After the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, the Second Triumvirate was formed by Mark Antony, Octavian, and Marcus Lepidus. After the Battle of Phillipi against Caesar's killers (the Liberatores), the control of Rome's Eastern provinces including the client kingdom of Ptolemaic Egypt fell to Mark Antony, Caesar's nephew. Antony was married to Octavia, Octavian's sister. Egypt was ruled by the beautiful and seductive Cleopatra VII, with whom Antony fell hopelessly in love and fathered several children. A rivalry grew up between him and Octavian, who instigated a war, ostensibly against Cleopatra, since Antony was a true Roman (Latin: civis romanuscode: lat promoted to code: la ). Defeated, Antony and Cleopatra separately committed suicide.
Synopsis
The film opens with Antony arriving in Egpyt to arrest Cleopatra for her rebellion against Rome: however he falls for her charms and they fall in love. Antony's wife Octavia, the sister of Octavian, arrives and jealously accuses Cleopatra for her illicit relationship with Antony. Egyptian nobles plot against Rome. The Roman senate denounces Antony as a traitor. Octavian's legions arrive. The naval Battle of Actium (31 BC) takes place in which Octavian wins a crushing victory over Antony's ships and the Egyptian forces. (In the film the action is transferred to the River Nile, rather than the Ionian Sea off the west coast of Greece where it historically took place.) The pair flee to Alexandria which is beseiged. Panic ensues, and Antony commits suicide. Cleopatra still hopes to win the heart of Octavian, the conqueror, but he declares her a prisoner and must go with him to Rome. Unable to bear the humiliation of a triumphal procession with her in chains, Cleopatra commits suicide by an asp bite.
Production
The opening credits of the US version state that the film was staged in Italy and Egypt. The cinematographer, Alessandro Bona, was previously behind the camera for Quo Vadis, also directed by Guazzoni.
Release
The German premiere of Die Herrin des Nils–Cleopatra took place on 14 September 1913 at the Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz, Berlin (at the time named the Cines Nollendorf Theater.)[1] The cinema, the first free-standing, purpose-built film theatre in the capital, was built by Joe Golsdoll and A. H. Woods, Cines' representatives in Germany and owners of Cines film rights.[6] The cinema had opened in March that year with another Cines historical blockbuster, Quo Vadis, also directed by Guazzoni. Antony and Cleopatra was still running in December, after nearly 200 performances.[7]
A competing film with a confusingly similar title (Cleopatra, die Beherrscherin des Nils) and subject matter was released in September by the Rheinisch-Westfälischen Filmzentrale company in Bochum.[8] The 1912 US film Cleopatra starring Helen Gardner was also released in Germany in September 1913.[9]
The film was released in the USA on 26 September 1913.[citation needed]
Reception
An anonymous critic writing in the German trade journal de:Lichtbild-Bühne was very positive:
In the program booklet, this film is described by the Cines-Gesellschaft as "The most magnificent cinematic painting in the world," a promise that is quite high. — Since the film industry has recently been using all sorts of buzzwords, the public has become desensitized to them. All the more pleasant, then, that this announcement did not disappoint us. As with Quo Vadis, the subject of this film is also classical; it depicts a piece of ancient Roman history. The actors' figures are magnificent: Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, a voluptuous, fiery figure; Marc Antony, Triumvir of the Roman Republic, and his brother-in-law, Octavius, are classically magnificent figures; Octavia, the wife of Mark Antony, a refined, almost delicate Roman woman, as depicted by ancient artists, and Hagar, Cleopatra's courageous slave [Charmian in the US version], is a southern beauty with sparkling eyes.
The film is extraordinarily rich in gripping, lavishly staged crowd scenes; we witness spectacular festivals with fairytale splendor and truly oriental luxury, and powerful images of war sweep before us. The image in which the Roman legions creep along the blue sea at dusk is overwhelming. [The copy seems to have been tinted.] The great procession of warriors along the banks of the Nile (filmed from a bird's-eye view by the director) has such a magnificent effect, never before seen in film, that the audience, which had remained rather cold until then, involuntarily and spontaneously bursts into applause.
This unsurpassed picturesque effect of that colossal scene is an unforgettable delight for the aesthete and artistically sensuous layman. This one scene alone makes it worthwhile to see the two-hour film. The battle scenes that develop afterward are also of great effect. Fire and sword wreak havoc. "Vae victis"code: lat promoted to code: la echoes through the room; "Woe to the vanquished!" — Marc Antony, as a defeated and true Roman, plunges his sword into his heart, and when the proud Cleopatra receives news that she is to end her life as a slave, she presses the poisonous viper to her breast and collapses lifeless onto the ottoman.
The burning of Alexandria also leaves a profound impression; in the foreground, the desperate struggle of thousands, and in the background, the burning city—a sight that compels even the greatest cinema critic to pay tribute to the art of film."[2]
Film status
A copy of the complete US version is available on Archive.org with English intertitles.[10]
↑"Berlin Crazy on Film Shows". New York Times. March 23, 1913. Another American enterprise was started here this week when the finest cinematograph theatre in the city was opened. It is the creation and property of F. J. Goldsoll and Al Woods of New York, and represents the first attempt to supply the German public with moving pictures in truly luxurious surroundings.
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