Quote:
Italian film’s early master of the historical spectacle, Enrico Guazzoni, was responsible for the second of (at least) three film adaptations of Nicholas Patrick Wiseman’s classic novel about Christianity’s rise in ancient Rome. Aside from the usual great production values of these silent epics, what surprises here is perhaps the rather graphic violence. And, the film is further notable for being Elena Sangro’s debut (when she was still going by the name Maria Antonietta Bartoli-Avveduti) in the title role no less.

http://nitroflare.com/view/1644F19526CC149/Fabiola__Enrico_Guazzoni_-_1918_.mkv
http://nitroflare.com/view/E91A69BD957920C/Fabiola_%281918%29.eng.2.srt

Language:Italian intertitles
Subtitles:English

If you enjoy this blog, you can support it by buying a NITROFLARE premium account from the links above. Thank you for your support

The post Enrico Guazzoni – Fabiola (1918) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

It’s another one of Guazzoni’s ancient dramas, this time about Agrippina, the mother of Nero. After she manages to make him emperor of Rome, he finds her a nuisance.
Sadly she is immune to poison and sinking her ship didn’t kill her either – she simply swam ashore. In the end a sword through her stomach did the trick: Few people are immune to that.
Actually not all of the above features in the film… Basically Nero’s just cross because mamma doesn’t like his new mistress.

http://nitroflare.com/view/52A38CA710770EA/Agrippina_%281911%29.mpg

Language:Silent (Dutch titles)

The post Enrico Guazzoni – Agrippina (1911) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Summary:
After the death of Claudius, Agrippina announced Nero the heir to the throne, which leads to despair of the true heir – Brittanicus.
Not daring to oppose Agrippina, Senators declare Nero the emperor.
Agrippina is against of an affair of Nero and Poppaea.
Agrippina threaten Nero that if he neglect his wife Octavius, she will give the throne to Brittanicus.
The threats of Agrippina had their effect. Brittanicus is poisoned.
Perversity of Nero is insatiable and he gives his trusted man, Anicetus a terrible order.
Agrippina is looking for salvation, but the indomitable hatred of Emperor Nero decides the fate of Agrippina…

https://nitro.download/view/CD6782E1809878E/agrippina_enrico_guazzoni_1911.avi
http://nitroflare.com/view/C3F44EC0226C7C8/agrippina_enrico_guazzoni_1911.srt

Language:Silent / Dutch intertitles
Subtitles: English (srt)

The post Enrico Guazzoni – Agrippina (1911) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Directed by Enrico Guazzoni
Scenario by Enrico Guazzoni, from a novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Amleto Novelli (Vinicius), Gustav Serena (Petronius), Amelia Cattaneo (Eunice), Carlo Cattaneo (Nero)

The birth of the motion picture epic is generally dated to the 1913-1914 Italian films Quo vadis, The Last Days of Pompeii, Cabiria and Cajus Julius Cesar, many of them based on a standard set of 19th century religious novels that would be made and remade over the next half of the 20th century. One of several specialists in the genre, Enrico Guazzoni filmed this second version Quo Vadis?, the prime exemplar of a subsidiary genre to “Life of Christ” films, one that might be called the “Christ vs. Caesar” genre. The title of this film means “Where are you going?” and the question is posed by the Ascended Christ to Peter in a vision as the latter departs Rome on the eve of an Imperial persecution. The main story, however, focuses on a Roman commander, Vinicius, who falls for a Christian girl, Lygia, and is so drawn into the underground Christian community, experiencing a personal transformation along the way.

Meanwhile, would-be-poet emperor, Nero, burns Rome for his inspiration and blames the tragedy on the Christians, bringing the conflict between Christ and Caesar, as always, into the arena. The inevitable meeting of the Roman arena and motion pictures matched the first worthy successor to the former in thousands of years. The Biblical Epic has proven a way of having the best of both worlds, an excuse to dwell upon the gory spectacle in all its gaudy sex and violence, then wash it all clean with a religious martyrdom. And while Quo Vadis? is ostensibly about choosing directions, the film somehow contrives to have it both ways, both Christian martyrdom and political revolution, with Vinicius leading the choice not so much for Christ as against Caesar.

The arena scenes here introduce epic scale in terms of extras in the stands, variety of action and performers (including animals), and depth of composition. But film directors still hadn’t figured out that they could actually move the camera — there’s not so much as a simple panoramic shot here — so the epic mode at first was generally utilized by passing elements through the frame: marching soldiers, a massive boat floating by Nero’s summer home, people fleeing the fires of burning Rome. In a couple sequences, we see some experiments in cutting the action into smaller angles, including point of view shots, but these are the exception to the rule, which involves static medium-wide shots separated by title cards — which are more often than not redundant in merely telling us what we’re about to see. The original story is a bit more complicated and shaded than is able to be communicated in this silent film, despite the epic number of reels — twelve, a new record for the cinema, making this film the very first “feature-length” movie. Thus while this film expanded the possibilities of cinema, it also bumped up against the limitations of that era.

Quo.vadis.1913.1080p.WEB-DL.x264-EYE.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 34 min
Size: 	2.56 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 864 kb/s
BPP: 	0.075
Audio

https://nitro.download/view/8ED5134E730215E/Quo.vadis.1913.1080p.WEB-DL.x264-EYE.mkv

Language(s):Silent
Subtitles:English (intertitles)

The post Enrico Guazzoni – Quo Vadis? (1912) first appeared on Cinema of the World.