Quo Vadis, Hottie?
Jul. 14th, 2006 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI confess, I have a weakness. That weakness is for sword-and-sandal epics. I can't help it. Wrap a bad actor in a long white crumpled sheet, and pretend he is a Roman in a toga (btw, who invented that garment? It seems cumbersome and with no utility whatsoever) and I will eat it up.
True, some of those S&S movies are better than the others (I think something like Spartacus or Ben-Hur are just good epicy movies period), but in some of them, I am all about the hot men with names ending in 'us,' sword-fights, chariot races, excess and directors drunk on a huge budget and going crazy with it. And some of the epics are flawed but with moments of insane brilliance (Mankiewitz's notorious Cleopatra is part over the top campiness of 3000 costumes and part dialogue of almost Shakespearean resonance).
I confess, this post was going to be about C.B. DeMille's campy and delicious Cleopatra starring Claudette Colbert. I had pictures ready and everything. But it's going to have to wait, because while googling I found out that the Poles did a miniseries of one of my Top 5 books of all time, book I devoured like a maniac, refusing to do anything, even eat, while it was in my grasp: Henryk Sienkewitz's Quo Vadis. It's a complex, complicated, gorgeous, and well-researched story set in the reign of Nero, and involves Vincius, a young Roman nobleman and his love for Lygia, an adopted daughter of another family, and a Christian.
Sounds cliche, right? Well, Sienkewitz is a Nobel Prize winner for literature, so it's far from the case. For one, the secondary characters such as the brilliant, weary Petronius, Arbiter Elegantarum, Nero himself, Greek slave girl Eunice, Aulus Plautus and a bunch of others, almost steal the book from the leads. QV's Petronius is actually one of my major literary crushes, and I can discuss him ad nauseam. He's made me laugh and cry (and interestingly, Sienkewitz himself faced criticism that he's made Petronius so magnetic that it gave too glorified a picture of paganism). And I love Vinicius himself, who is majorly a person of his time, arrogant, hot-tempered, not particularly nice. In fact, the book is, more than anything, about his gradual transformation into a good person under the power of love and faith (I should have known I'd develop a thing for h/c when my favorite part of the book involved his lengthy recuperation under Lygia's care). The book is mainly a character study and I love it for it. Sienkewitz makes the transformation of a person who in the beginning orders his slaves whipped for no reason other than he is majorly pissed off and by the end is begging the lowest of the low for help to save the woman he loves utterly gradual and believable. It also has a climax that made me scream at the book, I was so on the edge of my seat. Lygia herself is not as interesting: she is young, and beautiful, and sweet, and I like her, but she is not a complex character. I prefer Eunice (Petronius/Eunice OTP forever! :))
The book has been translated into English repeatedly and Hollywood made a movie version of it in 1951. It's not a bad movie, but the spirit of the book is lost. For one thing, instead of a beautiful, pure young thing that Lygia is supposed to be, Deborah Kerr plays her as a Victorian schoolmarm. And the themes and complexity are gone. But Peter Ustinov as Nero and Leo Genn as Petronius (both oscar nommed for the roles) are brilliant. And while Robert Taylor's Vinicius is not much like the book one, he certainly looks gorgeous:
Well, I found out that the Poles made the miniseries based on the book and the stills look good and it's supposed to be REALLY faithful (OMG, Vinicius, jump into that stadium and pick up your gf's unconscious body. You know you want to) and thus I simply must get my hands on it.
Do me, Pagan Hottie! Yeah, I thought it wasn't what she said, but a girl can hope:
Smooth, Vinicius, smooth:
Lygia. Gotta say, she's pretty:
Vinicius being manly. Or perhaps pondering the fact that he is hot. Take your pick:
Come to our Roman baths. A free debauch with every second purchase:
Awwwww. A baby. Where is Six when you need her?
Petronius and is that Eunice? She is a bit too old, but I'll give it a pass:
Not how I'd like my shower, but to each their own:
Toga party!
Ursus begs clemency for Lygia. In this version she is suitably naked. Definitely not the case in the 1950s flick:
Burn, baby, burn! Disco inferno!
Peter. Or Paul. Or some Polish actor with a fake beard:
I am not even going to touch this one:
Did I mention the 'naked' part?
That's what I do for fun, too:
I have no idea, but it looks angsty:
Didn't stike me as a type for bondage, but you never know:
h/c, baby!
And we end on an awwwwww:
I MUST get this.
For those of you, who like me can read Russian, there is an extra treat. Someone has the beginning text of the book 'illustrated' with the mini photos in the appropriate scenes.
True, some of those S&S movies are better than the others (I think something like Spartacus or Ben-Hur are just good epicy movies period), but in some of them, I am all about the hot men with names ending in 'us,' sword-fights, chariot races, excess and directors drunk on a huge budget and going crazy with it. And some of the epics are flawed but with moments of insane brilliance (Mankiewitz's notorious Cleopatra is part over the top campiness of 3000 costumes and part dialogue of almost Shakespearean resonance).
I confess, this post was going to be about C.B. DeMille's campy and delicious Cleopatra starring Claudette Colbert. I had pictures ready and everything. But it's going to have to wait, because while googling I found out that the Poles did a miniseries of one of my Top 5 books of all time, book I devoured like a maniac, refusing to do anything, even eat, while it was in my grasp: Henryk Sienkewitz's Quo Vadis. It's a complex, complicated, gorgeous, and well-researched story set in the reign of Nero, and involves Vincius, a young Roman nobleman and his love for Lygia, an adopted daughter of another family, and a Christian.
Sounds cliche, right? Well, Sienkewitz is a Nobel Prize winner for literature, so it's far from the case. For one, the secondary characters such as the brilliant, weary Petronius, Arbiter Elegantarum, Nero himself, Greek slave girl Eunice, Aulus Plautus and a bunch of others, almost steal the book from the leads. QV's Petronius is actually one of my major literary crushes, and I can discuss him ad nauseam. He's made me laugh and cry (and interestingly, Sienkewitz himself faced criticism that he's made Petronius so magnetic that it gave too glorified a picture of paganism). And I love Vinicius himself, who is majorly a person of his time, arrogant, hot-tempered, not particularly nice. In fact, the book is, more than anything, about his gradual transformation into a good person under the power of love and faith (I should have known I'd develop a thing for h/c when my favorite part of the book involved his lengthy recuperation under Lygia's care). The book is mainly a character study and I love it for it. Sienkewitz makes the transformation of a person who in the beginning orders his slaves whipped for no reason other than he is majorly pissed off and by the end is begging the lowest of the low for help to save the woman he loves utterly gradual and believable. It also has a climax that made me scream at the book, I was so on the edge of my seat. Lygia herself is not as interesting: she is young, and beautiful, and sweet, and I like her, but she is not a complex character. I prefer Eunice (Petronius/Eunice OTP forever! :))
The book has been translated into English repeatedly and Hollywood made a movie version of it in 1951. It's not a bad movie, but the spirit of the book is lost. For one thing, instead of a beautiful, pure young thing that Lygia is supposed to be, Deborah Kerr plays her as a Victorian schoolmarm. And the themes and complexity are gone. But Peter Ustinov as Nero and Leo Genn as Petronius (both oscar nommed for the roles) are brilliant. And while Robert Taylor's Vinicius is not much like the book one, he certainly looks gorgeous:
Well, I found out that the Poles made the miniseries based on the book and the stills look good and it's supposed to be REALLY faithful (OMG, Vinicius, jump into that stadium and pick up your gf's unconscious body. You know you want to) and thus I simply must get my hands on it.
Do me, Pagan Hottie! Yeah, I thought it wasn't what she said, but a girl can hope:
Smooth, Vinicius, smooth:
Lygia. Gotta say, she's pretty:
Vinicius being manly. Or perhaps pondering the fact that he is hot. Take your pick:
Come to our Roman baths. A free debauch with every second purchase:
Awwwww. A baby. Where is Six when you need her?
Petronius and is that Eunice? She is a bit too old, but I'll give it a pass:
Not how I'd like my shower, but to each their own:
Toga party!
Ursus begs clemency for Lygia. In this version she is suitably naked. Definitely not the case in the 1950s flick:
Burn, baby, burn! Disco inferno!
Peter. Or Paul. Or some Polish actor with a fake beard:
I am not even going to touch this one:
Did I mention the 'naked' part?
That's what I do for fun, too:
I have no idea, but it looks angsty:
Didn't stike me as a type for bondage, but you never know:
h/c, baby!
And we end on an awwwwww:
I MUST get this.
For those of you, who like me can read Russian, there is an extra treat. Someone has the beginning text of the book 'illustrated' with the mini photos in the appropriate scenes.
