A worldwide success, it premiered in Germany at the opening night of the Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz (Berlin's first purpose-built, free-standing cinema), on 19 March 1913. In an unusual departure from normal cinematic practice, the crowd scenes were reinforced with "special mobs" of live costumed actors in the auditorium.[4][6]
Quo Vadis was the first film to be projected in the Astor Theatre, a first-class theater on Broadway, where it was screened for nine months from April to December 1913. The film's first screening in London was for King George V, in the Royal Albert Hall, who complimented the performers.
The film
Plot
The story is set during the latter years of the reign of the emperor Nero. Marcus Vinicius, one of Nero's military officers, falls in love with a young Christian hostage named Lygia. But their love is hindered by Nero, who has his soldiers burn Rome and pins the blame on the Christians. Nero launches a cruel persecution of the religious sect, who are sentenced to death in the Circus. Among the victims is Lygia. She is tied to the back of a bull in imitation of Europa. But her life is saved by her bodyguard Ursus, who wrestles the bull to death.
When the 1924 version was issued, to prevent theatres from showing the 1913 film in competition, the Unione Cinematographica Italiana purchased all rights to the performance of 1913 film in the United States and Australia, including the existing inventory of film prints, stills, posters, and glass slides, from George Kleine, who had obtained the U.S. rights back in 1913.[7]
^Patrick Lucanio (1994). With fire and sword: Italian spectacles on American screens, 1958–1968. Scarecrow Press. ISBN9780810828162.
^Riccardo Redi (2009). La Cines: storia di una casa di produzione italian. Persiani Editore, 2009. ISBN9788896013045.
^Hall, Sheldon; Neale, Steve (2010). Epics, Spectacles and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History. Wayne State University Press. p. 31. ISBN978-0-8143-3008-1.
^This practice seems to have begun with The Miracle, the world's first full-colour feature-length film which opened in London in December 1912 and in New York in April 1913. The US rights were owned by Al. Woods, an international theatre impresario who was also involved in the building of the Nollendorf Theatre in Berlin. The Miracle, with similar crowds of live costumed actors in the auditorium, opened in another Berlin cinema originally leased by Woods, the Ufa-Palast am Zoo, in May 1914.[5]
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