The Last Legion

The Last Legion ( The Last Legion ) is a film British , Italian , French and Tunisian directed by Doug Lefler , released in 2007 1 .

The story is based on Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s historical novel, The Last Legion, inspired by the life of the last Roman emperor Romulus Augustule and Arthurian legends .

Synopsis

The film takes place in 476 AD, at the dawn of the fall of the Western Roman Empire , threatened by the arrival of the Goths from the East. In an empire in the middle of the war, Oreste , the last master of Rome, had his son, Romulus Augustus , crowned . The latter, aged ten years, is under the protection of Commander Aurelius , but he and his men can do nothing against the attack of Odoacer , leader of the Goths. Rome is defeated and the young emperor is captured.

Left alive by Odoacer, Romulus is shut up in the island-fortress of Capri , under the supervision of Wulfila . He is accompanied by his preceptor, the mysterious Ambrosinus, at once a philosopher and a magician. In the temple of the island, Romulus finds the legendary sword of Caesar: it is accompanied by the message One side to defend, the other to conquer, in Brittany I was forged to serve the one who is destined to govern . Taking possession of the sword, he is delivered by Aurelius and three of his men, as well as by Mira, an Indian warrior from Kerala , mistress in the art of Kalarippayattu , bodyguard of the ambassador of Constantinople Theodorus Andronikos.

Betrayed by the Roman Senate, which sided with Odoacre, and by the Roman Empire of the East, which refused him asylum, Romulus then chose to go north to the Kingdom of the Isle of Brittany ( the present Great Britain ) where the sword of Caesar was forged. Sword engraved with CAI • IVL • CAES • ENSIS CALIBVRNVS translated by Manfredi for “Steel sword I was forged for Caius Julius Caesar IV ” and whose letters erased by time and corrosion later gave birth to the myth of ‘ Excalibur .

With Aurelius, Mira and Ambrosinus, he goes in search of the ninth legion, the last faithful army in Rome. But like the rest of the Empire, Britain is a region devastated by war: a tyrant named Vortgyn , also in search of the legendary sword, threatens to give up the last defense of the Roman Empire.

The character Ambrosinus refers to Merlin of Arthurian legends, while Aurelius refers to the Breton warlord Ambrosius Aurelianus .

Technical sheet

Unless otherwise stated, this data sheet is based on IMDb 1 .

  • French title: La Dernière Légion
  • Original title: The Last Legion
  • Director: Doug Lefler
  • Scenario: Jez Butterworth , Tom Butterworth
  • Sets: Carmelo Agate
  • Costumes: Paolo Scalabrino
  • Photography: Marco Pontecorvo
  • Sound: Andy Kennedy
  • Music: Patrick Doyle
  • Editing: Simon Cozens
  • Produced by: Tarak Ben Ammar , James Clayton , Chris Curling , Dino De Laurentiis , Martha De Laurentiis , Raffaella De Laurentiis , Lorenzo De Maio , Salvatore Morello , Duncan Reid , Harvey Weinstein , Phil Robertson
  • Production Companies 2 : Dino De Laurentiis Company , Ingenious Media , Quinta Communications , Zephyr Films Ltd.
  • Distribution Companies: The Weinstein Company (United States) , Quinta Communications (France) , Momentum Pictures (United Kingdom)
  • Special Effects Companies: Duboicolor, Duran Duboi
  • Production budget: $ 67,000,000
  • Country of origin: France , Italy , United Kingdom , Slovakia , Tunisia 3
  • Language: English
  • Format 4 : Colors – 2.35: 1 – DTS / Dolby Digital – 35 mm
  • Genre: Action , Adventure , Fantasy , War
  • Duration: 102 minutes
  • Release dates in theaters 5 :
    •  United States :
    •  France :
    •  Italy :
    •  United Kingdom :

Distribution

  • Thomas Brodie-Sangster (VF: Anton Sobana ) : Romulus Augustus 6
  • Colin Firth (VF: Edgar Givry ) : Aurelius 7
  • Ben Kingsley (VF: Gérard Rinaldi ) : Ambrosinus 8
  • Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (VF: Françoise Cadol ) : Mira 9
  • Peter Mullan (VF: Marc Alfos ) : Odoacre 10
  • Kevin McKidd : Wulfila
  • John Hannah : Nestor
  • Iain Glen : Oreste
  • Rupert Friend : Demetrius
  • Nonso Anozie (VF: Jean-Michel Martial ) : Batiatus
  • Owen Teale : Vatrenus
  • Alexander Siddig : Theodorus Andronikos
  • Robert Pugh : Kustennin
  • James Cosmo : Hrothgar
  • Harry Van Gorkum (VF: Patrick Floersheim ) : Vortgyn

Around the film

  • Filming took place from 5 August to 11 November 2005 in Slovakia (notably at Spiš Castle ) and in Tunisia .

Annexes

Notes and references

  1. ↑ a and b (in) “The Last Legion”  [ archive ] , on imdb.fr
  2. ↑ (en) Company Credits ”  [ archive ] , on imdb.fr
  3. ↑ ” The Last Legion ”  [ archive ] , on unifrance.org
  4. ↑ (en) Technical ”  [ archive ] , on imdb.fr
  5. ↑ (in) Release dates ”  [ archive ] , on imdb.fr
  6. ↑ ” Thomas Sangster ”  [ archive ] , on allocine.fr
  7. ↑ ” Colin Firth ”  [ archive ] , on allocine.fr
  8. ↑ ” Ben Kingsley ”  [ archive ] , on allocine.fr
  9. ↑ ” Aishwarya Rai ”  [ archive ] , on allocine.fr
  10. ↑ ” Peter Mullan ”  [ archive ] , on allocine.fr

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