Art on Screen: Pompeii - Sin City

The Story

Pompeii is a unique, enchanting place in the world, drawing over 4 million visitors a year from all over the globe. It was a city enlivened by violent passions and endowed with a flair that was in a class of its own. The power games, sexual appetites, unrestrained ambition and creative genius could be felt in the streets, breathed in the temples and admired in the frescoes that survived the tragic eruption of 79 AD.

Pompeii - Sin City is a journey back in time, to two thousand years ago, laying bare the myths and characters that helped make this site extraordinary, and rendered it timeless. From the love story between Dionysus and Ariadne, the ambiguous relationship between Leda and the Swan, the bloodlust satisfied by the gladiator fights, to Poppea Sabina's desperate search for immortality, this documentary - film stages and analyzes the secret, rather insalubrious side of the city. In the 18th century, it was this side that forced the Catholic Church to hide some of the most scandalous, obscene finds, frescoes and statues that were considered sinful before the notion of sin was even invented.

Leading us through its cobbled streets there will be an extraordinary narrator: Isabella Rossellini directed by Pappi Corsicato with visionary talent. Her presence and voice will accompany us on a journey, showing how the myths and works uncovered there have enchanted and influenced artists of the calibre of Pablo Picasso, Giorgio De Chirico and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A delicate balancing act on the thin invisible tightrope that separates legend from reality, cross ing the centuries to inspire the contemporary world.

Rating

E