Marcantonio e Cleopatra

Alternative title: Antony and Cleopatra
Synopsis: Feature film loosely based on Shakespeare’s play which was praised for its lavish costumes, spectacular sets, and ambitious special effects.
Country: Italy
Medium: Film
Technical information: Black-and-white / Silent
Year of release: 1913
Recording date: Oct 1913
Duration: c88; c8000 feet

Director

Enrico Guazzoni

Cinematographer

Alessandro Bona

Screenplay

Enrico Guazzoni

Cast

Notes: The copy in the Library of Congress is a 16mm print at 62 minutes. The copy held by the Folger Shakespeare Library is a VHS copy released by Grapevine Video in 1996 as part of the Classic Collectable Cinema series (now unavailable, 8/2006).
History: Released in Italy in 1913 and released in 1914 by George Kleine in the United States as ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, an eight-reel film.
Reviews: Ball, Robert Hamilton. Shakespeare on Silent Film: A Strange Eventful History. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1968 (pp165-8, 345-6). Ball details the plot but feels the film owes much more to Guazzoni with a little Plutarch. Other writers cite Pietro Cossa’s dramatic poem ‘Cleopatra’ as a main source.