Thursday, May 29, 2014

Photo of the Day

The march of triumph for Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor) in QUO VADIS (1951)

'Remember you're mortal'

This is called 'Memento Mori': a slave would hold a wreath while saying those words, a reminder to the General that his ego shouldn't get too big because he's mortal or that only the Emperor is truly immortal. In the film the slave actually says "Remember that thou art only a man!" which is a variation of the same thing. I believe the actor who plays the slave was Richard Garrick. Great scene.

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 29, 2014 at 11:21 PM

    I believe that during the coronation of a Pope the new Pope gets a somewhat similar reminder of mortality.

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  2. Richard SvenssonMay 30, 2014 at 8:02 AM

    The same procedure is also seen in "Ben Hur" I believe. In Latin class I learned that there was an even greater purpose for this; to prevent hubris -thinking you're equal with the gods, which seemed to be the greatest trespass you could commit towards any deities.

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  3. AnonymousMay 30, 2014 at 6:28 PM

    Really beautiful photo! It almost makes me think QUO VADIS should have been filmed in grayscale.

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