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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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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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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 ...
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