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MUSEUM of DREAMWORLDS

MUSEUM of DREAMWORLDS

Silent Antiquity Films in the BFI National Archive
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Héliogabale (Original)

1910

Alternative Titles

Heliogabalus (Archive)

BFI identifier

362027

Synopsis

The abduction of a Vestal Virgin by the Emperor Heliogabalus leads to his overthrow. Heliogabalus arrives arm-in-arm with two of his court favourites to witness a sacrifice by the Chief Priest. He is attracted to the Vestal Virgin, Julia Aquilina Severa, but his advances to her are checked by the Chief Priest. The Emperor returns with force to knock the Chief Priest out of the way and enter the temple. He abducts Julia as she prays before the sacred flame, thereby outraging the watching populace. At an orgy at his palace he attempts to rape her, but is thwarted by insurrectionists who burst into the room. Heliogabalus flees through a trapdoor leading to the sewer, but is captured. His appeal to Julia for mercy is met by an averted face, and the mob prepares to throw him into the Tiber (484ft). Incomplete. Note: According to the Borromäum Catalogue this is the Eclair production. However it has been identified as the 1910 Film D'Art production. See also LAST DAYS OF HELIOGABALUS reviewed in The Bioscope 2/6/1910 p. 35. (Shotlist)

Production Country: France
Production Company: Le Film d'Art
BFI Category: Fiction
Source: N/A

Cast

Jacques Guilhène

Olga Demidoff

Credits

Production Company: Le Film d'Art

Distr.: Pathé Frères

Dir.: André Calmettes

Film Technical Information

Original Length: 198 m
Length of BFI Viewing Print: 483 ft
Support: Viewable
Black and White
Format: 35 mm , MP4

Comments on the print:

Source for original length: Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly 12 May 1910.

As far as we can tell, the BFI print of this film is unique. The original tinted nitrate print of Héliogabale stems from the Abbé Joye collection. It was acquired by the BFI in the 1970s. It was preserved as a black-and-white safety negative in 1983 and as a black-and-white safety positive in 1990. It has German flashtitles and lacks a main title.  The film should not be confused with a Gaumont production of 1911 directed by Louis Feuillade with the same title.

1910- Héliogabale (Le Film d’Art)

The print of the film Héliogabale (André Calmettes, Le Film d’Art 1910) that survives in the British Film Institute National Archive is, as far as we can tell, unique. While another early French film on the life of the Roman emperor Heliogabalus, L’Orgie romaine (Louis Feuillade, Gaumont 1911) has received considerable attention from scholars, much less consideration has been given to this Film d’Art version of his life. So what aspect of antiquity does this film reconstruct, what can we say about its cast, production team and set design, in its plot and mise-en-scene what ties does it have with contemporary theatre and painting, how different is it from L’Orgie romaine, and why does it seem that the only two films made about such an unusual Roman emperor were produced solely in France and solely at this time?