Spartacus-1913-Giovanni E. Vidali -Spartaco, Il gladiatore della Tracia -A historical drama film

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• published: 06 Jan 2014
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Spartacus, (aka Spartaco, il gladiatore della Tracia (long title) - Italia / Spartacus - USA, Espartaco / Mexico ),1913, directed by Giovanni Enrico Vidali , is the second adaptation of Raffaello Giovagnoli's novel (the first was made by Oreste Gerardini in 1909 (hand coloured cca. 25 min). The set design here is incredibly well-done. Another major plus were the costumes. Most of the surviving print were severely truncated and with new foreign intertitles inserted (most of them at 10-20 sec ). We selected from this prints the most relevant scenes of the original movie (aprox 50 %) resulting a compact output, to be used for screening and documentary purposes. For the original print, the use of the title would seem to be merely one of box office convenience, but who knows what might have been in the missing content? Spartacus (Greek: Σπάρτακος, Spártakos; Latin: Spartacus (c. 109--71 BC) was a Thracian gladiator, who, along with the Gauls Crixus, Oenomaus, Castus and Gannicus, was one of the slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable. All sources agree that he was a former gladiator and an accomplished military leader. According to the differing sources and their interpretation, Spartacus either was an auxiliary from the Roman legions later condemned to slavery, or a captive taken by the legions. Spartacus was trained at the gladiatorial school (ludus) near Capua belonging to Lentulus Batiatus. In 73 BC, Spartacus was among a group of gladiators plotting an escape. The plot was betrayed but about 70 men seized kitchen implements, fought their way free from the school, and seized several wagons of gladiatorial weapons and armor. The escaped slaves defeated a small force sent after them, plundered the region surrounding Capua, recruited many other slaves into their ranks, and eventually retired to a more defensible position on Mount Vesuvius. Once free, the escaped gladiators chose Spartacus and two Gallic slaves—Crixus and Oenomaus—as their leaders. Although Roman authors assumed that the slaves were a homogeneous group with Spartacus as their leader, they may have projected their own hierarchical view of military leadership onto the spontaneous organization of the slaves, reducing other slave leaders to subordinate positions in their accounts. The positions of Crixus and Oenomaus—and later, Gannicus and Castus—cannot be clearly determined from the sources. The final battle that saw the assumed defeat of Spartacus in 71 BC took place on the present territory of Senerchia on the right bank of the river Sele in the area that includes the border with Oliveto Citra up to those of Calabritto, near the village of Quaglietta, in High Sele Valley, which at that time was part of Lucania. In this area, since 1899, there have been finds of armor and swords of the Roman era. Plutarch, Appian and Florus all claim that Spartacus died during the battle, however Appian also reports that his body was never found. Six thousand survivors of the revolt captured by the legions of Crassus were crucified, lining the Appian Way from Rome to Capua. Marcus Licinius Crassus (ca. 115 BC -- 53 BC) was a Roman general and politician who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Amassing an enormous fortune during his life, Crassus is considered the wealthiest man in Roman history, and among the richest men in all history. Giovanni Enrico Vidali was born in 1869 as Gianni Enrico Vidali Novelli. He was an actor and director, known for Jone o Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (1913), Croce nera (1914) and Spartacus (1913). He died on July 3, 1937. Raffaello Giovagnoli (Roma, 13 maggio 1838 -- Roma, 15 luglio 1915) was a patriot Italian writer. He published "Spartaco" in 1874. Spartaco, serialized in the Fanfulla in 1873-4, reconstructs the rebellion led by the slave trace and highlights the brutality of man's enslavement. Giovagnoli wrote the novel at the cafe theater Valley, where he gathered a group of intellectuals including Luigi Arnaldo Vassallo and Pietro Cossa. Director: Giovanni Enrico Vidali Writer: Raffaello Giovagnoli (novel) Producer: Ernesto Maria Pasquali Starring: Mario Guaita-Ausonia ... Spartaco Cristina Ruspoli Cristina Ruspoli ... Idamis Enrico Bracci Enrico Bracci ... Marcus Licinius Crassus Maria Gandini Maria Gandini ... Narona Resources: wikipedia.org, archive.org New soundtrack and dubbing: Cinemateca Music : Kevin Mac Leod (incompetch.com) licensed under Creative Commons licence: Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/