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Scipione l'Africano

Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal

Italy 1937
produced by
Frederic Curiosi, Vittorio Mussolini (executive) for Consorzione 'Scipio l'Africano', Ente Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche
directed by Carmine Gallone
starring Annibale Ninchi, Camillo Pilotto, Fosco Giachetti, Francesca Braggiotti, Marcello Giorda, Guglielmo Barnabò, Isa Miranda, Memo Benassi, Franco Coop, Ciro Galvani, Carlo Lombardi, Marcello Spada, Piero Carnabuci, Carlo Ninchi, Lamberto Picasso, Diana Lante, Raimondo Van Riel, Achille Majeroni, Carlo Tamberlani, Gino Viotti, Clara Gadoa, Ugo Sasso, Mario Gallina, Olinto Cristina, Carlo Duse
written by Carmine Gallone, Camillo Mariani Dell'Aguillara, Sebastiano A. Luciani, music by Ildebrando Pizzetti

Hannibal

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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The Roman Empire, the third century BC: For the past 15 years, Hannibal (Camillo Pilotto), military commander from Carthage, has roamed the country with his men and elephants, bringing in victory after victory, and even if he has not conquered Rome itself yet, it seems to be only a question of time - especially since the Roman senators are mostly a spineless bunch ... all but Scipio (Annibale Ninchi) of course, who is not only a great strategist, superb commander, brilliant motivator and outstanding public speaker, also his abilities in reading people rivals none, and he's a better diplomat than the rest of Rome comdined. And he is given Sicily as his province. This of course means only one thing for Scipio: To attack Carthage while Hannibal is out and force him to return to his home turf to defeat him there.

There is a bump in the road for Scipio when one of his allies, King Syphax of Numedia (Marcello Giorda) switches allegiances because of his scheming Carthaginean wife Sophonisba (Francesca Braggiotti), but his army is quickly defeated by Scipio's right-hand man Massinissa (Fosco Giachetti) ... who then falls for Sophonisba himself. For some reason (or none at all) she however kills herself before she can do any real damage.

Hannibal returns to Carthage which is already under siege and offers Scipio peace - but Scipio, after years of suffering under Hannibal's warmongering, outright refuses and has his army clash with Hannibal's. And since he has found a way to outsmart Hannibal's elephants ... well, guess who wins! (Hint for those historically challenged: Rome's still standing to this day, Carthage - not so much.)

 

Scipione l'Africano comes across as exactly what it actually is - a period piece funded by a dictator (Benito Mussolini) that's supposed to create a national hero and at the same time serve as a celebration of the current ruler. Thus Scipio is portrayed as a man without fail, someone the notoriously vain Mussolini saw as some sort of historical representation of himself.

This all really hurts the movie, because despite all the battle scenes, the film's main character is too flawless to be at the center at any real narrative conflict, and it's also mirrored in the film's visual language, where all scenes are so highly stylized and borderline iconic (not at all unlike Leni Riefenstahl's then recent Triumph of the Will) that there simply is no room for the audience's emotional involvement. All the viewer is supposed to do it seems is to marvel at the power of the imagery. Even the one time an actual conflict seems to develop - the subplot about the Cleopatra-like Sophonisba -, it is quickly ended in a narratively unsatisfying question, simply it seems because it wouldn't have fitted the overall heroic tone of the film.

In all, not a good film (if often impressive visually), but very interesting from a historic point of view. Oh, and it was one of the first movies to use zooms, which work very well in some instances, in other, not so ...

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

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directed by
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written by
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produced by
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