Antico Romano
Film, print, restoration
«Antico Romano» («An Ancient Roman» or «The Ancient Roman») is an Italian silent comedy produced by the Società Italiana Cines in 1909 and shot in Rome. Gosfil’mofond Rossii holds a copy of the film, featuring pre-revolutionary Russian intertitles. For a long time, the print has been erroneously stored as «After 2000 Years», which is the first intertitle of the film, but also the international distribution title for a 1910 Pathé Frères production with a very similar plot, «Le Réveil du Romain» («The Roman’s Awakening»). The footage was correctly identified by researcher Tamara Shvediuk in 2022.
The source for the 4K digital copy was a 35mm black and white triacetate dupe negative print. The film has been digitally restored in 2024.
Synopsis
The Ancient Roman – This is one of the most original films ever placed upon the market. The scenes are laid in Rome, and three learned professors are searching in an ancient tomb, when they find an old manuscript which they are unable to decipher, and whilst examining it a man, dressed in the uniform of a Roman gladiator emerges from the tomb. The professors take him to see the ruins of ancient Rome, and he weeps when shown the statues. They wander through the modern city, and some Castelli wine of which they partake proves too strong for the ancient one. He takes a great fancy to the modern ladies in the park, and kisses two of them, much to their surprise. But he has no fear, and even the firing of a big gun does not upset him. He finally runs back to his tomb, and disappears into it, much to the regret of the professors.
The very latest. Our impressions of this week’s pictures – Cines. The Ancient Roman, “The Bioscope”, no. 146, 29 July 1909, pp. 26-27
An Ancient Roman is a funny burlesque on the reverence paid to the memory of the old Romans by the modern tourist. Three tourists in top hats, white waistcoats and frock coats unearth a tomb of a Roman who lived 2,000 years ago. Presently as they gaze with wonder into it there arises from the cavity a Roman soldier, armed with sword and shield and wearing a breast plate and short kilt. They examine him in wondrous surprise and he weeps over the ruins of his beloved Rome and gazes on the statues of departed heroes. Then he walks through the streets of the new city arm in arm with his modern friends. They introduce him to some twentieth century ladies, whom he embraces and gets his ears boxed for his pains. Then he is taken to a café and plied with wine and becomes slightly unsteady on his legs. He is induced to enter a motor-car, which, however, frightens the brave Roman gladiator and he shivers with fear at the report of a gun used by a sportsman shooting in a field. Finally he makes a bolt, hotly pursued by the three moderns with their flying swallow tails. It is all very ludicrous and laughable. In the end he outdistances his pursuers and reaches his family tomb into which he disappears.
New films and their makers – Cines. An Ancient Roman, “The Kinematograph & Lantern Weekly”, vol. 5, no. 116, 29 July 1909, p. 590