Category:Salome--cinema (subject)

Salome (Home Page)

Cinema (Home Page)

1918

1919

1922

1925 (Dwan)

1950 (Wilder)

Works of cinema on Salome

Overview

Salome is a marginal character in ancient sources (to the extent of being unnamed in the Gospel narratives). In fiction, however, she took a life of her own, gradually becoming the protagonist of the events related to the Death of John the Baptist. When the new art of cinematography started, the "Salomania" was at its peak after the 1893 play by Oscar Wilde and the 1905 opera by Richard Strauss. Salome entered the movies not as a marginal presence but as the protagonist of a long series of films that offered the most famous actresses a vehicle to show their charm and power of seduction.

Sound cinema has had less to offer. The most ambitious attempt at building an original series of events around Salome was made in 1953 with the epic Salome with Rita Hayworth. Most of the Salome movies are video-recordings of the Wilde or Strauss work.

Salome is conspicuously absent in the major Jesus movies with a few exceptions, notably, King of Kings (1961), Il vangelo secondo Matteo (1964). Salome must not be confused with Mary Salome, one of the Three Marys, a character often billed simply as "Salome" in many Jesus movies.

Salome