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I, Claudius (1976)
I first watched 1976's 'I, Claudius' when I was quite young, with my brother and parents. Despite the sex and violence, this was high culture, it was history, it was educational, so it was okay. I've re-watched the whole 10-hours many times in the years since then, but it's recently been added to BBC iPlayer, so I gave it another go. It's a definite contender for the greatest mini-series (as we'd call it today) ever, although the extremely old-fashioned studio-bound production style and iffy makeup FX could put off modern viewers. However, every other creative element is so strong, that in every other respect, this still holds up. The all-star cast is insane (Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Brian Blessed, Sian Phillips and Patrick Stewart, to name a few). The tumultuous life and times of the Caesars from Augustus to Claudius, across the latter's 63-year life, is ancient history with just the juicy bits, the legends, the madness, the scandals. It's a grand soap opera and a Mafia chronicle. Sian Phillips is the definition of a villain we love to watch, with her dark little jokes, made especially and only, for us the audience, her co-conspirators. John Hurt's flamboyant portrayal of Caligula is as funny as it is scary. Above all what makes this still work is Herbert Wise's direction. To create a fast moving pace, with intricately choreographed camera moves, with those huge old cumbersome studio TV cameras, so it feels like we're watching Steadicam work is amazing. I'd forgotten how inventive and technically impressive the 4th wall break flashback sequence was in the final episode. 'I, Claudius' is the OG 'Game of Thrones'.
This new video analysing the superb direction and character blocking is well worth a watch:
I first watched 1976's 'I, Claudius' when I was quite young, with my brother and parents. Despite the sex and violence, this was high culture, it was history, it was educational, so it was okay. I've re-watched the whole 10-hours many times in the years since then, but it's recently been added to BBC iPlayer, so I gave it another go. It's a definite contender for the greatest mini-series (as we'd call it today) ever, although the extremely old-fashioned studio-bound production style and iffy makeup FX could put off modern viewers. However, every other creative element is so strong, that in every other respect, this still holds up. The all-star cast is insane (Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Brian Blessed, Sian Phillips and Patrick Stewart, to name a few). The tumultuous life and times of the Caesars from Augustus to Claudius, across the latter's 63-year life, is ancient history with just the juicy bits, the legends, the madness, the scandals. It's a grand soap opera and a Mafia chronicle. Sian Phillips is the definition of a villain we love to watch, with her dark little jokes, made especially and only, for us the audience, her co-conspirators. John Hurt's flamboyant portrayal of Caligula is as funny as it is scary. Above all what makes this still work is Herbert Wise's direction. To create a fast moving pace, with intricately choreographed camera moves, with those huge old cumbersome studio TV cameras, so it feels like we're watching Steadicam work is amazing. I'd forgotten how inventive and technically impressive the 4th wall break flashback sequence was in the final episode. 'I, Claudius' is the OG 'Game of Thrones'.
This new video analysing the superb direction and character blocking is well worth a watch: