Abysses du péplum : stratégies d’écriture et faux-fuyants critiques autour d’un genre sidérant

After more than three decades of interruption, the revival of the Hollywood peplum in the 2000s has left French critics in a quandary. Should one take the genre seriously, grant it a sense of irony or consider it frivolous from the outset, despite his cultural baggage? In the wake of Gladiator, the...

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Main Author: Gaspard Delon
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Association Française des Enseignants et Chercheurs en Cinéma et Audiovisuel 2022-03-01
Series:Mise au Point
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/map/5679
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author Gaspard Delon
author_facet Gaspard Delon
author_sort Gaspard Delon
collection DOAJ
description After more than three decades of interruption, the revival of the Hollywood peplum in the 2000s has left French critics in a quandary. Should one take the genre seriously, grant it a sense of irony or consider it frivolous from the outset, despite his cultural baggage? In the wake of Gladiator, the most ambitious biblical-historical vein provokes sarcasm, but also identity-related tensions linked to the preservation of Western culture. After 300, the mythological-fantasy cycle is received more expeditiously as an inherently nanardesque trend, while the evaluation of the films relies increasingly on the genre press. In this sense, the peplum’s reception seems deeply divided. The example of Immortals shows, however, that the ordinary reception of the mythological film on the Internet reiterates and makes explicit certain contradictions specific to the perception of the contemporary peplum: diversity of spectatorial pleasures and criteria of appreciation, an ambivalent relationship to the Greco-Latin heritage and to American control, rhetorical strategies of distinction and avoidance.
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spelling doaj-art-66e312dc8a5f406ca5b70fba084d9fc22024-12-09T15:59:29ZengAssociation Française des Enseignants et Chercheurs en Cinéma et AudiovisuelMise au Point2261-96232022-03-011510.4000/map.5679Abysses du péplum : stratégies d’écriture et faux-fuyants critiques autour d’un genre sidérantGaspard DelonAfter more than three decades of interruption, the revival of the Hollywood peplum in the 2000s has left French critics in a quandary. Should one take the genre seriously, grant it a sense of irony or consider it frivolous from the outset, despite his cultural baggage? In the wake of Gladiator, the most ambitious biblical-historical vein provokes sarcasm, but also identity-related tensions linked to the preservation of Western culture. After 300, the mythological-fantasy cycle is received more expeditiously as an inherently nanardesque trend, while the evaluation of the films relies increasingly on the genre press. In this sense, the peplum’s reception seems deeply divided. The example of Immortals shows, however, that the ordinary reception of the mythological film on the Internet reiterates and makes explicit certain contradictions specific to the perception of the contemporary peplum: diversity of spectatorial pleasures and criteria of appreciation, an ambivalent relationship to the Greco-Latin heritage and to American control, rhetorical strategies of distinction and avoidance.https://journals.openedition.org/map/5679genrefilm criticInternethistorical epicpeplumreception studies
spellingShingle Gaspard Delon
Abysses du péplum : stratégies d’écriture et faux-fuyants critiques autour d’un genre sidérant
Mise au Point
genre
film critic
Internet
historical epic
peplum
reception studies
title Abysses du péplum : stratégies d’écriture et faux-fuyants critiques autour d’un genre sidérant
title_full Abysses du péplum : stratégies d’écriture et faux-fuyants critiques autour d’un genre sidérant
title_fullStr Abysses du péplum : stratégies d’écriture et faux-fuyants critiques autour d’un genre sidérant
title_full_unstemmed Abysses du péplum : stratégies d’écriture et faux-fuyants critiques autour d’un genre sidérant
title_short Abysses du péplum : stratégies d’écriture et faux-fuyants critiques autour d’un genre sidérant
title_sort abysses du peplum strategies d ecriture et faux fuyants critiques autour d un genre siderant
topic genre
film critic
Internet
historical epic
peplum
reception studies
url https://journals.openedition.org/map/5679
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