Browse: Home / Hic Incipit Pestis

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Disney Byways: THE DEVIL AND MAX DEVLIN
  • Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of February 1981
  • The Friday Article Roundup: Your Friendly Neighborhood FAR
  • Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of January 1981
  • Taco Break: Your Lucky Stars

Hic Incipit Pestis

Posted By Gillianren on April 29, 2020 in Short Articles | Leave a response

It’s odd, really, that there are so few movies set during historical epidemics. Oh, you get fictional plague up the wazoo; I’m sure half the internet has a preference right now. But the only movie I can think of off the top of my head that has an actual scene set during an outbreak of bubonic plague is Dangerous Beauty. You don’t expect The New World to mention how many natives were dying of smallpox and things, I suppose, but you could do some really interesting stuff with movies set during the time of various historical epidemics. And they wouldn’t even have to be about whatever-it-is, come to that.

One of my favourite genres is “story that happens during important historical event.” As in, it’s not the event that matters, exactly, despite the event’s giving the story its vague shape. Most of the plot of Dangerous Beauty has nothing to do with plague, and it’s only at the climax, where the main character is on trial for witchcraft because surely that will fix the deaths in Venice (and it’s not at all because she wouldn’t sleep with Oliver Platt!), that the plague really comes up. And, okay, that’s mostly because they’re at least vaguely drawing on the historical record, and of course most of Veronica Franco’s life was not during an outbreak of plague. But still.

It’s well established, of course, that a lot of Shakespeare draws its shape from the recurring outbreaks of bubonic plague that struck England, and you could do an interesting adaptation of several of the plays that confronts that fact. Or a biopic of Shakespeare in the country when the theatres are closed, of course. Or something set at Elizabeth’s court during her bout with smallpox, when it was uncertain if she’d live or die and who would take the throne if she died. For some reason, my brain is fond of the idea of a murder mystery set during Justinian’s plague. Can the detective catch the murderer before catching plague?

It’s not unrelated, I suspect, to the Cough of Death, because no one in Hollywood can be sick without dying. But of course here you’d have a lot of people dying, because that’s kind of the plot. But we simply don’t talk much about illness in movies. It’s one of the parts of the human condition that we show the least of. Possibly that will change; I can imagine a great comedy about the foibles of the current lockdown, for one. But ideally, that would be a comedy with no one actually sick. Though I’m picturing now a story about a household of four roommates or something, one of whom simply has allergies.

Even Shakespeare didn’t write a pure plague story, though I suppose he wouldn’t have had much audience for it. Bubonic plague was more immediate for him; the deaths there were what the deaths now would be if we didn’t have things like self-isolation and proper handwashing techniques. And they didn’t have germ theory, which I suppose means we’re at least somewhat better equipped to laugh at the idea of disease. No one seems likely to burn anyone as a witch for causing this outbreak, at least I hope.

If you pay me enough on Patreon or Ko-fi, I’d be willing to write you at least a short story set in the time of outbreak of your choice, or do the research for you so that you can!

Posted in Short Articles | Tagged epidemic, period piece, plague

About the Author

gillianmadeira@hotmail.com'

Gillianren

Gillianren is a forty-something bipolar woman living in the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Los Angeles County. She and her boyfriend have one son and one daughter, and she gave a daughter up for adoption. She fills her days by watching her local library system’s DVD collection in alphabetical order, watching everything that looks interesting. She particularly enjoys pre-Code films, blaxploitation, and live-action Disney movies of the ’60s and ’70s. She has a Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/gillianren

Related Posts

One of Kurosawa's best-filmed scenesKurosawa the Modern Master→

Yup, eating fruit with chopsticks--perfectly normalA Snapshot of an Era→

Art in Time of Plague→

Past Is Prestige→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    34601 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    27685 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Gordon with Mr. Looper

    Attention Must Be Paid: Will Lee

    26502 views / Posted January 7, 2023
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    25665 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    20355 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • You know, for kids?

    Disney Byways: THE DEVIL AND MAX DEVLIN

    June 9, 2023 / Gillianren
  • Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of February 1981

    June 9, 2023 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • I'll save you thiiiiiis much.

    The Friday Article Roundup: Your Friendly Neighborhood FAR

    June 9, 2023 / The Ploughman
  • Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of January 1981

    June 8, 2023 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • Don't know why the caption "The First Movie Review" is not included in this still.

    Taco Break: Your Lucky Stars

    June 8, 2023 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

    ©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

    Menu

    • Home
    • Who We Are
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!