Historical dictionary of Italian cinema

PEPLUM

Peplum: translation

Genre. Derived from the Latin term for the small over-the-shoulder tunic often worn in these films, peplum was the name given to the popular sword-and-sandal genre that flourished in Italy in the late 1950s. Some 180 such films were made in Italy between 1957 and 1965, when the genre rapidly waned and was replaced by an even more prolific genre, the Italian, or so-calledspaghetti Western.
The distant origins of the peplum were undoubtedly in the historical superspectacles, or "kolossals," of the silent period, and it was no coincidence that the names of Ursus andMaciste, the muscular strongmen who had first made their appearance inEnrico Guazzoni'sQuo vadis?(1912) andGiovanni Pastrone'sCabiria(1914), reappeared so frequently in the titles of many classics of the genre. Its more immediate forerunners, however, were the spate of American historical and biblical spectaculars produced atCinecittain the early 1950s, as well as several homegrown big-budget epics such asAlessandro Blasetti'sFabiola(1949) andMario Camerini'sUlisse(Ulysses, 1954). The peplums themselves, however, were far from big-budget productions, and the film usually credited with giving birth to the genre,Pietro Francisci'sLe fatiche di Ercole(Hercules, 1957), was made for $120,000 but eventually earned $18 million. Francisci tried to repeat his winning formula, which included the hiring of a relatively inexpensive bodybuilder rather than a costly star to play the part of the muscleman superhero and concentrating on the hero's action-filled adventures rather than the rise and fall of civilizations, inErcole e la regina di Lidia(Hercules Unchained, 1958) but by this time many others were also attempting to follow his example, with four other muscleman epics produced in 1959, 15 in 1960, and 31 in 1961.
The directors who came to be most closely associated with the genre, in addition to Francisci himself, wereVittorio Cottafavi, who made two classics of the genre,La vendetta di Ercole(Hercules'Revenge, 1960, also known in the United States asGoliath and the Dragon) andErcole alla conquista di Atlantide(Hercules and the Conquest of Atlantis, 1961, also known in the United States asHercules and the Captive Women);Riccardo Freda, who directed five muscleman epics includingMaciste alla corte del Gran Khan(Maciste at the Court of the Great Khan, 1961, also known asSamson and the Seven Miracles of the World) andMaciste all'Inferno(Maciste in Hell, 1962, also known asThe Witch's Curse); andCarlo Campogalliani, who contributedIl terrore dei barbari(Goliath and the Barbarians, 1959),Maciste nella valle dei re(Son of Samson, 1960), andUrsus(Ursus, Son of Hercules, 1961).Among other practitioners of the genre were Domenico Paolella,Sergio Corbucci, and Duccio Tessari.Mario Mattoliinflected the genre with comedy in hisMaciste contro Ercole nella valle dei guai(Hercules in the Valley of Woe, 1961) andMario Bavawith horror inErcole al centro della terra(Hercules in the Haunted World, 1961).Sergio Leone, who would be responsible for the birth of the Western genre that would soon replace the peplum, was called in to completeMario Bonnard's foray into the genre,Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei(The Last Days of Pompeii, 1959), before making his own highly regardedIl colosso di Rodi(The Colossus of Rhodes, 1961).
The musclemen who were enlisted to impersonate the superhero, who could be called, quite interchangeably, Maciste, Hercules, Ursus, Goliath, Samson, or Colossus, were for the most part American bodybuilders, including Steve Reeves, Reg Park, Gordon Scott, Mark Forrest, Kirk Morris, Ed Fury, Dan Vadis, and Alan Steel (Sergio Ciani). And just as the hero's name could vary, the stories themselves could also be set in widely differing times and places, from Greek and Roman mythological times to the "barbaric" Middle Ages, and from Greece, Rome, Egypt, China, and the Orient to the very center of the Earth.
Generally dismissed by serious critics and relatively short lived, the genre was nevertheless both popular and lucrative, exploiting the extensive network of Italian second- and third-run cinemas and easily accessing markets outside Italy due to the fact that many of the films were made as European or American coproductions. Despite its extraordinary success, however, the genre was already substantially on the wane in 1964 when the enormous box office receipts ofPer un pugno di dollari(For a Fistful of Dollars, 1964), aWesternall'Italianadirected by Bob Robertson (Sergio Leone), were already indicating a different way forward for Italian popular cinema.

  1. peplum—Peplum bersetzung oder Peplos siehe Panathenum....Damen Conversations Lexikon
  2. peplum—Peplum translation Genre. Derived from the Latin term for the small overtheshoulder tunic often worn in these films peplum was the name given to the popular swordandsanda...Guide to cinema
  3. peplum—баска...Англо-русский большой универсальный переводческий словарь
  4. peplum—n длинная баска пеплум...Англо-русский словарь Лингвистика-98
  5. peplum—сущ. лат. баска лиф с оборкой по линии талии...Англо-русский словарь общей лексики
  6. peplum—peplo Итальянорусский словарь....Большой итальяно-русский и русско-итальянский словарь
  7. péplum—m ист. пеплум женская одежда разг. роскошно поставленный фильм на античный сюжет...Большой французско-русский и русско-французский словарь
  8. peplum—n.em и peplus m.em греч. роскошное просторное женское платье из тончайшей ткани одеяние Афины которое в праздник Панафиней в Афинах выставлялось для всеобщего обозрения ...Латинско-русский словарь
  9. peplum—[peplm] n pl тж. la лат. peplos. длинная баска...Новый большой англо-русский словарь
  10. peplum—peplum [peplm] n pl тж. la лат.i . peplos . длинная баска...Новый большой англо-русский словарь II
  11. peplum—peplm n pl тж. la лат. . peplos . длинная баска...Новый большой англо-русский словарь под общим руководством акад. Ю.Д. Апресяна
  12. péplum—m ист. пеплум женская одеждаem разг. роскошно поставленный фильм на античный сюжет...Новый французско-русский словарь