Thursday, October 16, 2008

Christmas is Coming, so Let me have Men about me that are Fat

Cajus Julius Caesar. Dir. Enrico Guazzoni. Perf. Amleto Novelli, Giovanna Terribili Gonzalès, Pina Menichelli, Ruffo Geri, Ignazio Lupi, Irene Mattadra, Bruto Castellani, Augusto Mastripietri, Sigira Geri, Orlando Ricci, Carlo Duse, and Lea Orlandi. 1914. Palatino / Cines. 1914.
The Advent season is approaching, and Christmas will follow soon after. With that in mind, take a look at this silent Italian version of Julius Caesar. It demonstrates the dangers of turning aside wassailers. An old-fashioned wassail can quickly turn to riot if the participants' demands for figgy pudding are not quickly met.

My favorite part is section of the lyrics that goes with the image above: "Let these jolly wassailers in!" they cry!

The film itself is remarkable, and not just for the wonderful names I've included above. The scope and size are impressive.
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Bardfilm is normally written as one word, though it can also be found under a search for "Bard Film Blog." Bardfilm is a Shakespeare blog (admittedly, one of many Shakespeare blogs), and it is dedicated to commentary on films (Shakespeare movies, The Shakespeare Movie, Shakespeare on television, Shakespeare at the cinema), plays, and other matter related to Shakespeare (allusions to Shakespeare in pop culture, quotes from Shakespeare in popular culture, quotations that come from Shakespeare, et cetera).

Unless otherwise indicated, quotations from Shakespeare's works are from the following edition:
Shakespeare, William. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Gen. ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
All material original to this blog is copyrighted: Copyright 2008-2039 (and into perpetuity thereafter) by Keith Jones.

The very instant that I saw you did / My heart fly to your service; there resides, / To make me slave to it; and, for your sake, / Am I this patient [b]log-man.

 —The Tempest