''The Pagans'' (original title: ''Il Sacco di Roma'', USA re-issue title: ''The Barbarians'') is a 1953 Italian film directed by
Ferruccio Cerio
Ferruccio Cerio (25 September 1904 – 23 April 1963) was an Italian film writer and director.
Filmography as a director
*''Il cavaliere senza nome'' (1941)
*''Villa da vendere'' (1941)
*''L'ultimo addio'' (1942) ( ''The Last Good-Bye'')
*'' The ...
. Based on the 1527 historical event, this film tells the story of
the taking of Rome by the Spanish armies of
Charles V Charles V may refer to:
* Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558)
* Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain
* Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise
* Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690)
* Infan ...
.
Plot
In 1527 Rome was torn apart by the war between the Orsini fraction and that of the Colonna. Meanwhile, Spanish troops and lansquenets march to conquer the city.
Angela Orsini and Massimo Colonna, the two representatives of the noble families, love and marry in secret, but during the ceremony Angela's father bursts in and challenges Massimo to a duel. The latter juggles to avoid the clash, but a dagger thrown by a hitman of Tancredi Serra who demands the hand of Angela, kills the old Orsini. Massimo is forced to flee Rome, but returns there after the city is besieged, and before going to fight he makes a peace agreement with the Orsini to prove his innocence and love for Angela.
The city is taken and the last to resist take refuge in Castel Sant'Angelo. The leader of the resistance, Massimo, then manages to break the circle of the besiegers thanks to the help of a certain Fanfulla from Lodi, freeing the defenders.
Meanwhile, Angela learns from the assassin, now dying, the true version of the killing of her father: now nothing can prevent the marriage between her and Massimo.
Cast
*
Pierre Cressoy
Pierre Cressoy (born Pierre Jules Lazare Cresson; March 25, 1924 – October 31, 1980) was a French film actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional m ...
as Massimo Colonna
*
Hélène Rémy as Angela Orsini
*
Vittorio Sanipoli
Vittorio Sanipoli (1915–1992) was an Italian stage, film and television actor. He appeared in around a hundred films and television series between 1942 and 1980.
Life and career
Born Luciano Sanipoli in Genoa, he made his acting debut in 1939 ...
as Tancredi Serra
*
Luigi Tosi
Luigi Tosi ( Verona 15 July 1915 – Roma 12 March 1989) was an Italian actor. He appeared in more than seventy films from 1944 to 1965.
Filmography
References
External links
*
1915 births
1989 deaths
Italian male film actors
...
as
Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiography ...
*
Annamaria Bugliari as Giulia
*
Alfredo Varelli
Alfredo Varelli (born Alfredo Ciavarella, 31 August 1914, date of death unknown) was an Italian film actor whose career spanned more than six decades. Varelli was born ''Alfredo Ciavarella'' and debuted in Alessandro Blasetti's 1934 film ''Vecch ...
as
Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the ...
*
Franco Fabrizi
Franco Fabrizi (; 15 February 1916 – 18 October 1995) was an Italian actor.
Life and career
Son of a barber and a cinema cashier, Franco Fabrizi started his career as a model and an actor in fotoromanzi. Fabrizi also starred on several rev ...
:
Fanfulla da Lodi
External links
*
''The Pegans''at
Variety Distribution
Variety Distribution is an Italian-based film distribution company.
It distributes Italian films worldwide, produced from the 1930s onward.
History
Variety Distribution (formerly Variety Film and Variety Communications) has been in the film ...
Italian historical films
1953 films
1950s historical films
Films set in Rome
Italian films based on actual events
Films set in the 1520s
Cultural depictions of Benvenuto Cellini
Cultural depictions of Pope Clement VII
Italian black-and-white films
1950s Italian films
{{1950s-Italy-film-stub