Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2022-04-24

Personal / Website News

“Permission to Kill” Citation

My essay, “Permission to Kill: Exploring Italy’s 1960s Eurospy Phenomenon, Impact and Legacy,” that appears in James Bond and Popular Culture: Essays on the Influence of the Fictional Superspy, has been cited in Rui Lopes’ essay “The Eurospy boom and the evolution of Europe’s transnational identity” in the journal of Intelligence and National Security.

“Building on the vernacular
film framework developed by Mikel Koven to analyze giallo movies, Nicholas Diak emphasizes the
fact that Eurospies were hastily and cheaply made to be consumed in places such as the Italian third
run theaters (terza visione) – the equivalent of grindhouse theaters in the USA – by an audience of
blue-colour [sic] workers socializing among friends and not necessarily adopting the silent, attentive
attitude expected in upper-tier cinemas (hence the primacy of viscerally exciting, playful, and
exploitative content).”

The essay can be read at the Taylor and Francis website, if you have access.

Highlander Call for Papers

Michele has an active CFP on the Highlander franchise. She is looking for essays on the Highlander movies, the television show, comics, everything.

If you’re interested, check out the CFP at her website and please share with others. With a possible reboot on the horizon, this is definitely a book you want to be a part of. 

Unofficial Emmanuelle / Black Emanuelle CFP

Sometime in the latter half of 2022 (after I am finished with AnnRadCon 2022) I plan on publishing an official CFP calling for essays on Emmanuelle and its sequels and spinoffs, Black Emanuelle and its sequels, and all other Emmanuelle knockoffs. I already have an interested publisher, but I want to present to them a fully laid out TOC for an ambitious collection as this.

Though my CFP will not go live until later 2022, if you have any interest in being a part of this collection, let me know! Send me an email or social media message (see my about me page for contact info) to let me know your interest. If you have an abstract already, even better.

Categories
Peplum

Peplum Ponderings: Messalina (1960)

Messalina is a 1960 Italian toga and sandal film, directed by Vittorio Cottafavi (who directed many proto-peplum films in his career) and starring Belinda Lee as the titular character. A historic epic, Messalina tells the story of Valeria Messalina (Belinda Lee), the new wife to Roman emperor Claudius (Mino Doro), and her rise to power via her charms and schemes. The story also follows Lucius Maximus (Spiros Focas), a respected soldier who falls in love with Messalina but comes to realize her cutthroat ways. What follows are some general musings and observations about this film. 

Toga and Sandal Genre Conventions

Messalina falls into sword and sandal subgenre called the “toga and sandal” film. While the “sword” in sword and sandal draws martial images and has strong connotations to combat (be it physical combat as when a strongman engages with an opponent with his fists, or when a soldier or gladiator fights melee with weapons), the “toga” in toga and sandal downplays the action aspect of these films. Instead, in a toga and sandal film, what is underscored are politics, with an emphasis on intrigue, espionage, strategy, scheming, planning, oratory and speeches. In these films, the loincloth wearing Herculean character is replaced by the well dressed solider or statesman, the gladiator replaced by the assassin, and the dangerous cavern or labyrinth replaced by the palatial court. These films also tend to be more grounded in realism and overlap with the historic epic genre.

That is not to say the toga and sandal film is completely void of martial content, it is simply not the primary focus. Messalina contains a peppering of traditional sword and sandal scenes: these include two strongmen fighting each other as part of the festivities and entertainment when Claudius officially takes over as emperor, and the ending contains a small battle of Maximus and his loyal soldiers fighting the corrupted praetorians who were sent to assassinate Claudius. 

In a greater Italian cross-genre (filoni) sense, the courts of Claudius, full of food, wine, and entertainment (be it dancers,musicians, fighters, or all of the above), is akin to the bars of the spaghetti western and the nightclubs in the Eurospy film. Of note, early in Messalina, Maximus returns back from a military campaign and engages in a celebratory bar fight. 

Lady Peplum

Messalina is one of the rare non-Cleopatra female-centric peplum films that came out of the golden age of historic epics and sword and sandal films. Decades later, peplum media would see a smattering of more female-led titles. Most of these were 1980s sword and sorcery flicks, such as Red Sonja (1985), Barbarian Queen (1985), Amazons (1986), and Hundra (1982), but also include the television show Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001), and the video game Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey with Kassandra as one of the two playable characters. 

As a typical sword and sandal film focuses on a muscleman’s body, so too does Messalina emphasis the titular character’s body. Messalina makes use of veils to both obfuscate and draw attention to her form. Sequences of her taking a milk bath and when she disrobes, (the camera pans down her exposed legs), show no nudity, yet offer much in the way of titillation. Messalina also utilizes a great deal of seductive pinup poses: laying on her back, body stretched and tilted to showcase her lithe figure.

Messalina and the strongman both make use of their bodies as tools to overcome obstacles. While Ursus may singlehandedly lift a horse-drawn cart out of a pit, Messalina uses her body to seduce an assassin. Though her body is a great asset, Messalina also uses her intelligence, intimidation, guile, and charms to plot, scheme, and advance her agenda. In this regard, she is a multifaceted character, more than just her sex appeal. 

Waterfalls of Monte Gelato

Towards the end of the film, there is an epic battle between Maximus’ men and the praetorian guards atop a waterfall. These are the Waterfalls of Monte Gelato.

Many other films have been shot in these waterfalls. Other pepla filmed here include:

Self Censorship

Messalina straddles the line of acceptable and taboo, particularly in the representation of the sexualized Messalina (she doesn’t show nudity and there is no on screen sex, but the film comes really close to depictions of both with lots of not-so-subtle winks and nods).

During this period, Italy was under the Christian Democratic government, which held great influence over the film industry and could dictate what was able to be depicted on screen or not. Genre productions active through these decadeswere able to have their cake and eat it too by showcasing sex, (sometimes) nudity, violence, blood, and other taboo activities, so long as the film as a whole was able to affirm Christian Democratic morality: reward the righteous and punish the wicked.

For Messalina, her crimes, of course, is showing pseudo-nudity, engaging in affairs and sexual trysts, and (the greatest crime of all) being a successful woman. By the movie’s end, she is killed when stabbed through the stomach with a gladius. Her sexual proclivities are punished by death.

Maximus also must adhere to these provisions. Though he is the (male) hero of the story, he still falls for Messalina’s charms and becomes an agent of her when he forces Christians from their homes. His atonement comes with conversion: at the end of the film he takes the side of Silvia (Ida Galli) and travels with her to a new Christian land. Maximums has given up his love for Messalina, Rome and her wicked ways, and found a new (and subservient) love interest and perhaps salvation. 

Miscellaneous Thoughts

History is written by the winners and it is no doubt that Messalina (the historic figure) has been portrayed in a hyper negative fashion by later, misogynistic historians, which of course has influenced her depiction in pop culture (such as this film). In the past few years, Medusa has seen a great shift in in perception and interpretation (from monster to victim), so it’s possible that Messalina will receive some reconsideration as well. 

The big question that Messalina leaves viewers with is did Messalina truly love Maximus in the end? The romantic notions of the period, as depicted in other films, strongly hints that she did, for in the end, Messalina is still a love story, and in order to have a love story, there’s got to be a great love. Messalina, when she is in the embrace of other men, tilts her head away from them, so only the audience can see her facial expressions of disgust and revolt. She does not do this with Maximus, strongly suggesting that she truly loved him, but was not able to negotiate having his love and her power at the same time. 

Categories
News

News Roundup W/E 2021-02-07

Personal / Website News

New issue of Exotica Moderne

Exotica Moderne #10 is out! Copies can be ordered from House of Tabu. My contribution to this issue is pretty minimal, I only did a mini review of Zeena Schreck’s EP Bring me the Head of F. W. Murnau. However, I am ahead of the game for issue 11, which will contain my interview of Miss Pinup Miami. That interview is conducted, concluded, edited, and turned in!

Cover for Exotica Moderne #10

StokerCon 2021/AnnRadCon News

Official announcement has been made through the Stokercon channels that StokerCon 2021 will be a digital-only conference, with a physical one to resume when the world is safer from the COVID19 pandemic. This also means the AnnRadCon for 2021 will also switch to an online/digital mode. More details forthcoming as we get things sussed out. The official announcement can be read at StokerCon2021.com.

On a slight positive note, the cover art for the StokerCon 2021 souvenir book has been published online! Michele and I have a short essay in the book about AnnRadCon and the conference’s accomplishments thus far. The book is edited by Josh Viola, with cover art by Aaron Lovett and will be published by HEX Publishing.

Cover art for the StokerCon 2021 book

Podcast News

Episode 7 of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast Presents: Fragments is online! In this episode we interview Lee Murray. The episode can be listened to on our site at Buzzsprout or on your podcast application of preference.

Call for Papers

The Call for Abstracts for my collection of essays on neo-medievalism is live. The CFP can be found here.

Citation News

In the autumn of 2020, James Arthur Anderson had his book, Excavating Stephen King: A Darwinist Hermeneutic Study of the Fiction, published by Lexington Books. This text cites his essay, “Four Quadrants of Success: The Metalinguistics of Author Protagonists in the Fiction of Stephen King,” which appeared in Horror Literature from Gothic to Post-Modern: Critical Essays.

Cover Art

My essay “Permission to kill: Exploring Italy’s 1960s Eurospy Phenomenon, Impact and Legacy” from James Bond and Popular Culture: Essays on the Influence of the Fictional Superspy has been cited by Samhita Sunya in their essay “On Location: Tracking Secret Agents and Films, between Bombay and Beirut” which appears in the journal Film History Vol. 32, No. 3, Fall 2020.

Journal issue cover

General Neo-Peplum News

Story of a Gladiator Physical Release

On Friday Limited Run opened a pre-order for 1,500 copies of Brain Seal’s game Story of a Gladiator for the Playstation. It, of course, sold out by the day’s end (but your’s truly, who has an Xbox and not a Playstation, had to buy a copy because reasons). Though the physical copy of the game was sold out, digital copies can readily be had on the Xbox, Playstation, Switch, and Steam. As I’ve been enjoying the Xbox incarnation, expect some sort of write-up about it in the very near future.

Rest in Peplum

Legendary actor Christopher Plummer passed away at the age of 91 from hitting his head from a fall. Renown for The Sound of Music (1965) he starred in numerous pepla productions:

  • The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
  • Oedipus the King (1968)
  • Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
  • Caesar and Cleopatra (2009)
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011 – voice)

Haya Harareet passed away at the age of 89. She is best known playing Esther in Ben-Hur (1959)

Italian cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno passed away at the age of 97. He worked on numerous filoni and his sword and sandal contributions include:

  • The Bible: In the Beginning… (1966)
  • Fellini Satyricon (1969)
  • Red Sonja (1985)