Subject
“Rappresaglia” (Reprisal), 1973, was directed by George Pan Cosmatos, born in Florence to a Greek family. The film, starring Richard Burton (Lieutenant Colonel Kappler) and Marcello Mastroianni (Father Antonelli), followed several years after publication of “Death in Rome” by Robert Katz. Like the book, the film deals with the events of a partisan attack occurring in Via Rasella and the subsequent Nazi reprisal, known as the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine, on 24 March 1944, which saw the death of 335 Italian civilians and military personnel, political prisoners, Jews and common prisoners.
A column of German lorries, loaded with persons destined for death, passes along the Appia Antica. Particularly recognisable are the large brick funerary monuments of the 5th mile; also Porta San Sebastiano, or Porta Appia, one of the main gates of the Aurelian Wall, reduced to a single archway during the renovations of 401-402 AD at the behest of Emperor Honorius. Also seen is the so-called Arch of Drusus, reported in ancient sources as erected in 9 BC in honour of Drusus the Elder, i.e. Germanicus, son of Livia and adopted son of Emperor Augustus, but known to have been used in 211-216 AD in support of the Acqua Antoniniana (a branch of the Acqua Marcia), which fed the Baths of Caracalla. In the early 5th century this same arch was re-devised as the counter-gate to the secure courtyard behind Porta Appia. As we view the passage of the trucks we can also glimpse numerous marble fragments: remains of funerary monuments, many of them placed on the side of the road by Luigi Canina, who between 1850 and 1853, excavated and restored a long stretch of the road, creating a true open-air museum. In particular, the camera briefly frames an epigraph commemorating Lucius Aurelius Diophanthus, freedman of a certain Glabra, and his noble wife Titinia (LARELLIO GABRAI.L / DIOPHANTO / TITINIAI NOBILI / UXSORI).
Director
George Pan Cosmatos
Year
1973
