107-113 Ancient World on Film

see Prerequisites.

The ancient world - Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek and Roman - has proved a popular setting for films, from the inception of cinema to the present day. This subject examines the way the image of antiquity is exploited and manipulated on film, focusing on the cinema of two nations (Italy and the US) and on two golden ages of 'ancient film' - 1910-25 and 1950-65. Students should become familiar with questions of the role of the body and the gaze, the construction of the 'epic' genre, the influence of other visual arts (such as 19th century historical painting) on early filmic representations of the ancient world, the projection and contestation of ideology, conventions of gender, Christianity and Imperialism, the changing meanings of antiquity in the 20th century, and the critical reception of these films.