Nero. Or the Fall of Rome.

This might be one of the earliest attempts to make a historical spectacle on film, and it's fairly interesting even though it's not really that good. It offers a look at the mad emperor Nero, with some settings and props that are rather lavish for its era. The sets and the characterization of Nero ring mostly true. The same cannot be said for the story; you don't have to know all that much about Roman history to realize that they took some liberties with historical events. At times it is also surprisingly slow. It's mostly worth watching to take a look at some of the means they used in trying to recreate the world of ancient Rome on film.

This film is an inaccurate portrayal of the fall of the Roman Empire, one of the first Italian spectacles. The film uses no close-ups at all, just the usual tableaux idea which was used by earlier filmmakers. This gives it a stagy feel, like watching a play on TV. The acting is also very stagy too: the actors wave their arms and make gestures to try to tell what is happening, but the whole film could be a bit confusing for any modern viewer who didn't know about the fall of the Roman Empire. I at least could understand what was happening because of the subtitles throughout the film.

The set-up starts with Nero hearing of a beautiful woman named Poppea so he discards his other wife Octavia and marries her. Poppea then convinces Nero to kill Octavia. When this happens word gets out and Nero is forced to set Rome on fire. Here is where their history is wrong, because after some reading on the fall of the Roman Empire I found there was indeed a fire but I didn't read anything about Nero having been behind it at all, which was totally made up. There is then a dream sequence of Nero's remorse of having supposedly burnt Rome. The film ends suddenly when Nero takes flight from the people--and according to the IMDb summary, he commits suicide!

Worth watching if you're interested in the fall of Rome or early cinema. I actually don't find it that bad of an epic, just flawed and very stagy. The tints look pretty good and the visual look of the film was very nice.

I really do admire this film because of its amazing production values for 1909. While the sets certainly won't rival those of later Roman epics like QUO VADIS or CLEOPATRA, the costumes were awfully good for a time when budgets for films hardly surpassed the cost of film! So, this is a standout film in this sense.

However, when it comes to the style of the film and its value as history, it is of dubious value at best. The acting seems very vague and the actors mostly stand around and wait for the next inter-title card--there just isn't that much action on film and it seems as if the director was only yelling out a few suggestions here and there as the actors ad-libbed. This really was the style of many early films. Plus, the story is pure hokum--as if it was written by someone only vaguely aware of the facts. It implies Nero had Rome burned and talks about his love for Poppea, but this is odd since most historians today doubt if Nero had anything to do with the fire AND Nero apparently stomped his "beloved" Poppea to death during a fit of jealousy!! So much for the romantic aspect of the film! So I advise you to watch the film for its historic value and if you are a lover of early cinema. Otherwise, the film is pretty easy for the average person to skip,...and maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Nero, or the Fall of Rome (1909)

** (out of 4)

The crazed Nero brings Rome down when he announces he's leaving his wife for a new woman. Historic changes are certainly made here but the biggest problem is that the film is downright boring and rather hard to get through. The one reason to watch it is for the dream sequence of Rome burning as well as the set design, which is very nice. The laughs are pretty stale though.

Policeman's Little Run, The (1907)

*** (out of 4)

A policeman sees a dog steal a piece of meat from a grocery so he gives chase and is soon joined by other police. An early slapstick comedy, this film doesn't have too many laughs but it's still quite entertaining and contains some nice effects including one where the dog and police climb up the side of a building. The twist where the dog starts chasing the police is nicely done.

An early historical spectacle, Nerone is a forerunner of the likes of Cabiria which would five years later take the film world by storm. Today, it might look stagey, with some incredibly over-the-top acting at times, but it holds the interest more for what it signifies than the factually inaccurate story it tells. The costume and set design are far superior to most other contemporary films, giving at least some impression that the events we watch on-screen are actually unfolding in Ancient Rome rather than in a Turin film studio.

As you'd expect, Nero's a bit of a cad. He ditches his slightly dumpy wife Octavia when the younger Poppea catches his eye without a second thought, and then allows himself to be talked into killing the ex to clear the way for Poppea to become his new empress. So what we might possibly have here, in the form of Poppea, is cinema's first femme fatale - I certainly can't think of an earlier one.

As others have mentioned, the film is an uneasy mix of hokum punctuated by brief moments of artistic highlights. I certainly didn't find it as dull as some others seem to have done but, having said that, can see how this would chiefly be of interest to film historians and hopelessly completist film buffs like me...