I'm coming in the back door of this Virgil and film discussion (I've been on spring break) but the Sean Connery, Kevin Costner _Untouchables_ struck me as Vergilian at the end when Ness pushes the mob hit-man (Nitti is his name I think?) off the roof. A film which has gone to great lengths to show the humanity of Elliot Ness closes with Ness committing a grevious breach of that humanity, much like the close of the _Aeneid_. I recently noticed it so I have not used it with classes yet but hope this helps.
Ed DeHoratius At 8:08 PM 3/24/99, Robert T. White wrote: >>What does IMDB stand for? It appears >>to be a better resource than my Leonard Maltin.The private life of Helen >>of Troy sounds fascinating. >The International Movie Database (www.imdb.com)- an OK source of info >on films (now a subsidiary, it seems, of amazon.com) > >>I am not sure that there would be any Virgilian influence in "Troilus & >>Cressida", since it was probably based on the medi�val Troy story. This >>was developed out of late sources like "Dares Phrygius" & "Dictys >>Cretensis"by Benoi^t de Sainte-Maure,Boccaccio, Chaucer & Henryson. >>Cressida is not found in ancient sources and seems ultimately to be a >>conflation of Chryseis & Briseis from the Iliad. >I agree- the Aeneas films as influenced by V. would be the middle >three I listed.... > >>> Also, I would be skeptical that any film based on >>> Dante's _Inferno_ would include Vergil as a character (viz. >>> the 1935 version) >>I did see an excerpt from an early silent film based on the >>"Inferno"which showed Virgil & Dante gazing at Francesca da Rimini and >>her lover Paolo tossed in a whirlwind(Canto V).[Incidentally this is >>where Dante places Dido as well as Cleopatra & Helen.] It looked like a >>tableau founded on the illustrations of Gustave Dore'. Why wouldn't >>Virgil be a character? Dante has the Roman poet guide him through >>Hell.(However I don't know the 1935 version that you mention.) >From Fox Films, starring Spencer Tracy (great scene where ST hallucinates >and sees the title spot) > >>I am surprised that no one seems to have filmed the love story of Dido & >>�neas. Book IV is eminently dramatic. Indeed it thought to have been >>influenced by Greek tragedy.Metastasio (1698-1782) wrote a very >>successful opera libretto based on Virgil called "Didone abbandonata" >>which was set to music by forty composers! Purcell in short & Berlioz at >>length also dealt with the theme.Perhaps the Mantovani could tempt >>Merchant Ivory or the BBC away from nineteenth & early twentieth century >>novels, and suggest a TV series or movie based on the �neid or just Book >>IV. Books II & VI could be done with special effects by Spielberg!Would >>this bring Virgil to a wider audience and encourage interest in Virgil >>and Classical literature, sparking off a new renaissance or merely >>vulgarise our poet & sacrifice him to the Mammon of popular "culture" ? >Most classical stuff comes nowadays via Halmi in the miniseries format >(e.g., the upcoming "Cleopatra"). The results vary (I do think better >of NBC's Odyssey now, but BP as Circe still stinks), but I can't >imagine any chance of it getting to the big screen. (Unless Miramax >could put forth "Paltrow _is_ Dido"?). Didn't Italian TV do an >adaptation of the _Aeneid_? > > >Bob White > >(PS) Peter- thanx for the ae info! >����������������������������������� >����������������������������������� > >Robert T. White >Shaker Heights HS/ Shaker Heights OH >[EMAIL PROTECTED] (new) >[EMAIL PROTECTED] (alt) > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------- >To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. >Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message >"unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You >can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
