(Reviewed by John Glennie)
Italian Film Festival
Palace Cinemas
Edoardo Leo is a movie actor playing Julius Caesar, who is filming the scene where the leader is about to be murdered. Leo’s instinct was to fight back and resist the stabbing frenzy, so he cuts the scene short and leaves the set. He is wondering why Caesar didn’t fight back being a strong battle-hardened leader.
He starts to wander the historical sites of the magnificent city of Rome – perhaps trying to find answers. We are taken on a wonderful tour – some behind the scenes that regular tourists wouldn’t see – of many of the marvelous ruins and historical statues and relics of the time.
At some of the famous sites, such as the Colosseum, he tags along with other tourists and overhears the tour guides providing historical details. He delves into secrets at the Pantheon, Fontana di Trevi and wanders the streets filled with statues of the great Roman leaders. During his roamings he keeps running into one of the film crew (Victoria Chapman) who reminds him that, if he doesn’t turn up for his filming, he will be replaced.
The movie is filled with the timeless relics from a civilization long-ago, and we learn more about its structure. I wish I could understand Italian though, as the dialogue (quite often, thoughts) were spoken so quickly that, for the majority of the film, I didn’t have time to read the sub-titles. I think I would have to watch it several times to get to read in entirety, then watch again to ignore the sub-titles and soak in the visual aspects.
Overall, it didn’t do much for me – the attempt to turn a movie into a documentary. For me, make it one or the other. If you love Rome and it’s incredible history – and especially if you can understand Italian – you may get a lot more out of it that I did.
No Comments