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Reception of Mesopotamia on Film
Maria de Fátima Rosa
NOVA University LisbonLisbon, Portugal
This edition first published 2022
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: de Fátima Rosa, Maria, 1981- author.
Title: Reception of Mesopotamia on film / Maria de Fátima Rosa.
Description: Hoboken : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021009104 (print) | LCCN 2021009105 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119778646 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119778660 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119778653 (epub) | ISBN 9781119778677 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Civilization, Assyro-Babylonian, in motion pictures. | Iraq--In motion pictures. | Iraq--Civilization--To 634.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.C517 D4 2022 (print) | LCC PN1995.9.C517 (ebook) | DDC 791.430935--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009104 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009105
Cover image: © Werner Forman/Contributor/Universal Images Group/Getty Images, © 32 pixels/Shutterstock
Cover design by Wiley
Set in 9.5/12.5 STIXTwoText by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd, Pondicherry, India
For my brother Emanuel,
In memory of the movies of our childhood and the yearnings of our adult lives.
Until our reunion.
Contents
1 Cover
7 Introduction0.1 Reception Studies and Cinema0.2 Why Cinema? What Cinema?0.3 Orientalism and the Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia
8 Part I: The Pre-Cinematographic Image: A Complex PlotChapter 1: The Old Testament Paradigm and the Romanticism of the Classics1.1 The Genesis of Confusion1.1.1 From Babylon to Babel1.1.2 In the Beginning, Nimrod1.1.3 Daniel and the Ruin of the Neo-Babylonian Empire1.2 Greek Ethnocentricity and the Emergence of Legendary Figures1.2.1 A discourse About the Other1.2.2 The Subversion of Roles: The Dilution of the Male/Female BinomialChapter 2: Mesopotamia in Literature and on Stage2.1 The Resurrection of Classical Legendary Figures2.2 Tragic Mesopotamian Heroes and Their Dramatization2.2.1 Semiramis from Manfredi to Rossini2.2.2 Sardanapalus, Myrrah and Their Fateful Destiny2.2.3 The Various NabuccosChapter 3: The Appropriation and Visual Reproduction of Assyria and Babylon3.1 Mesopotamia Pre-Discovered: Testimonies from an Unknown World3.2 The Archaeological Exploration3.3 Mesopotamia Post-discovered: The Introduction of Assyrianizing Elements
9 Part II: The Portrayal of Mesopotamia in CinemaChapter 4: Genres and Cinematographic Contexts4.1 Why Antiquity?4.2 Early French Cinema and Its Motivations4.3 American Cinema, the Epic Genre, and the Judeo-Christian Legacy4.4 Italian Cinema and the Greco-Roman Heritage4.4.1 The First Golden Age4.4.2 Peplum and the Genesis of the WestChapter 5: Mesopotamia as the Seed of Evil5.1 Resurrecting Ancient Near Eastern Demons5.2 Present Speeches From an Ancient Demoniacal Past5.2.1 Religious Narratives: The Apocalypse and the Whore of Babylon5.2.2 Political Narratives: Communism, Capitalism, Nazism, and TerrorismChapter 6: Imagining the Land Between the Rivers: Urbanism and Culture6.1 The City as a Privileged Setting6.1.1 The Hyperbolizing of Urban Architecture6.1.2 The Polarization