Battle for Rome
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Battle for Rome - Part 1 Battle for Rome - Part 2: Treason |
| Country of production | Germany , Italy , Romania |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1968 |
| length | 99 (part 1) / 91 (part 2) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Robert Siodmak |
| script | Ladislas Fodor |
| production | Artur Brauner |
| music | Riz Ortolani |
| camera | Richard fear |
| cut | Alfred Srp |
| occupation | |
| |
Battle for Rome is a two-part historical film by the German director Robert Siodmak based on the novel of the same name by Felix Dahn . The two parts Battle for Rome - Part 1 and Battle for Rome - Part 2: The betrayal started in German cinemas in 1968 and 1969. Before the publication in the USA , the two parts were combined in 1973 and shortened to 94 minutes. This abridged version was also shown in German cinemas in 1976.
action
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire , the Ostrogoths occupied Italy under their King Theodoric the Great . From his residence in Ravenna he rules a peaceful empire in which the Goths and the Romans coexist in a balanced way. After Theodoric's death, a power struggle for his inheritance begins between his daughters Amalaswintha and Mataswintha , who are each supported by half of the Goths. According to Theodoric's last will, the royal council decides in favor of Amalaswintha as regent for her young son, which Mataswintha does not want to accept. At the same time, the leading Ostrogoths around the old armorer of the Gothic King, Hildebrand , meet not far from Ravenna to discuss the threatened future of the Ostrogoth Empire. The generals Witichis , Aligern and Teja are against the reconciliation policy initiated by Amalaswintha between the Romans and the Goths, which they believe is detrimental to the future of the Goths in Italy.
The city prefect of Rome, the ambitious patricius Cethegus , meanwhile strives to establish an independent Italy, which he himself wants to rule from Rome. To insure himself for the planned apostasy from the Ostrogoths, he went to the court of the Eastern Roman emperor in Constantinople . First, Cethegus negotiates with the all-powerful Eastern Roman minister Narses , who is the same as the Roman in cunning, but who is unpopular with the Empress Theodora . Through Empress Theodora, with whom he had already had a love affair in earlier times, Cethegus was able to win the powerful Emperor Justinian to send an Eastern Roman army under the army master Belisarius against the Goths to southern Italy. After his return from Ravenna, where he attended Amalaswintha's coronation, he received the new Gothic commander, Totila, in Rome and had to make do with declaring the city's allegiance to the Ostrogoths. With suspicion he notices the budding love of his daughter Julia for Totila, who heroically came to her aid against an escaped lion, and tries in vain to nip this love in the bud: the connection between a Roman woman and a barbaric Goth would be treason for him the ideals of Rome. The power-hungry Mataswintha, meanwhile banished to Bolsena, hypocritically plays her submission to her sister, but lets Amalaswintha insidiously murdered by her henchmen during a bath. Cethegus reacts to the new situation, uses the disagreement between the Goths for his own purposes and plays off his opponents against each other.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Gothic civil war, an Eastern Roman army under Belisarius lands in southern Italy and takes Naples. In agreement with the clergy under Silverius, Cethegus usurps power in Rome in a stroke of a hand and has the Gothic garrison under Thorismund imprisoned. The defrauded Ostrogoths then besiege Cethegus under the leadership of the general Witichis Cethegus, and a group around the old Hildebrand can enforce the election of Witichi as the new King of the Goths. In order to end the civil war, however, Hildebrand demands that the king give up his beloved wife Rauthgundis and marry Mataswintha instead. Witichis only agrees after long discussions, but his love stays with his first wife. After the new king has placed his sword between himself and Mataswinta in the marriage bed as a sign of distance instead of sleeping with her, the deeply wounded woman vows to bring him doom.
Meanwhile, Belisarius's army approaches to relieve Rome, but is thrown back by Witichi's troops, his troops only with difficulty escape behind the protection of the walls of Rome. When Belisarius courageously counterattacked, the Goths inflicted a heavy defeat on him, in which he himself fell in a duel, so that Cethegus received sole power over the rescued troops. The vengeful Mataswintha makes contact with Cethegus and reveals to him the plans of the Gothic army for the new major attack on Rome. When Witichis tries his attack, he is caught in an ambush by Cethegus and is killed. The remaining leaders of the Goths then elect Totila as their king, who orders the retreat due to hunger and the onset of illness. In the following months, however, Totila managed to peacefully win back almost all of northern Italy. In addition, the cities of southern Italy, including Naples, that were disappointed by the tough tax policy in Eastern Europe, opened their doors to him.
Meanwhile, Empress Theodora has the short minister Narses, whom she hated because of his influence with Justinian, accused of his secret negotiations as a traitor; however, to save his position, he reveals the machinations of the empress and her relationship with Cethegus. The betrayed Emperor Justinian transfers the condemnation of Theodoras to the Council of State before the Empress's suicide causes general mourning. Justinian falls into general lethargy through the loss of Theodoras and leaves Narses free. He can be appointed commander in chief and leads a strong army to Italy.
Cethegus allies himself with a Corsican comrade of the Goths, Furius Ahalla, whose lance-bearers are a welcome reinforcement. In gratitude, he offers him the hand of his daughter Julia, who is still advocating a peaceful settlement with Totila. The army of the Ostrogoths under Totila surrenders to Cethegus' troops, but after the betrayal is subject to the Corsican lance-bearers, who surprisingly defected to the enemy during the battle. When Totila and Cethegus see each other, they storm each other and both die in a duel; Julia had previously tried to warn Totila and was fatally wounded by his own father Cethegus. After a defeat by Narses, the new Gothic king Teja decides to continue to resist as long as possible. He leads the remnants of the Gothic people to the slopes of Vesuvius, where he is surrounded by the Eastern Roman troops and falls to Narses, impressed by the bravery of the enemy, and allows the last little group of Ostrogoths to retreat freely. A Viking fleet under King Harald brings the surviving Goths back to their former Scandinavian homeland.
background
The eventful plot, with its mixture of palace intrigues and monumental battles, largely follows the historical novel A Battle for Rome by Felix Dahn from 1876, but deviates significantly in several points from the literary model, which tried to focus on the to hold historical facts that were valid as certain in Dahn's time. It is particularly noticeable that Narses, in truth a eunuch , is counterfactually a dwarf in the film. Belisarius , who actually played a central role in the events and died very old, is killed in the film in the first battle against the Goths.
The buildings are by Ernst Schomer . Andrew Marton and Sergiu Nicolaescu were involved as additional directors. The film was made in Romania for cost reasons . The shooting, which lasted from May 6th to September 1968, took place under difficult logistical conditions and proved to be very stressful. While filming with around 3,000 Romanian extras, director Robert Siodmak suffered a serious car accident. According to Kay Weniger's Das Großes Personenlexikon des Films , the Battle of Rome was the most expensive German film production to date, with production costs of 15 million DM .
criticism
“Power struggle, intrigue and battle spectacle in outdated history and equipment style; the ideological element was rigorously excluded from Felix Dahn's novel. [...] Very lavish, prominently cast, naive and entertaining, but psychologically crude and all too superficial. "
“Elaborate Germanic show with a lot of love, pomp and pathos, but without attempting a historical foundation. Eye food from 14. "
“Colorful historical film with formal defects. [...] The many battle scenes and stars cannot hide the script defects here either. "
Web links
- Struggle for Rome - the first part in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Struggle for Rome - Part 2: The Betrayal in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Fight for Rome - 1st part at filmportal.de
- Battle for Rome - Part 2: The betrayal at filmportal.de
- Fight for Rome (one-part short version) at filmportal.de
- Info and trailer at moviepilot.de
Individual evidence
- ^ CineGraph - Lexicon for German-Language Film , F28 Robert Siodmak
- ↑ Michael Petzel: Karl May film book. 2nd, expanded edition. Karl-May-Verlag, Bamberg 1999, p. 374/375.
- ↑ Battle for Rome - Part 1 ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Entry on Robert Siodmak in: Kay Less: The large personal dictionary of the film. The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. 8 volumes. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 .
- ^ Battle for Rome - Part 1 in the Lexicon of International Films .
- ^ Battle for Rome - Part 2: Treason in the Lexicon of International Films .
- ↑ Protestant film observer. Review No. 2/1969, p. 5.
- ^ Lothar R. Just: Heyne Filmlexikon. 10,000 films from 100 years of film history. Heyne, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-453-08685-6 .
