Les week-ends de Néron

MS SWANSON is wonderful!!--She knows she's laying it on and lays it on great!! Today--when actresses can work about as long as the guys--she could have been a great comic actress, and really, was, she was an amazing woman!! When she made this movie, the stereotype of the over dramatic former silent film star actress was, of course, already firmly established. Instead of fighting against this stereotype, just as in SUNSET BOULEVARD, she plays it to the hilt.This suits the Marx Brothers style perfectly. Though in her late fifties at the time of this filming, she is still a very beautiful woman. Also, she had a shape,not just skin and bone like most actresses now days.

This somewhat outdated comedy from Italy somewhat anticipates the coming boom in Italian sword and sandal films. The well-known stories about the crazy Roman Emperor Nero are told. The topic is still very popular, as can be seen impressively in the current film SENECA by Robert SCHWENTKE.

This film by Stefano VANZINA /STENO (PLATTFOOT with Bud SPENCER) impresses with colorful images (on camera: Mario BAVA!!!) and excellent actors. Alberto SORDI (GOLDEN GLOBE for IL DIAVOLO / AMORE IN STOCKHOLM) can be seen as Emperor Nero. Vittorio De SICA (ACADEMY AWARD nomination for A FAREWELL TO ARMS) portrays the poet Seneca. As a big Hollywood surprise, Gloria SWANSON (ACADEMY AWARD nomination for SUNSET BOULEVARD, among others) plays the emperor mother Agrippina. This cast is truly a show! But the main eye-catcher is of course the very young BAMBI AWARD winner Brigitte BARDOT, who as Poppäa gets to bathe beautifully in donkey milk. Mon Dieu! The BB!

The actors are probably also the ones who made it possible for the global streaming service NETFLIX to bring this Italian classic out of obscurity. It doesn't hurt to look!

As was the case with TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA (1953), this Alberto Sordi vehicle lampoons the then-affluent peplum genre; helmed by another comedy specialist, it's a superior effort – with the star's particular brand of fooling (a mix of pompousness and naïveté) somewhat better suited this time around to the requirements of his role, that of notorious music-loving and mad Roman Emperor Nero.

Besides, the film has an eclectic – and rather surprising – mix of talents, on both sides of the camera: in fact, it co-stars Vittorio De Sica (a great director but also a wonderful actor) as Seneca, Gloria Swanson (her renowned comeback in SUNSET BOULEVARD [1950], alas, didn't lead to much) as Agrippina – Nero's fearsome and domineering mother, Brigitte Bardot (on the verge of becoming an international sex symbol) as a rather ordinary-looking Poppea, and even future Hammer leading lady Barbara Shelley – though not in a prominent role, presumably, as one of the innumerable maidens at Nero's palace; and, then, there's horrormeisters Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci – here in the capacity of cinematographer and assistant director respectively!

The film manages to be quite engaging and stylish (no wonder, given Bava's involvement)…even if it was rather a chore to watch, since the Italian TV channel which showed it has been suffering from a horrendous reception for some time! The simple plot involves Agrippina's unannounced arrival at Nero's resting quarters to verify rumors of his liaison with Poppea; Seneca, Nero's adviser, is assigned by the Emperor the task of stalling her at every turn…even if he has to marry her to do so! Of course, Nero is eager to flaunt his alleged musical genius and the bevy of associates and conspirators enclosed within the palace boldly hisses or meekly applauds his would-be compositions; at the end, distressed by rejection (especially by those closest to him) leads him to set the empire's capital on fire...

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.

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)