Maria de Fatima Rosa - Reception of Mesopotamia on Film

Hence, we have opted for an analysis of film content and not of production. Nevertheless, Chapter 4will be dedicated to the study of the cinematographic centers, especially Hollywood and Cinecittà, of how they dealt with the political and social transformations that occurred throughout the twentieth century, and how they constrained or not their creations. 84As we know, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and the characters associated with them have the extraordinary ability to easily metamorphose, assuming themselves as a linguistic resource, camouflaging themselves in different-style figures often used to express situations that are alien to them, but in which they are reviewed. Thus, either we find them as a metaphor, as a euphemism, or as an allegory. This will also be a focal point of our analysis, especially with regard to such films that we categorized earlier as Mesopotamia in film and which will be covered in Chapter 5. Indeed, out of Mesopotamia came the biblical metaphor “whore of Babylon” applied to many contexts and visible in various cinematographic productions. Everything that was evil was likely to have emerged from the land between the rivers. Evil, consummated in the figure of the Devil or the Antichrist, is one of the aspects that will be studied and that underline very well the twentieth-century conception on Mesopotamia.

To finalize, we include Chapter 9, named “Farewell Babylon, Farewell Nineveh,” which, in addition to summarizing some of the ideas presented throughout the work, addresses how the fall of Babylon and Assyria has always been associated with the excesses of their population and monarchs, and the consequent divine punishment that fell upon them. Through this final chapter, we also intend to highlight how Mesopotamia has always been presented in the cinema as the other, both from a cultural (expressing an implicit orientalism) and from a religious point of view (its polytheism opposing the European and American Judeo-Christian matrix). Cinema was, in fact, marked by these two perspectives: the Westernism that was in its blood and the idea of its salvific faith.

1 1Vargas 2020, p. 94.

2 2Jauss 1982, p. 21.

3 3Martindale 2013, p. 174.

4 4Martindale 2007, p. 298.

5 5Idem, p. 301.

6 6Hardwick 2003, p. 2.

7 7Porter 2008, pp. 471–472.

8 8By text we should understand any vehicle passible of conveying meaning, be it a book, a sculpture, or a musical piece. In the specific case of our book, the texts under analysis will be the films.

9 9Apud, Jauss 1982, p. 21.

10 10Burnett-Betsch 2016, p. 3.

11 11Porter 2008, p. 469.

12 12This book was preceded by Lorna Hardwick’s Reception Studies, published for the first time in 2003.

13 13Hardwick and Stray 2008, p. 1.

14 14Idem, Ibidem.

15 15With the volume Receptions of the Ancient Near East in Popular Culture and Beyond (Garcia-Ventura and Verderame 2020).

16 16Garcia-Ventura and Verderame 2020, p. 2.

17 17Bohrer 2003.

18 18Brusius 2012.

19 19Malley 2012.

20 20Regarding Reception on Mesopotamia, vide Garcia-Ventura, Verderame 2020, p. 2.

21 21Porter 2008, p. 469.

22 22Gadamer 2004, p. 197. About the idea of “chain of receptions,” vide Vargas 2020, pp. 94 and 96.

23 23Hardwick 2003, p. 4.

24 24Hardwick and Stray 2008, p. 1.

25 25Martindale 2006, p. 2.

26 26Idem, p. 11.

27 27Idem, ibidem.

28 28Rood 2013, p. 200.

29 29Staiger 2000, p. 1.

30 30Idem, p. 3.

31 31Mayne 1993, p. 3.

32 32Apud, Wyke 1997, p. 37.

33 33Barta 1998, p. 13. About this question, vide also De España 2013, p. 45.

34 34Biltereyst and Meers 2018, p. 22.

35 35Aziza 2009, p. 81.

36 36Hewak 1991, p. 122.

37 37About Humberto Eco’s thoughts on the visual sign, vide idem, p. 79 and ff.

38 38Hansen 1991, p. 17.

39 39Winkler 2009, p. 11.

40 40Idem, p. 13.

41 41Idem, p. 14.

42 42Idem, p. 20.

43 43Rosenstone 1988, p. 31.

44 44Subscriptions increased during the first months of 2020 due to the pandemic outbreak and the confinement of many households. This aspect proves the importance of films and television series as the main means of entertainment and historical dissemination. The New York Times, “Everyone You Know Just Signed Up for Netflix:” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/business/media/netflix-q1-2020-earnings-nflx.html(accessed on 10 November 2020).

45 45Rosenstone 1988, p. 32.

46 46Idem, pp. 37 and 40.

47 47Michelakis and Wyke 2013a, p. 12.

48 48We will analyze the films considered most important for the themes in question. Thus, the priority is not to present a detailed list of movies on Mesopotamia, but to mention and study those that may be more symptomatic of the idea contemporaneity had of the land between the rivers.

49 49As, for instance, Hatifa – Abenteuer einer sklavin (1960), produced in the German Democratic Republic.

50 50For instance, The Mole People (1956), which explores Sumerian culture.

51 51An example is the Italian film I sopravvissuti della città morta (1984), which presents the temple of the god Gilgamesh, and the sarcophagus in which he would have been buried.

52 52For instance, Alexander (2004) or The Egyptian (1954).

53 53Babel (2004) and The Exorcist (1973) are two examples. They constitute two distinct references: the first one collects for its title an image of confusion and dispersion transversal to Judeo-Christian thought, although the film has nothing to do with ancient Babel/Babylon; the other uses Mesopotamian antiquity, more specifically its daemon Pazuzu, to explore the devil that takes possession of the child on which the film focuses, although it does not center on this civilization.

54 54Evil Dead’s (1981) chaos is caused by the recitation of ancient Sumerian enchantments.

55 55Such as Metropolis (1927) that takes place in a future time, in the year 2026.

56 56As is the case with the Iraqi film Nabokodnassar (1962) or the Turkish Nemrud (1979).

57 57Although other countries have produced films regarding Mesopotamia, such as England, Germany, or Austria, their productions were not so many and their importance in the early days of cinema is not comparable to that of the other industries. As so, we choose to focus on these three.

58 58Although Noah’s Ark (1928) is actually a sound movie, the only exception in the group.

59 59A subdivision close to the one presented by Reinhartz 2013a regarding the Bible.

60 60Lanzoni 2002, p. 42.

61 61And with the Italian political context. Vide Part II, Chapter 6.

62 62About the third golden age of peplum, vide Éloy 2013, p. 61.

63 63With his magnus opus Orientalism (Said 1978).

64 64Sanmartín and Serrano 2003, p. 9.

65 65Matthews 2003, p. 6.

66 66Bahrani 1998, p. 165.

67 67Idem, ibidem.

68 68Finkelstein 1962, p. 73.

69 69Idem, p. 74.

70 70Matthews 2003, p. 5.

71 71Curiously, even the very concepts of universalism and imperialism, which Europe would be fond of during its era of expansionism were, in their genesis, eastern (Pagden 2008, p. 11).

72 72Parpola 2000b, p. 34.

73 73Vide Kuhrt 1995a.

74 74Bahrani 1998, p. 162.

75 75The year 1857, after the declaration of the deciphering of the cuneiform script, is usually considered to mark the birth of Assyriology, a specialized discipline in the study of ancient Mesopotamia.

76 76Said 1978, p. 2.

77 77Idem, p. 3.

78 78Kennedy 2017 p. 4.

79 79Esposito 2011, p. 2.

80 80Bohrer 2003, p. 3.

81 81About the poem, vide Gilmour 2019, The Prophet’s Burden.

82 82Collins 2020, p. x.

83 83Regarding this subject, vide Michelakis and Wyke 2013b, pp. 5–6.

84 84Vide above, note 57.