Ancient Greece & Rome Cinema

Catalog description

The course examines a variety of films set in the ancient Greek and Roman world and compares them to the textual and visual sources on which they are based, in an attempt to assess their faithfulness and departures. The course aims to investigate the uses and abuses of the classical past in the medium: how (in)accurately historical figures and events are portrayed on the big screen and how modern ideologies and concerns (about politics, ethnicity, morality, religion, gender, sexuality, race, and cinema itself) are dressed into an ancient costume.