Nero and Agrippina
About Nero and Agrippina
After Caligula’s murder, Claudius recalls Agrippina from exile. She has Messalina killed, marries Claudius, and has Nero named heir ahead of Britannicus. Claudius is poisoned. Nero takes the throne and, when Agrippina keeps trying to rule, has her killed. He forces Seneca to suicide after a plot. When Rome burns in 64, he blames the Christians, at Poppaea’s urging, and the persecution takes in Saint Paul. At a feast he kills the pregnant Poppaea. Galba’s army rebels. Nero flees, finds Acte, and has a former slave kill him.
Cast & crew
More about Nero and Agrippina
Mario Caserini directed it in Turin for Film Artistica Gloria. Luigi Marchese wrote the scenario from Arrigo Boito’s Nerone and from Suetonius. Angelo Scalenghe and Giacomo Farò photographed it. Italian censorship visa 2820, dated March 13, 1914, passed it with reservations. The premiere was in March 1914. The declared length is 2,000 to 4,000 meters, in ten parts. Gloria had announced a new Last Days of Pompeii in April 1913 and made this instead.
Themes
Background
The story follows Suetonius from Claudius through the fire of 64 and Galba’s march on Rome in 68. The script also takes motives from Arrigo Boito’s opera Nerone.
Making
Gloria had advertised a new Last Days of Pompeii for April 1913, with lions, horses, a thousand extras, and scenes on the slopes of Vesuvius. It made this Nero film instead.
Look
Angelo Scalenghe and Giacomo Farò operated the cameras on the ten-part spectacle, including the Anzio festivals and the circus.
Music
Silent. No composer is credited.
Preservation
A WebM is on Wikimedia Commons under the title Agrippina e Nerone (1914).
Notes
- Vittorio Rossi Pianelli plays Nero. Maria Caserini plays Agrippina. Lydia De Roberti plays Poppaea. Fernanda Sinimberghi plays Acte.
- Letizia Quaranta plays Octavia. Gian Paolo Rosmino plays Britannicus. Emilio Petacci plays Claudius. Mario Bonnard plays Petronius.
- Staging assistants were Emilio Petacci, Alberto Degli Abbati, and Giuseppe De Liguoro.
- The ten parts run from Agrippina securing the throne, through Britannicus’s death, the festivals at Anzio, the fire, and the circus, to Nero’s death.
- The Commons file is titled Agrippina e Nerone (1914).
Scenes
- Agrippina has Messalina killed, and Claudius names Nero his heir.
- The film stages nautical festivals at Anzio before Agrippina is murdered.
- Christians are sent to the beasts and burned as torches in the circus.
- Nero, with Acte, orders a former slave to kill him.
Influenced by
- Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars
- Arrigo Boito's Nerone
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Agrippina e Nerone (1914).webm)
