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Slaves of Babylon
🇮🇶 Iraq Ancient HistoryBABYLON FALLS IN FLAMES! — The Jews are taken from Jerusalem and made slaves by King Nebuchadnezzar. In the meantime Cyrus, king of the Persians, who has been living as a shepherd, is proclaimed king and defeats Nebuchadnezzar.
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Androcles and the Lion
🇮🇹 Italy The 2nd CenturyStory of a Christian in ancient Rome who befriends a lion — George Bernard Shaw’s breezy, delightful dramatization of this classic fable—about a Christian slave who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw and is spared from death in the Colosseum as a result of his kind act—was written as a meditation on modern Christian values. Pascal’s final Shaw production is played broadly, with comic character actor Alan Young as the titular naïf. He’s ably supported by Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Robert Newton, and Elsa Lanchester.
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Quo Vadis
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st CenturyTHIS IS THE BIG ONE! The splendor and savagery of the world's wickedest empire! Three hours of spectacle you'll remember for a lifetime! — Set against the back drop of Rome in crisis, General Marcus Vinicius returns to the city from the battle fields and falls in love with a Christian woman, Lygia. Caught in the grip of insanity, Nero's atrocities become more extreme and he burns Rome, laying the blame on the Christians. Vinicius races to save Lygia from the wrath of Nero as the empire of Rome collapses around them.
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The Affairs of Messalina
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st CenturyA story, set in Rome of 44 A.D., concerning the amorous and political intrigues of the evil Empress Messalina, the wife of the Roman Emperor Claudius, and her eventual hounding to death.
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Helen of Troy
🇬🇷 Greece 🇹🇷 Turkey Ancient HistoryIntrigues and entanglements before Prince Paris wins the heart of beautiful Helena. It all happens in the small kingdom of Arcadia at the time of the Trojan War. Swedish version of Jacques Offenbach's operetta of the classic Greek myth.
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Julius Caesar
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st Century BCAdaptation of the Shakespeare play.
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The Last Days of Pompeii
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st CenturyIn Pompeii in the year 79, Lycias and Helen fall in love. Helen's guardian, the high priest of Isis, wants to separate them. To do so, he tries to make Lycias drink a love potion, but a young slave threatens to reveal everything. The high priest, unable to silence her, kills her and arranges to have Lycias accused...
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Night in Paradise
🇬🇷 Greece Ancient HistoryIN TECHNICOLOR - The temptatious tale of a queen who would rather romance than reign! — Aesop (Turhan Bey) of fable fame poses as an old man and woos away a princess (Merle Oberon) who wants a king (Thomas Gomez) for his gold.
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Caesar and Cleopatra
🇪🇬 Egypt 🇮🇹 Italy Ancient HistoryThe most lavish picture ever on the screen! — The aging Caesar finds himself intrigued by the young Egyptian queen. Adapted by George Bernard Shaw from his own play.
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Fiddlers Three
England 🇮🇹 Italy The 1940s The 1st CenturyTwo British soldiers and a WREN take refuge at Stonehenge during a thunderstorm, they are struck by lightning and transported back to ancient Rome.
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Sikandar
The 4th Century BCThe film begins after Alexander the Great (Sikander in Hindi/Urdu) conquers Persia and the Kabul valley and approaches the Indian border at Jhelum. Sohrab Modi plays the Indian king Puru (Porus to the Greeks). The story goes that when Sikander defeated Porus and imprisoned him, he asked Porus how would he like to be treated. Porus replied the same way a defeated king is treated by the winner (meaning killed).
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Chitralekha
The 3rd Century BCChitralekha is a 1941 Indian Hindi-language film, directed by Kidar Sharma and based on the 1934 Hindi novel of the same name by Bhagwati Charan Verma.
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Confucius
The 5th Century BCThe film depicts Confucius's later life, as he traveled across a China divided by war and strife in an ultimately futile effort to teach various warlords and kings his particular philosophy.
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Life of St. Paul
🇮🇱 Israel 🇮🇹 Italy The 1st CenturyThe Life of St. Paul, including reenactment of the Book of Acts, and St. Paul's Epistles.
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Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal
🇹🇳 Tunisia 🇮🇹 Italy The 3rd Century BCFacist Italy's 1937 Spectacular Epic — A story of the Second Punic Wars, beginning with Scipio's futile pleas to the Roman Senate to build an army to battle Hannibal, that climaxes with the battle of Zama.
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Amphitryon – Aus den Wolken kommt das Glück
🇬🇷 Greece Ancient HistoryLamenting Thebian women are waiting for the men to come back from war. God Jupiter is attracted to one of them: Alkmene. He goes to earth and tries to seduce her as himself: an old man. Failing in this, he disguises himself as Amphitryon (Alkemene's husband) and tries again. Next morning Amphitryon and his men come back from war; he suspects adultery and wants a divorce. Jupiter's wife Juno now also comes to earth and clears things up.
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Cleopatra
🇪🇬 Egypt The 1st Century BCThe love affair that shook the world! — The queen of Egypt barges the Nile and flirts with Mark Antony and Julius Caesar.
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Roman Scandals
🇮🇹 Italy The 4th Century The 3rd CenturyA kind-hearted young man is thrown out of his corrupt home town of West Rome, Oklahoma. He falls asleep and dreams that he is back in the days of olden Rome, where he gets mixed up with court intrigue and a murder plot against the Emperor.
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The Sign of the Cross
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st CenturyA picture which will proudly lead all the entertainments the world has ever seen — After burning Rome, Emperor Nero decides to blame the Christians, and issues the edict that they are all to be caught and sent to the arena. Two old Christians are caught, and about to be hauled off, when Marcus, the highest military official in Rome, comes upon them. When he sees their stepdaughter Mercia, he instantly falls in love with her and frees them. Marcus pursues Mercia, which gets him into trouble with Emperor (for being easy on Christians) and with the Empress, who loves him and is jealous.
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The Private Life of Helen of Troy
🇹🇷 Turkey Ancient HistorySetting the standard for his later light-hearted biopics The Private Life of Henry VIII and Rembrandt, producer-director Alexander Korda steadfastly refuses to take any of The Private Life of Helen of Troy seriously. Maria Corda, wife of the director, plays the title character as a fetchingly underdressed coquette, oblivious to all the political turmoil she's causing when she allows the handsome Paris (Ricardo Cortez) to kidnap her. Meanwhile, poor King Menelaus (Lewis Stone), Helen's husband, stands by in stoic silence, just as he's done on previous occasions when his wife succumbed to the charms of various sexy suitors (one of whom is played by future cowboy star "Wild Bill" Elliot). Finally galvanized into action, Menelaus reclaims his bride, who seems none the worse for wear for her experiences.
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Boadicea
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st CenturyThe life of the Celtic Queen Boudica (Boadicea) and her rebellion against the Roman Empire.
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The Light of Asia
🇮🇳 India The 5th Century BCLiving an indolent life in a luxurious palace, Prince Gautama (Rai) is insulated by his family from the harshness of the world outside. But he is destined to learn greater truths: shocked to discover the pain and suffering of so many in his kingdom, he abandons his privileged existence, and his wife Gopa (Seeta Devi), to become a wandering teacher, eventually finding enlightenment and founding Buddhism. Featuring superimposed images and deep-focus shots that were highly impressive for the time, Light of Asia astutely combines a deeply felt spirituality with the surefire attraction of Indian exotica, which helped make it a considerable success in Europe.
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Salammbô
🇹🇳 Tunisia Ancient HistoryBased on the historical novel by Flaubert, "Salammbo" tells the story of the Mercenary War between Carthage and the Barbarians in the third century BC.
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Quo Vadis?
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st CenturyThe Roman Banquet The golden glories, the unrivaled luxuries, the wine, the dance, the song, the beautiful women, the sumptuous splendors that taxed a barbaric world for a night of feasting and revel- re-created for your entertainment in the most colossal drama produced. (Print Ad in Daily Argus, Mount Vernon NY, 6 June 1925)
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Helen of Troy
🇹🇷 Turkey Ancient HistoryHelena is a 1924 German silent drama film directed by Manfred Noa and starring Edy Darclea, Vladimir Gajdarov and Albert Steinrück. The film was based on the poem the Iliad by Homer. It was released in two separate parts: The Rape of Helen and The Fall of Troy. It was produced by Bavaria Film at the Emelka Studios in Munich. The film was made on an epic scale with thousands of extras, and large sets which rivalled those of the larger Berlin-based UFA.
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Messalina
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st Century"Messalina" (1924), the tale of that wicked and lustful empress who had a talent for causing problems.
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Three Ages
🇮🇹 Italy The 1920s Ancient HistoryA cyclone of laughs and thrills — The rituals of courtship, romantic rivalry and love play out three times as a man vies with a villain for the girl. In the Stone Age, the rivalry is set off by dinosaurs, a turtle used as a ouija board, and a round of golf with stones. In ancient Rome, the men display their brawn through a chariot race, using dogs instead of horses. In contemporary times, the man finds himself overcome by modernity, including a very fragile car.
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Fabiola
🇮🇹 Italy The 4th CenturyIn "Fabiola" (1918) Herr Guarzzoni moved from the earliest days of Christianity when the new faith was struggling to just survive to a later period in the Roman Empire when the religion was a major force and attempting to win over Rome.
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Woman
🇺🇸 United States of America 🇮🇹 Italy The 1860s The 12th Century The 1st CenturyA series of stories reflecting the changing position of women in the world, including the familiar tales of Adam and Eve, Messalina and Claudius, Abelard and Heloise, Cyrene and the Fisherman, as well as that of a young girl and an officer in the American Civil War.
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Cleopatra
The 1st Century BCThe story of Cleopatra, the fabulous queen of Egypt, and the epic romances between her and the greatest men of Rome, Julius Caesar and Antony. (IMDb) Only a fragment of this film is known to still exist.
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Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
🇮🇶 Iraq 🇮🇹 Italy The 1910s The 1st Century The 16th CenturyThe Cruel Hand of Intolerance — The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
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Cabiria
🇹🇳 Tunisia 🇮🇹 Italy The 3rd Century BCAll Nations Bow to This - The Greatest Spectacle the World Has Seen! — Young Cabiria is kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave in Carthage. Just as she's to be sacrificed to Moloch, Cabiria is rescued by Fulvius Axilla, a good-hearted Roman spy, and his powerful slave, Maciste. The trio are broken up as Cabiria is entrusted to a woman of noble birth. With Cabiria's fate unknown, Maciste punished for his heroism, and Fulvius sent away to fight for Rome, is there any hope of our heroes reuniting?
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Cajus Julius Caesar
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st Century BCA colossal epic film like this that tries to depict the life and glory of Julius Caesar, must have a variety of scenery appropriate to the film's hero. This includes the Senate and its conspirators..or .. strange places beyond Rome full of barbarians that must fall under the Rome yoke. Let's not forget the sequences depicting the masses mentioned before.. or.. the human side of Caesar and his troublesome relationship with his son Brutus.
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The Sign of the Cross
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st CenturyIn 64 A.D., Marcus Superbus is Prefect of Rome. When the Emperor Nero decides to renew persecution of the Christians, Marcus opposes him, fearing for the safety of Mercia, the Christian woman whom he loves. Through the machinations of the Empress Poppaea and other women at court, Tigellinus, Nero's agent in the war against the Christians, convinces Nero to have Mercia arrested. Marcus appeals to the emperor for mercy, but is told that she can be saved only by renouncing Christianity. Waiting to enter the arena to be killed, Mercia steadfastly refuses to reject her religion, despite Marcus' pleas. Finally, Marcus is converted by her and they enter the arena to face death together.
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Quo Vadis?
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st Century"Quo Vadis?" was a landmark in early Italian historical epic films, and certainly Enrico Guazzoni’s grand scale masterpiece laid the foundations for what genuine colossal Italian spectacles should be. It had a great deal of influence on Giovanni Pastrone’s "Cabiria" (1914) and D.W. Griffith’s "Intolerance" (1916).
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Zhuangzi Tests His Wife
🇨🇳 China The 4th Century BCPhilosopher-eccentric Chuang Tsi comes across a woman fanning the newly built grave of her dead husband because she desires to marry again. On returning home, Chuang Tsi decides to put his wife to the test - he fakes his own death; the wife is grief-stricken and goes into mourning. While funeral arrangement are in progress, a handsome young man come to call on Chuang Tsi. Later, there is talk of marriage between Chuang Tsi wife and the man. However, the young man falls ill; his servant says that taking the human brain is the only medicine to cure him.
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The Last Days of Pompeii
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st Century79 AD. In the city of Pompeii the young Glaucus loves beautiful Jone, although he's courted by Giulia and secretly loved by his blind slave Nidia. One day Glaucus is wrongly accused of murder by a priest of Isis, Arbace, who wants to marry Jone and please Giulia. Glauco is condemned to be devoured by lions in the arena of the city, on that very day the erupting Vesuvius. Jone ovvero gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (1913) was one of two major Italian productions of The Last Days of Pompeii done in 1913, and not to be confused by the more famous Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (1913).
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Cleopatra
The 1st Century BCThe fabled queen of Egypt's affair with Roman general Marc Antony is ultimately disastrous for both of them.
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The Fall of Troy
🇹🇷 Turkey Ancient HistoryThe Fall of Troy, is an Italian silent film of 1911 directed by John Pastrone and Luigi Romano Borgnetto. Produced by the Itala Film of Turin, was the first successful film of Pastrone. From the technical point of view it was still composed of still shots, this was not yet the innovation of the cart, experienced only from Cabiria 1914.
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Agrippina
🇮🇹 Italy Ancient HistoryIn "Agrippina" (1910), Herr Guazzoni recreates the particular and troublesome relationship between Frau Agrippina, the second wife of the Emperor Claudius, and her son Nero. Such family troubles of course were not confined to Imperial Rome since family feuds were customary in German aristocratic circles as well. However even though mother figures in Germany are strong it is true that aristocratic mammas preferred going to the opera rather than fretting over little troubles with their sons.
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Humanity Through the Ages
🇮🇹 Italy The 1st CenturyAn episodic narrative displaying examples of humankind's brutality, from the story of Cain and Abel through the Hague Convention of 1907.
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Ben Hur
🇮🇱 Israel 🇮🇹 Italy Ancient HistoryThe first adaptation of Lew Wallace's novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.
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Ulysses and the Giant Polyphemus
🇬🇷 Greece Ancient HistoryAn early horror treatment of the hero's encounter with the one-eyed man-eating Cyclops.
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Back to the Past
🇨🇳 China The 4th Century BCThe movie sequel to the 2001 TVB drama series, "A Step into the Past".
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Shanti Sandesham
🇮🇱 Israel 🇵🇸 Palestine 🇮🇹 Italy Ancient HistoryIndian version of the Jesus story. Following Jesus' birth he performs many miracles and gathers a band of followers. He runs into trouble with the authorities and the Romans execute him. He rises again and ascends to heaven.
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