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Quo Vadis?

Quo Vadis?

TV Series · 1985 · 15 people

Adapted from Henryk Sienkiewicz's celebrated novel of the same title, Quo Vadis? came to television in 1985 as an international miniseries. Franco Rossi directed it from a script by the Oscar-winning Ennio De Concini. It runs six hours in all and was originally shown on Rai 1 as six one-hour episodes. It is a co-production in which Italy, Spain and Switzerland were joined by partners from other countries.

The story is a tale of love and intrigue in ancient Rome under Emperor Nero. Francesco Quinn plays an arrogant Roman legionary whose brutish, pleasure-seeking outlook is gradually softened by his love for a young early Christian woman, played by Cristina Raines. The large cast also includes Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max von Sydow, Frederic Forrest, Ángela Molina, Barbara De Rossi, Gabriele Ferzetti, Massimo Girotti, Philippe Leroy and Georges Wilson.

The producers were Elio and Francesco Scardamaglia, and the music is by Piero Piccioni. Alongside Rai, the production involved Antenne 2 of France, Channel 4 of the United Kingdom, Televisión Española, Germany's Polyphon Film- und Fernsehgesellschaft and Swiss Italian-language television.

DirectorFranco Rossi
Production companyRai, Leone Film, Antenne 2, Polyphon Film- und Fernsehgesellschaft, Channel 4, Televisión Española, Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana
NetworkRai 1

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Cast

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Georges Wilson Georges Wilson Film actor · died at 88 Svetozar Cvetković Svetozar Cvetković Actor · 68 years old Klaus Maria Brandauer Max von Sydow Frederic Forrest Cristina Raines Francesco Quinn Barbara De Rossi Gabriele Ferzetti Ángela Molina Massimo Girotti Françoise Fabian Philippe Leroy Leopoldo Trieste Olga Karlatos

Through different eyes

Yeşilçam Nostalgic A viewer raised on the classics, looking for warm storytelling and strong acting.

Sienkiewicz's novel is one of those fine old stories about a coarse man softened by love. This miniseries traces the arrogant legionary's change through his love for a young Christian woman without hurrying, and the six-hour length suits the novel's stately pace. Piero Piccioni's music and a large cast that includes names such as Max von Sydow and Klaus Maria Brandauer keep alive the atmosphere of the great historical productions of old. An eye used to classic epics will find here less spectacle than the patience of a literary adaptation.

Series Binger A series devotee tracking character arcs, cast chemistry and season pacing.

Six one-hour episodes, a love story and intrigue in Nero's Rome: on paper, a textbook miniseries formula. Its strength is that it gives the lead's transformation room to breathe, the road from arrogance to tenderness moving forward episode by episode. Its weakness is that, alongside the love story, so large a cast leaves some characters only a surface-level place. Anyone used to today's fast series will need patience, but for those who enjoy following a novel on screen step by step, it is an enjoyable old-school production.

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

The most interesting thing about the story is that it shows two worlds meeting in Nero's Rome through a love affair. The bond between a pleasure-seeking legionary and a young woman from among the early Christians brings the tension between dominant Roman values and a rising new faith down to a personal level. The novel itself carries a late nineteenth-century European view of the era, and the series follows that view, so it is best watched as a literary interpretation rather than a historical record. Being made by a partnership of six broadcasters also makes it a good example of the period's European co-production tradition in television.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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