Quo
Vadis is the most immersive, entertaining, and innovative film of its kind
because it utilizes amazing sets, creative cinematography, distinct editing,
insightful characters, and great costumes to convey its story of love and
distress. The sets in Quo Vadis are
built with scale in mind, striking awe in the audience and drawing them deeper
into the film. Marcus Vinicius’ triumph in front of Nero’s palace is a prime
example of this large scale set by the film. The plaza is packed with roaring
citizens as they await the presence of their ruler. The palace is a sight to
behold, with its massive columns, gargantuan statues, and bright gold accents,
adding to the splendor and the immersion of the audience. The power and
spectacle of the Romans seethes throughout the massive set, dwarfing the
audience in their grandeur and glory. The creative use of camera angles and
shots also provides more immersion for the audience. The film follows the
pattern of setting up a scene with an establishing long-shot to set the tone
and then cuts closer and closer to the action or the character’s dialogue. An
example of this is at the very start of the film. The film opens with a long
shot of Marcus Vinicius’ legion returning to Rome, and cuts to full-body and
close-up shots of the soldiers and slaves. The close-ups further reveal the
might of the Romans with their gleaming armor and adorned heads, and the strife
of the slaves as they fall dead from exhaustion. These portrayals bring the
audience closer to the world of Rome in all its raw glory. The editing in the
film also plays a huge role in the entertainment value. The film establishes
innovative cuts that create natural transitions between scenes to further its
cinematic quality. For example, when Marcus visits general Plautius’ home and
meets Lygia, she says she must decorate the table, then the next scene is the
dinner table. This type of transition with context in the previous scene
provides the audience with a natural flow to the film. Also the use of cross
fades in most transitions furthers the natural flow of the film, as to keep the
abruptness of straight cuts from pulling the audience from their immersion. The
well-developed characters further add to this enjoyable film. Petronius is an
excellent character that brings comic relief to the distress of the Christian
suffering. His snide comments and answers to Nero’s inquires are phenomenal, as
they lift the audiences spirits and take their mind off of the Christians
certain doom. The costumes in the film are overall, very well done. The
costumes of those of power, Nero and his supporters, are all detailed and
accurate. The Roman soldier’s armor, however, looks very cheap and unreal.
Appearing to be made of thin painted plastic. Besides the armor Quo Vadis also falls short with its
plot. The whole story is basically a mirror of the 1932 The Sign of The Cross, only really differing in the final sequences
of the film. While not very innovative the film captures this story better,
with more developed relationships and characters, adding to its entertainment
value and creating a more believable film. Quo
Vadis is a great film in this genre, as it expands on all aspects of
character development to cinematography. One should definitely add this to
their queue of films if one wants a taste of the Roman ancient world in all of
its corrupt glory.
Hey Ian! I really like the points you are making about this film. I think, like Sign of the Cross, Quo Vadis is a film about Christian ideals and sometimes this theme overpowers the character's stories (you mention that it falls short with its plot).
ReplyDeleteI really like your abstract, the thesis is easy and clear to see and the points are backed up with evidence. I like how you talked about the cinematography and how the way you described the scene flowed easily.
ReplyDeleteYou are doing a particularly good job discussing the film's impressive sets. You may want to talk a bit more about the way they are filmed in order to convey their massive scale to the audience. "Life of Brian", for example, has massive sets too, but Terry Gilliam, who designed them, complained that the way Terry Jones, the director (and Brian's mother) filmed them didn't bring this across. So I'd talk about the way extra-long establishing shots from the (bird's eye perspective of the) emperor's balcony underline the large size of the Forum Romanum (which, BTW, was much smaller in reality) and the immense crowds of extras filling it to the brim. Similarly the director made sure to film the arena and the ranks of spectators from an angle that showed its enormous size.
ReplyDeleteApart from the angles, you may also want to talk about the colors. The Rome of "Quo Vadis" definitely does not have the look of cold, white marble that we see, for example, in "Spartacus."
I'm less sure what is "creative" about the film's use of establishing shots and "distinct" or even "innovative" about its editing. Everything you describe is pretty much standard technique to achieve a smooth-flowing narrative, and you should be able to find the same in most of our other movies.
I'd be similarly careful when I talk about the historicity of the costumes. Compare, for example, the way a real toga looked with what Petronius or Seneca are wearing. That doesn't mean the costumes don't look impressive, sumptuous, and, to an eye trained on other toga movies, very "Roman". I'm sure they are also doing a great job of revealing their wearers' character.
What are "insightful characters"? Why don't you talk, instead, right in your thesis about the wonderful way the movie uses Petronius, but also Nero and Poppaea as vehicles for comic relief.