10-29-2002, 09:57 PM
Quote:<br>
think of movies like Ben Hur and Spartacus and other historical movies made at that time as being too melodramatic. Maybe if they took away the sappy music, the acting would seem less over-the-top. |<br>
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Man, melodrama IS antiquity! That's what I love about these old movies...they lacked the sense of 'realism' that our modern movies try to capture. In my mind, those overly dramatic movies capture the spirit of what it must have been like to be a stage actor back in Rome's glory days--broad, exagerated motions, so that everyone could see what you did, and loud voices bellowing out lines so that the back rows could hear....here's a snippit from Seneca:<br>
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Lucius Annaeus Seneca, "Thyestes".<br>
Translated by E.F. Watling (Penguin, 1980)<br>
[Oh Father of all earth and all that lives, whose rising banishes the lesser lights that make the dark night beautiful: Why hast thou turned aside from thy appointed path? Why has thou blotted out the day and fled from heavens center? Why, O Phoebus, hast thou turned thy face from us? Vesper, the herald of the close of day, is not yet here to usher in the stars; thy wheel has not yet passed the western gate. Where with their day's work done, thy steeds should be unyoked. We have not heard the third note of the trumpet telling us that day is over. Ploughmen will stand amazed - suddenly supper-time, and oxen not yet ready to rest.]<br>
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When compared to our modern concept of 'thinking', these ancient letters/plays/misc. writings/etc were definately over the top in melodrama....that's why spartacus and Rise and fall of the roman empire are great!!<br>
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Britannicus<br>
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think of movies like Ben Hur and Spartacus and other historical movies made at that time as being too melodramatic. Maybe if they took away the sappy music, the acting would seem less over-the-top. |<br>
<br>
<br>
Man, melodrama IS antiquity! That's what I love about these old movies...they lacked the sense of 'realism' that our modern movies try to capture. In my mind, those overly dramatic movies capture the spirit of what it must have been like to be a stage actor back in Rome's glory days--broad, exagerated motions, so that everyone could see what you did, and loud voices bellowing out lines so that the back rows could hear....here's a snippit from Seneca:<br>
<br>
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, "Thyestes".<br>
Translated by E.F. Watling (Penguin, 1980)<br>
[Oh Father of all earth and all that lives, whose rising banishes the lesser lights that make the dark night beautiful: Why hast thou turned aside from thy appointed path? Why has thou blotted out the day and fled from heavens center? Why, O Phoebus, hast thou turned thy face from us? Vesper, the herald of the close of day, is not yet here to usher in the stars; thy wheel has not yet passed the western gate. Where with their day's work done, thy steeds should be unyoked. We have not heard the third note of the trumpet telling us that day is over. Ploughmen will stand amazed - suddenly supper-time, and oxen not yet ready to rest.]<br>
<br>
When compared to our modern concept of 'thinking', these ancient letters/plays/misc. writings/etc were definately over the top in melodrama....that's why spartacus and Rise and fall of the roman empire are great!!<br>
<br>
Britannicus<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<p></p><i></i>
