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Fabiola

Fabiola

Movie · 1949 · 15 people

Alessandro Blasetti directed Fabiola, a 1949 French-Italian historical drama that also counts as a sword-and-sandal picture. Shot in Italian, it was shown in the United Kingdom as The Fighting Gladiator. It is a very loose adaptation of Cardinal Nicholas Patrick Wiseman's 1854 novel Fabiola; or, The Church of the Catacombs.

The story is set in the Roman Empire around the 4th century AD, as Christianity is on the rise. Michèle Morgan, Henri Vidal and Michel Simon star.

Alessandro Blasetti, Antonio Pietrangeli and Diego Fabbri wrote the screenplay; besides Blasetti, Lionello De Felice and Sergio Leone are also named as directors. The film took roughly 1.05 million dollars at the American box office alone in 1951. An unofficial remake, La rivolta degli schiavi (The Revolt of the Slaves), starring Lang Jeffries and Rhonda Fleming, was made in 1960.

DirectorAlessandro Blasetti, Lionello De Felice

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Cast

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Guido Celano Guido Celano Actor · died at 83 Pompeo Michèle Morgan Henri Vidal Michel Simon Elisa Cegani Massimo Girotti Gino Cervi Sergio Tofano Rina Morelli Paolo Stoppa Carlo Ninchi Franco Interlenghi Guglielmo Barnabò Aldo Silvani Silvana Jachino

Also in the cast: Umberto Sacripante

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Through different eyes

AI-assisted editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives. They are not reader reviews; those are below.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

What makes Fabiola interesting is that it shows fourth-century Rome, as Christianity was rising, through the filter of a novel a cardinal wrote in the nineteenth century. So what is on screen is not just ancient Rome but the Victorian view of that age, reinterpreted by an Italy just out of the war. That a country turned, right after the devastation, to a large historical story about faith and conscience is meaningful in itself. Bearing in mind how loose the adaptation is, the film is more rewarding read as a document of its own moment than as a history lesson.

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Blasetti's film heads in the opposite direction from the neorealism that defined post-war Italian cinema, toward a large-scale historical costume drama, and that choice is interesting in itself. The Franco-Italian partnership that brings Michèle Morgan, Michel Simon and Massimo Girotti together gives it international weight. That a young Sergio Leone is credited among the directors feels like a small hint of the sword-and-sandal and western wave of later years. But there is a serious problem: length. A story this long makes for a heavy edit by today's standards; this material would hit much harder with tighter cutting.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

Its British release title sets you up for arena fights, but this is a historical drama first and foremost. It carries traces of the sword-and-sandal genre, yet the weight seems to sit on the drama, and for an impatient action fan it is far too long. It is interesting as a look at the genre's roots, not as a pure gladiator adventure.

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