Julian the Apostate (1919)

• 75%
• 1919
• Ugo Falena
• Mila Bernard
• Rina Calabria
• Claudio Caparelli

Highly stylised biopic of the last Pagan Roman-Byzantine Emperor, Julian the Philosopher, known to Christians as 'the Apostate'. Orphaned by his cousin Constantius (Costanzo), and narrowly escaping death himself as a child, Julian is brought up on the Greek classics by his faithful tutor Mardonius. Constantius's seductive wife, Eusebia, has designs on him, but he is given the emperor's sister Elena as his bride. She is a Christian, and is herself the object of the unrequited affection of her teenaged page. After Julian is posted to Gaul as Caesar, to fight the barbarians, the romantic rivalries come to a tragic climax. Julian becomes Emperor, avenges the woman he realises, too late, he loved, and sets out on a fatal campaign against the Persians... The script is stronger on romance than politics, emphasising the (fictional) intersecting love-triangles. However, Duilio Cambellotti's striking Byzantine-Art Nouveau costumes and Luigi Mancinelli's score make it retain interest.