Les week-ends de Néron

But while there is slapstick, it sometimes feels like it is just a "normal" movie ... and not the completely out there comedy it actually is. Maybe that is because of me not being fluent in Italian and certain things being lost in translation ... or maybe the mood and flow of the movie is actually all over the place.

Having said that, the comedy does work if you don't expect much. The actors are really good and they sort of elevate an otherwise quite subpar movie I'd say ... it is a matter of taste (even if most would say bad taste)

A very silly movie indeed. A spoof of Nero and ancient Rome. I loved Nero's elegiac song in the palace court, surrounded by the chubbykin cherubs. Nero to mamma Agrippina, "How beautiful you are," he says, as he plans to kill her and others who annoy him or stand in his way in this movie where everybody seems to have homicide on their minds and snakes in their hands. Nero's philosophy: "I have more important things than politics. I have to sing." Seneca turns the criticism of Nero's singing like a dog into a laudatory affirmation.

This is all Marx Brothers mayhem, with the weirdest casting imaginable: Alberto Sordi as the demented Nero (perfect), Gloria Swanson as mom Agrippina (seething), Brigitte Bardot as gold-digger Poppea (lusty), Vittorio De Sica as Seneca (cautiously two-faced). The movie's release in America in a dubbed version was minimal, but it's really quite enjoyable.

Nero's Big Weekend / Mero's Mistress / Mio Figlio Nerone

Nero is normally used as a bad guy opposite a (comic) hero, but here he is himself at the centre of the story. Tension rises when his mother Agrippina visits him in his seaside villa and tries to coerce him into tending to state affairs. She has to rival with Seneca and Poppea who try to manipulate him in the opposite direction. The latter two try to have her murdered but she seems to be immortal. Meanwhile, Nero has taken to singing. An international cast in a unique comedy. I do not mean that it is an all-time masterpiece. Rather, it is a strangely factual comedy. The attempts at Agrippina's life are all taken literally from the writings of Suetonius. All they did was make it all happen in one weekend. Somehow, you get the feeling this is almost exactly what history was like.

The movie was dubbed in several languages. The German dub or the UK version are unavailable. The US version puts more emphasis on Poppea than on Agrippina, but what is worse, it is missing the final punchline - shame! Try the French or the Italian version, which are anyway the only ones available on DVD (as of 2010). English subtitles have appeared on the internet.

The epoch of the Roman Empire has inspired many film makers to produce movies set in this age. This is one that'll never be matched. I do not mean that it is of a superb quality, but it stands out as being one of the very few films that make fun of this civilization. The storyline is quite thin - everyone makes his best to stop Nero from singing. Everyone tries to kill everyone: Nero tries to kill his mother Agrippina, Agrippina tries to kill Seneca and Poppea, these two in turn try to kill her too. Agrippina's trials always fail to work - the others' though, work every time. They put vipers in her bed, they give her poison to drink, they drop ceilings on her bed, they flood the ship on which she is travelling. But each time she always appears back as a demon from hell unable to die. Her appearance after each attempt is ghastly, especially the one after Nero orders her ship to be drowned - she appears in the palace dresses in a pale blue dress with lightning flashing behind her. Gloria Swanson is just about the best thing is this film. Her acting is superb as the plotting mother of the mad emperor. The charm she had in the 1920s is still present as late as 1956. Alberto Sordi is fine as the childish mad emperor, Vittorio de Sica is funny as the all-sapient Seneca while Brigitte Bardot fits excellently as the bitchy, wealth-seeking Poppea. All in all it is a fine comedy set in ancient times, bound to be enjoyed by those who watch it.

A colorful parody or persiflage on the Roman Empire, made with some production value and some known actors - Barbara Shelley, Gloria Swanson and Bridget Bardot among some known Italian actors like Vittorio De Sica or Alberto Sordi (at least if you know a tiny bit of Italian movies). Nero's Mistress will be an entertaining ride - if the kind of humor provided strikes you, if not, you won't enjoy this ride. For sure Nero's Mistress aka Mio figlio Nerone does not play in the same league as the immortal and ueber-delicious Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), but this one was made decades before that masterpiece.