleopatra chapter appears, in revised form, in the author’s The Roman Mistress: Ancient and Modern Representations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Find this resource:

On Spartacus

The Thracian slave-gladiator and archetypal rebel continues to inspire, as the global success of Gladiator (2000) demonstrated. Winkler 2004a links this film, which restarted ancient epics on screen, to a famous, although unacknowledged, predecessor. The following present detailed case studies, especially of Kubrick’s film. The edited essay collections reflect a variety of critical approaches; all are suitable as main or supplemental course texts. Davis 2000 (also listed under On Historical and Epic Cinema) places Kubrick’s epic in the context of later historical films. Lapeña Marchena 2007 examines Spartacus’s afterlife on screen. Winkler 2007c can now be read alongside Douglas 2012 and Trumbo 2012. Neale 2010 exemplifies a film scholar’s approach to one decisive scene in the 1960 film; Hark 1993 applies Mulvey 1989 (cited under Introductions to Cinema Studies). Augustakis and Cyrino 2016 is a collection of essays on the American television production of the early 21st century.

Augustakis, Anthony, and Monica S. Cyrino, eds. 2016. STARZ Spartacus: Reimagining an icon on screen. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On various aspects of the 2010–2013 cable TV series.
Find this resource:
Davis, Natalie Zemon. 2000. Slaves on screen: Film and historical vision. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Short book by well-known historian examines five films for their portrayals of slavery, especially that of black slaves. Four of these are not set in Antiquity. Her ancient example is Spartacus (1960).
Find this resource:
Douglas, Kirk 2012. I am Spartacus! Making a film, breaking the blacklist. New York: Open Road Integrated Media.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Producer-star reminisces about the complicated production of Spartacus (1960). Some of his statements have been disputed; see Trumbo 2012.
Find this resource:
Hark, Ina Rae. 1993. Animals or Romans: Looking at masculinity in Spartacus. In Screening the male: Exploring masculinities in Hollywood cinema. Edited by Steven Cohan and Ina Rae Hark, 151–172. London: Routledge.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Feminist theory applied to Kubrick’s film.
Find this resource:
Lapeña Marchena, Oscar. 2007. El mito de Espartaco: De Capua a Hollywood. Amsterdam: Hakkert.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
The history of Spartacus and its screen legend.
Find this resource:
Neale, Steve. 2010. The art of the palpable: Composition and staging in the widescreen films of Anthony Mann. In Widescreen worldwide. Edited by John Belton, Sheldon Hall, and Steve Neale, 91–106. New Barnet, UK: Libbey.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Visual analysis of the opening of Spartacus (1960) as filmed by its original director.
Find this resource:
Trumbo, Mitzi. 2012. Trumbo family: Kirk Douglas overstates blacklist role. Salon.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Daughter of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo corrects Douglas 2012.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M., ed. 2004a. Gladiator: Film and history. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Essay collection on Ridley Scott’s 2000 film also traces connections to Spartacus, especially Kubrick’s film.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M., ed. 2007c. Spartacus: Film and history. Oxford: Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Essays and related materials on the 1960 film. Includes chief historical sources in translation.
Find this resource:

On Films Based on Roman Authors

Plautus and Petronius take pride of place in this category. The following entries range from detailed to broad studies; some are useful for teachers and their students. Paul 2009 is a useful introduction to Fellini’s film of the Satyrica; De Berti, et al. 2009 offers various perspectives on Fellini’s vision of ancient Rome. Skwara and Skwara 2009 and Glücklich 2010 compare works by Plautus with their film adaptations. The latter’s approach to Plautus may be complemented by that of Tovar Paz 2003.

De Berti, Raffaele, Elisabetta Gagetti, and Fabrizio Slavazzi, eds. 2009. Fellini-Satyricon: L’immaginario dell’antico. Milan: Cisalpino.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Large essay collection also contains a shot-for-shot breakdown of the film’s images, dialogues, and soundtrack, followed by annotations.
Find this resource:
Glücklich, Hans-Joachim. 2010. “Leider nicht von mir”—oder doch? Plautus als Inspirator der Filmkomödie “Toll trieben es die alten Römer.” Der Altsprachliche Unterricht 53.1: 50–58.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On Plautine elements in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966).
Find this resource:
Paul, Joanna. 2009. Fellini-Satyricon: Petronius and film. In Petronius: A handbook. Edited by Jonathan R. W. Prag and Ian Repath, 198–217. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
DOI: 10.1002/9781444306064.ch12 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On Fellini’s free adaptation of Petronius.
Find this resource:
Skwara, Ewa, and Joanna Skwara. 2009. Zabawne zdarzenie w drodze na forum. Poznań, Poland: Adam Mickiewicz Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Short but detailed monograph on A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and its classical background.
Find this resource:
Tovar Paz, Francisco Javier. 2003. En bandeja de Plauto: un ensayo sobre Billy Wilder. Badajoz, Spain: Univ. of Extremadura/Imprenta diputación provincial de Badajoz.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Short monograph deals with Plautine aspects in some of Wilder’s comedies and other films.
Find this resource:

On Other Individual Films and Themes

Other historical topics, mainly dealt with in epic films, are listed here. Bertani 2014 is on an early film and its source novel about a famous catastrophe. Feig Vishnia 2008 deals with the only Roman epic made in Fascist Italy. Dean 1946 takes readers behind the scenes of Great Britain’s most expensive production up to its time. Winkler 2003 and Briggs 2008 examine cinematic roots of Gladiator from different perspectives, while Landau 2000 is an example of the “making of” promotional tie-in. Aliaga and Parra 2013 is on women in epic films. Winkler 2009c shows the importance of the last grand-scale epic about Roman history made in the 1960s. Cyrino 2008 and Cyrino 2015 are collections of essays on the British-American television production Rome. Lapeña Marchena 2010 deals with a neglected eastern European film.

Aliaga, Raquel, and Javier Parra. 2013. Una de romanos y romanas: La mujer y las relaciones de género en el peplum. Revista Historia Autónoma 3:29–46.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On gender relations and historical anachronisms in portrayals of women in epic films.
Find this resource:
Bertani, Maria Giovanna. 2014. Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei e i primi passi della decima Musa: L’antico sulla pagina e sullo schermo (nel 1908). Dionysus ex Machina 5:311–349.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Detailed article on the silent version of Bulwer-Lytton’s novel The Last Days of Pompeii. Journal is accessible online.
Find this resource:
Briggs, Ward. 2008. Layered allusions in Gladiator. Arion 3d ser., 15.3: 9–38.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
The concept of “intertextuality” is here applied to film. Gladiator (2000) echoes, to put it mildly, Anthony Mann’s The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) and some earlier American films about gladiators, but the author shows the wider influence on Gladiator of Mann’s genre films (film noir, Western) and of films by others.
Find this resource:
Cyrino, Monica S., ed. 2008. Rome, season one: History makes television. Oxford: Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On the 2005 season of this HBO-BBC production. Includes a valuable overview by Jon Solomon of portrayals of ancient Rome on the small screen.
Find this resource:
Cyrino, Monica S., ed. 2015. Rome, season two: Trial and triumph. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
“Sequel” to Cyrino 2008.
Find this resource:
Dean, Marjorie. 1946. Meeting at the Sphinx: Gabriel Pascal’s production of Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra. London: MacDonald.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Short but fascinating book traces film’s production, in which the author was herself involved. Contains brief forewords by Shaw and Pascal and color and black-and-white images. Attractive collector’s item for aficionados.
Find this resource:
Feig Vishnia, Rachel. 2008. Ancient Rome in Italian cinema under Mussolini: The case of Scipione l’Africano. The Italianist 28:246–267.
DOI: 10.1179/026143408X363550 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Examination of a politically important and notorious propaganda film from 1937 about Scipio Africanus and Hannibal.
Find this resource:
Landau, Diana, ed. 2000. Gladiator: The making of the Ridley Scott epic. New York: Newmarket.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Intended to cash in on the successful film, but containing good behind-the-scenes material (texts, images). Introduction by the director.
Find this resource:
Lapeña Marchena, Oscar. 2010. Nuevas perspectivas en la recepción cinematográfica de la Historia Antigua: El ejemplo de Dacii/Les guerriers (Sergiu Nicolaescu, Rumania/Francia 1966). Studia historica—Historia antigua 28:155–178.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On a Romanian-French epic film about Domitian’s campaigns in Dacia.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 2003. Quomodo stemma Gladiatoris pelliculae more philologico sit constituendum. American Journal of Philology 124:137–141.
DOI: 10.1353/ajp.2003.0026 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Presents Gladiator as classical scholars used to introduce their editions of ancient texts (i.e., in Latin). Author aims to be simultaneously enlightening and amusing.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M., ed. 2009c. The Fall of the Roman Empire: Film and history. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Essays on the 1964 film. Includes translations of chief ancient sources on Marcus Aurelius. Book follows in the footsteps (sandals?) of the same editor’s essay collections on Gladiator (Winkler 2004a [cited under On Spartacus]) and Spartacus (Winkler 2007c [cited under On Spartacus]).
Find this resource:

Studies of Films with Modern and Futuristic Settings

This is a particularly wide-ranging area within classics and cinema, which can yield astonishing results. Since the cinema regularly adopts and adapts major classical archetypes, for instance of plot construction, and updates ancient texts (tragedies, myths) to later settings, films that at first sight have nothing to do with Antiquity often repay a closer look. Works included here provide instructive examples; this list is meant only as an amuse-gueule. Other instances may be found under Essay Collections, Monographs, and Selected Articles, especially in edited collections. Winkler 1985 surveys heroic archetypes in a postclassical genre; Winkler 2004b demonstrates parallels in one film of that genre to one ancient epic. Burton 2001, Siegel 2005, and Danese 2012a deal with modernized versions of themes from specific tragedies. Danese 2012b is a companion piece to Danese 2012a. Danek 2002, Heckel 2005–2006, and Siegel 2007 are best read together. Winkler 2002 examines psychological affinities of film style and technology with classical drama. Wenskus 2009 travels to outer space.

Burton, Paul. 2001. Avian plague: Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. Mouseion 3.1: 313–341.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Article demonstrates through one specific example how wide-ranging the archetypal influence of the most famous of all classical tragedies can be in the cinema.
Find this resource:
Danek, Georg. 2002. Die Odyssee der Coen-Brüder: Zitatebenen in O Brother, Where Art Thou? In Pontes II: Antike im Film. Edited by Martin Korenjak and Karlheinz Töchterle, 84–94. Innsbruck, Austria: StudienVerlag.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Eye-opening study of a film that seamlessly combines Homeric and cinematic references and quotations. A highlight in a generally disappointing essay collection.
Find this resource:
Danese, Roberto Mario. 2012a. Edipo al Funerale delle rose: L’Edipo re di Sofocle nel cinema di Toshio Matsumoto. In Edipo classico e contemporaneo. Edited by Francesco Citti and Alessandro Ianucci, 309–341. Hildesheim, Germany: Olms.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On Oedipal overtones in the Japanese film Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), a cult classic whose protagonist Eddie (get it?) is a transvestite.
Find this resource:
Danese, Roberto Mario. 2012b. L’estetica dell’ androgino e il buio della profezia: Rifrazione filmiche del mito classico in Tiresia di Bertrand Bonello. Dionysus ex Machina 3:323–356.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On a 2003 French film, set in modern Paris, about a transsexual prostitute. Director and co-writer Bonello incorporates aspects of Plato’s Symposium into the Tiresias myth. Journal is accessible online.
Find this resource:
Heckel, Hartwig. 2005–2006. Zurück in die Zukunft via Ithaca, Mississippi: Technik und Funktion der Homer-Rezeption in O Brother, Where Art Thou? International Journal of the Classical Tradition 11:571–589.
DOI: 10.1007/s12138-005-0019-y Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Study of the Coen brothers’ clever update of the Odyssey deals mainly with the film’s Homeric features.
Find this resource:
Mills, Sophie. 2015. Classical elements and mythological archetypes in The Hunger Games. New Voices in Classical Reception Studies 10:56–64.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Just one example of classicists’ engagements with film series based on popular juvenile fiction. Journal is accessible online.
Find this resource:
Siegel, Janice. 2005. Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer and Euripides’ Bacchae. International Journal of the Classical Tradition 11:538–570.
DOI: 10.1007/s12138-005-0018-z Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On aspects of Greek tragedy in a film version of a classic modern drama.
Find this resource:
Siegel, Janice. 2007. The Coens’ O Brother Where Art Thou? and Homer’s Odyssey. Mouseion 7:213–245.
DOI: 10.1353/mou.0.0029 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Contains references to several additional articles about and reviews of the film.
Find this resource:
Wenskus, Otta. 2009. Umwege in die Vergangenheit: Star Trek und die griechisch-römische Antike. Innsbruck, Austria: Studien Verlag.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Exhaustive detective work on classical themes in cult sci-fi TV series. Not only for Trekkies.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 1985. Classical mythology and the Western film. Comparative Literature Studies 22.4: 516–540.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On aspects of ancient hero myths in the American Western.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 2002. The face of tragedy: From theatrical mask to cinematic close-up. Mouseion 3.2: 43–70.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Compares the emotional impact of close-ups in films to that of masks on the Greek stage.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 2004b. Homer’s Iliad and John Ford’s The Searchers. In The Searchers: Essays and reflections on John Ford’s classic Western. Edited by Arthur M. Eckstein and Peter Lehman, 145–170. Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
On archetypal parallels between the two works named. Companion to the author’s “Tragic Features in John Ford’s The Searchers” in Winkler 2001 (cited under Greece and Rome: Films with Ancient and Modern Settings: Works in English).
Find this resource:

Teaching Antiquity with Film: Some Pioneers

Visual literacy is now basic to education on all levels, so classicists can no longer excuse themselves from dealing with films. Ullman 1915, Hadzsits 1920, Smith 1920, and Crane 1921, all written from the heart, are early instances, now fascinating to read, of classical scholars and teachers turning to cinema or related media, chiefly for educational purposes.

Crane, Frank. 1921. Mythology motion pictures. Current Opinion 71.4 (October): 430–431.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A popular journalist and religious leader extols film as a continuation of classical culture in a brief editorial.
Find this resource:
Hadzsits, George Depue. 1920. Media of salvation. Classical Weekly 14.9: 70–71.
DOI: 10.2307/4388080 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Sees historical films as one of three important “ways and means of saving the Classics or, at least, of greatly strengthening their positions” in schools and with the general public. Note religious term in title.
Find this resource:
Smith, Grace Partridge. 1920. Visualizing mythology. Visualizing Education 1.6 (November): 27–29.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
See also p. 58. College teacher (of classical Greek) and future founder of the Illinois Folklore Society recommends ancient myths as subjects for films and uses the myth as Demeter for an example. Irresistible.
Find this resource:
Ullman, B. L. 1915. Editor’s letter. Classical Weekly 8.26 (8 May): 201–202.
DOI: 10.2307/4387102 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A very short essay argues in favor of “the ‘Movies’” as “a valuable aid of the Classics” in the classroom.
Find this resource:

Teaching Antiquity with Film: Some Moderns

Lillo Redonet 1994 and Lillo Redonet 2001 are the longest works on the subject. McDonald 2011 unintentionally echoes Hadzsits 1920, listed under Teaching Antiquity with Film: Some Pioneers. Clauss 1996 and Rose 2001 provide suggestions for courses on mythology; Tovar Paz 2006 also deals with teaching myth. Wieber 2005 and Wieber 2007 are collections of brief outlines of teaching units on the high school level. Valverde García 2009, Valverde García 2016a, and Valverde García 2016b are on specific topics of teaching with films. Karam and Kirby-Hirst 2011 examines videogames alongside some films.

Clauss, James J. 1996. A course on classical mythology in film. The Classical Journal 91.3: 287–295.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Article describes an introductory-level course.
Find this resource:
Karam, B., and M. Kirby-Hirst. 2011. “Reality worlds” collide: Film and videogames as pedagogical tools for the classics. Akroterion 56:129–148.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Title explains content. Brief list of films and videogames.
Find this resource:
Lillo Redonet, Fernando. 1994. El cine de romanos y su aplicación didáctica. Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Teaching guide to Roman themes.
Find this resource:
Lillo Redonet, Fernando. 2001. El cine de tema Griego y su aplicación didáctica. 2d ed. Madrid: Ediciones Clásicas.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Teaching guide to Greek themes.
Find this resource:
McDonald, Marianne. 2011. A new hope: Film as a teaching tool for the classics. In A companion to classical receptions. Edited by Lorna Hardwick and Christopher Stray, 327–341. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Originally published in 2008. Title explains content. Main title is taken from the Star Wars film series: Episode IV: A New Hope.
Find this resource:
Rose, Peter W. 2001. Teaching classical myth and confronting contemporary myths. In Classical myth and culture in the cinema. Edited by Martin M. Winkler, 302–329. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Marxist classicist tackles ideological undertones in films based on Greek myth and in films taking recourse to mythical archetypes (e.g., Star Wars).
Find this resource:
Tovar Paz, F. J. 2006. Possibilità didattiche e di ricerca del mito nel cinema. In Fenomenologia del mito: La narrazione tra cinema, filosofia, psicoanalisi. Edited by Giovanni Invitto, 56–67. San Cesario di Lecce, Italy: Manni.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Brief reflections on teaching and researching ancient myth in films.
Find this resource:
Valverde García, Alejandro. 2009. Antígona de Yorgos Tsavelas, un instrumento didáctico para la prevención y resolución de conflictos. Estudios Neogriegos 12:173–188.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Film version of Antigone as teaching tool to avoid or resolve conflict.
Find this resource:
Valverde García, Alejandro. 2016a. Las Troyanas de Cacoyannis como recurso didáctico para la reflexión sobre la convivencia y la paz. Perspectiva Cep 2 (June):87–94.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Film of The Trojan Women can help students reflect on peace and related issues. See also Valverde García 2015 (listed under Greece).
Find this resource:
Valverde García, Alejandro. 2016b. Orientaciones para el estudio de Grecia Antigua y la educación en valores a través del cine. Philologica Urcitana 14:103–124.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Article provides guidelines for value education through films.
Find this resource:
Wieber, Anja, ed. 2005. Drehbuch Antike. Der Altsprachliche Unterricht 48.1.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Thematic issue of a didactic journal. High school teachers briefly present and describe a variety of course units involving film and video. Focus is on films with ancient settings.
Find this resource:
Wieber, Anja, ed. 2007. Antike im Film. Der Altsprachliche Unterricht 50.6.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Second theme issue of this didactic journal profits from longer (if fewer) contributions. Focus is on films with non-classical settings. Teachers’ enthusiasm is noticeable.
Find this resource:

Theoretical Reflections

Prefaces or introductions by the authors and editors of the books listed throughout this article tend to include reflections on their subjects as a matter of course, occasionally in the form of an apologia. Nevertheless, the topic of classics and cinema still lacks an overarching theory, although the first chapters in Winkler 2009b, Winkler 2017, and Winkler 2015 come closest. Solomon 2010, Paul 2010, and Paul 2011 represent recent perspectives, to which Wyke 1998 and Wyke 2003 pointed the way. Nisbet 2007 evinces a dissenting approach.

Nisbet, Gideon. 2007. Towards a philology of body oil: Martin Winkler and Troy. Arion 3d ser., 15:157–162.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Quirkily titled review of Winkler, ed., Troy: From Homer’s Iliad to Hollywood epic (Winkler 2007b [cited under Greece: On Individual Films and Themes]) advances contrasting perspective on classics and cinema.
Find this resource:
Paul, Joanna. 2010. Cinematic receptions of Antiquity: The current state of play. Classical Receptions Journal 2.1: 136–155.
DOI: 10.1093/crj/clq005 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Review essay examines “one of the most vigorous and voluminous areas in classical reception scholarship over the past decade and a half” (p. 136). Contains extensive bibliographical references.
Find this resource:
Paul, Joanna. 2011. Working with film: Theories and methodologies. In A companion to classical receptions. Edited by Lorna Hardwick and Christopher Stray, 303–314. Oxford: Blackwell.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Concise survey of how scholars and teachers may use films. Originally published in 2008.
Find this resource:
Solomon, Jon. 2010. Film philology: Towards effective theories and methodologies. International Journal of the Classical Tradition 17:435–449.
DOI: 10.1007/s12138-010-0205-4 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Review article of Winkler, Cinema and classical texts: Apollo’s new light (Winkler 2009b), develops a somewhat different approach and introduces some new terminology, such as “Ancients” for films set in Antiquity (in analogy to “Westerns”). Numerous references.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 2009b. Cinema and classical texts: Apollo’s new light. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511575723 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
First chapter (“A Certain Tendency in Classical Philology,” pp. 20–69) develops a theory of classical film philology as an aspect of traditional philologia perennis (Rudolf Pfeiffer’s term). Author’s chapter title alludes to critic and director François Truffaut’s most famous article.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 2015. Cinemetamorphosis: Toward a cinematic theory of classical narrative. Dionysus ex Machina 6:216–238.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Article argues for a certain approach to visual and literary aspects of Antiquity on our screens. Illustrated.
Find this resource:
Winkler, Martin M. 2017. Classical literature on screen: Affinities of imagination. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
DOI: 10.1017/9781108123358 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
“Sequel” to Winkler 2009b. Introduction and chapter 1 (“The Classical Sense of Cinema and the Cinema’s Sense of Antiquity”) offer theoretical observations.
Find this resource:
Wyke, Maria. 1998. Classics and contempt: Redeeming cinema for the classical tradition. Arion 3d ser., 6:124–136.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Review article of Martin M. Winkler, ed., Classics and Cinema (Winkler 1991[cited under The Pioneers: Antiquity and Cinema]) makes a good case for classicists’ incorporating film into teaching and scholarship.
Find this resource:
Wyke, Maria. 2003. Are you not entertained? Classicists and cinema. International Journal of the Classical Tradition 9:430–445.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Review article of Jon Solomon, The Ancient World in the Cinema (Solomon 2001[cited under General Overviews]), and Martin M. Winkler, Classical Myth and Culture in the Cinema (Winkler 2001 [cited under Greece and Rome: Films with Ancient and Modern Settings: Works in English]) provides an expert author with the “opportunity to explore along the way various thoughts on the past, the present and the future of cinema in classical studies and of classical scholarship on cinema” (p. 431).
Find this resource:

Books Notable for Their Illustrations

The adage “Seeing is believing” applies to all films, to many books on spectacular films, and, in particular, to books on classics and cinema. Those listed here stand out and can serve as attractive supplements for courses, although Chapman 2002 may be too daring for certain academic environments. All include color images. Cary 1974, Searles 1990, and Dumont 2009 are coffee table–sized pleasures, as is DeMille Presley and Vieira 2014 on the films of a director whose name has become virtually synonymous with the term “Hollywood epic” (not entirely accurately). Like these, Junkelmann 2004 and Lochman, et al. 2008 have rare images. Maeder 1987 deals with costuming for films set in various historical eras.

Cary, John. 1974. Spectacular! The story of epic films. Edited by John Kobal. Secaucus, NJ: Castle.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Oversized (if too slim for aficionados) picture book with images from the Kobal Collection. Especially good on early epics (Griffith, De Mille). Includes a brief chapter on the making of Helen of Troy (1955). Out of print.
Find this resource:
Chapman, David. 2002. Retro studs: Muscle movie posters from around the world. Portland, OR: Collectors Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Eye-popping collection of images, often blatantly erotic. A guilty pleasure, diminished only by the book’s small format. Out of print.
Find this resource:
DeMille Presley, Cecilia, and Mark Vieira. 2014. Cecil B. De Mille: The art of the Hollywood epic. Philadelphia: Running Press.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Lavishly illustrated coffee table tome, with numerous rare photographs, drawings, etc. Irresistible to aficionados.
Find this resource:
Dumont, Hervé. 2009. L’antiquité au cinéma: Vérités, légendes et manipulations. Paris: Nouveau Monde.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Excellent illustrations in high-quality reproduction. Updated edition of 2013 accessible online as a flipbook.
Find this resource:
Junkelmann, Marcus. 2004. Hollywood’s Traum von Rom: “Gladiator” und die Tradition des Monumentalfilms. Mainz, Germany: Von Zabern.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Numerous high-quality illustrations.
Find this resource:
Lochman, Tomas, Thomas Späth, and Adrian Stähli, eds. 2008. Antike im Kino: Auf dem Weg zu einer Kulturgeschichte des Antikenfilms. Basel, Switzerland: Skulpturhalle Basel.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Many rare images; excellent reproduction quality. Difficult to obtain.
Find this resource:
Maeder, Edward, ed. 1987. Hollywood and history: Costume design in film. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Exhibition catalogue and several essays. Includes fascinating design sketches (in color) for several films set in Antiquity and a black-and-white photo essay about Cleopatra.
Find this resource:
Searles, Baird. 1990. Epic! History on the big screen. New York: Abrams.
Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Oversized pictorial guide covers Antiquity and later epochs. Text eclipsed by first-rate illustrations. Out of print.
Find this resource:

Classics

Jump to Other Articles:

Article

Down

In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Classics and Cinema

Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" section about

Other Subject Areas

Forthcoming Articles Expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section

Share Link

Classics and Cinema
by
Martin M. Winkler
LAST REVIEWED: 16 March 2023
LAST MODIFIED: 24 June 2020
DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0053

Introduction

The Pioneers: Film—Art and Psychology

The Pioneers: Antiquity and Cinema

General Overviews

Bibliographies

Reference Works

On European and American Films

Specifically on Italian Films

Propaedeutics

Introductions to Cinema Studies

On Historical and Epic Cinema

Essay Collections, Monographs, and Selected Articles

Greece and Rome: Films with Ancient and Modern Settings: Works in English

Greece and Rome: Films with Ancient and Modern Settings: Works in Languages Other Than English

Greece

On Individual Films and Themes

Rome

On Spartacus

On Films Based on Roman Authors

On Other Individual Films and Themes

Studies of Films with Modern and Futuristic Settings

Teaching Antiquity with Film: Some Pioneers

Teaching Antiquity with Film: Some Moderns

Theoretical Reflections

Books Notable for Their Illustrations

Classics

Article

Recently viewed (0)

Sign in to an additional subscriber account

Login

In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Classics and Cinema

Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" sectionabout

About Related Articles close popup

Other Subject Areas

Forthcoming Articles Expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section

Share Link

Classics and Cinema byMartin M. WinklerLAST REVIEWED: 16 March 2023LAST MODIFIED: 24 June 2020DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0053

Introduction

The Pioneers: Film—Art and Psychology

The Pioneers: Antiquity and Cinema

General Overviews

Bibliographies

Reference Works

On European and American Films

Specifically on Italian Films

Propaedeutics

Introductions to Cinema Studies

On Historical and Epic Cinema

Essay Collections, Monographs, and Selected Articles

Greece and Rome: Films with Ancient and Modern Settings: Works in English

Greece and Rome: Films with Ancient and Modern Settings: Works in Languages Other Than English

Greece

On Individual Films and Themes

Rome

On Spartacus

On Films Based on Roman Authors

On Other Individual Films and Themes

Studies of Films with Modern and Futuristic Settings

Teaching Antiquity with Film: Some Pioneers

Teaching Antiquity with Film: Some Moderns

Theoretical Reflections

Books Notable for Their Illustrations

Classics

Article

Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" section about

Classics and Cinema
by
Martin M. Winkler
LAST REVIEWED: 16 March 2023
LAST MODIFIED: 24 June 2020
DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0053