Rosalba Neri being helped by handmaidens in THE THREE AVENGERS (1964)
Did the 'very important people' back in Antiquity actually liked being manhandled by handmaidens/servants/slaves? For me, it always seemed intrusive and tedious. In this scene, Rosalba rejects their help. These scenes are always in PEPLUM movies. I should do a compilation. Fun film, with a great cast, even if it's a bit too boisterous.
Elite Roman ladies certainly liked having plenty of body slaves. Roman writers make this quite clear. Such slaves featured in numerous Roman and Greek comedies and dramas. In the comedies sometimes the female slave is smarter than her mistress.
ReplyDeleteA seriously wealthy household in Ancient Rome could have sixty or more house slaves. If the family also owned large estates their number of field slaves slaves could amount to several hundred.
Recommend you do a compilation of female slaves ("handmaidens") in Peplum films.
As I have suggested previously I would also appreciate a compilation of female slave market scenes in Peplum and Arabian Nights movies.
In the 1951 Quo Vadis, Nero (Peter Ustinov) shares your frustration with fussing slaves and lashes out at one poor slave girl.
ReplyDeleteHaving a "staff" that every day invaded your personal space seems to be something the wealthy enjoyed and took for granted. Look at the recent "Downton Abbey", chronicling the daily life of the family of an earl at the beginning of the 1900's. These people aren't able to put on their own clothes themselves.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite body servant scene is 22:30 into L'ULTIMO GLADIATORE, or MESSALINA AGAINST THE SON OF HERC, in which Lisa Gastoni as Messalina is surrounded by beautiful females fussing over her hair and nails. She rudely snatches her hand from one gal and knocks the mirror out of Marilu Tolo's hand, at which point she demands a whip and jealously starts flogging Marilu!
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