Documentary / History
On the 24th August 79 AD, the eruption of Vesuvius eradicated the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. This extraordinary film uses visual effects and archaeological findings to chronicle the last 24 hours of Pompeii. Remains of 300 citizens trapped in beach-side crypts allow…

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Pompeii 79AD, mere days before the Vesuvian eruption. Glaucus and Jone are in love with each other. Arbaces, the Egyptian High Priest, is determined to conquer Jone. Glaucus purchases Nydia, the blind and long-suffering slave. Nydia falls in love with Glaucus and asks Arbaces for his help. He gives her a potion to make Glaucus fall in love with her-- In fact, a poison which will cause violent insanity.

Maurice and Katia Krafft are a couple of scientists, filmmakers, researchers and photographers who have made vulcanology the reason for their existence. Together, they completed more than 800 hours of filming 128 volcanic eruptions and developed more than 450,000 films of great aesthetic and scientific value. A journey in stages around the world, the film pays tribute to the two protagonists, from the first ascent accomplished by Maurice, then aged 7, at Stromboli, to their tragic disappearance in 1991 on Mount Unzen in Japan.

Carmine Gallone and Amleto Palermi’s The Last Days of Pompeii 1926 stages in sumptuous colour tinting the epic fall of the ancient city buried by Mount Vesuvius’ eruption. Adapted from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s love story, the film was innovative in its special effects and an early major box-office hit. A beautiful tinted restoration print was prepared using photochemical processes by Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale in the mid-1990s and the premiere screening of the restoration print was held in the amphitheatre in Pompeii, followed by a screening at the major restoration festival ‘Il Cinema Ritrovato’ in Bologna in 1998.

For over two centuries, archaeologists have hailed Pompeii as a sophisticated city at the heart of an advanced ancient civilization. But a series of new excavations is painting a much more complex picture of the city tragically buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. New archaeological finds (including 2,000-year-old lines of graffiti, human remains, and artifacts from ancient homes and businesses) are revealing a city of both staggering wealth and extreme poverty, dependent on slavery, and riven by political conflicts, violence, and riots.