Matt Page (he/him)
@mattpagefilm
Author/speaker on film. Wrote the BFI book "100 Bible Films". Also has soft spots for Italian cinema, silent movies, Pasolini, Rossellini, Straub/Huillet & HItchcock. Love a good podcast. NFP data geek by day.
On this weekend back in 1960 Henry Koster's THE STORY OF RUTH first opened in the United Kingdom.
DAVID (2025) got to #2 in the US box office and opens here next month. Here 's my thoughts on it: biblefilms.blogspot.com/2026/07/davi...
*I've spent ages writing this, so if you want to read about a new film about David then please check it out, or just like it and pretend that you did. biblefilms.blogspot.com/2026/07/davi... (*Despite appearances to the contrary)
Here are some more screengrabs from the silent #ItalianFilm MACISTE ALPINO (1915) to brighten your Saturday morning.
Also I love this photo from @wshed.bsky.social from when this Italian #SilentFilm played as part of @swsilents.bsky.social' CinemaRedis 5 years ago.
MACISTE ALPINO (The Warrior, Luigi Romano Borgnetto/Luigi Maggi, 1915). A pivotal outing for the Italian strongman as he fights for Italy's elite Alpini fighting force & appears to have lots of fun in the process. The reality was very different, but it nevertheless tied Maciste to the national myth
New blog post on HOUSE OF DAVID's purity culture love triangle and why it's rather drab. biblefilms.blogspot.com/2026/07/hous...
Nice to see the great Giancarlo Giannini in Amazon's new adaptation of CATCH 22. I must admit I wasn’t even entirely sure he was still alive.
Nicholas Ray's A WOMAN'S SECRET (1949) is on BBC iPlayer at the moment. It's not the best rated of his films and I'm unsure if it's a noir, a woman's picture, something in between or something else entirely. Still with Maureen O'Hara and Gloria Grahame it's got to be worth a look, right?
Happy 100th Birthday to Mel Brooks and his brief take on the biblical epic.
I still love the feeling of a new book arriving to which you’ve contributed a chapter. It feels particularly apt that this one, “Ecoadaptation” arrived in the middle of an extreme heat wave. My chapter is on the great flood. 40 days of rain might feel rather welcome right now.
Japanese promo guide to THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST from 1988
Left this unopened can of Pepsi in my car and came back to it looking like this. I know this is just the ideal gas equation, but I’m still kind of shocked that even on a v.hot day enough pressure can build up to rip the lid clean off the can
BY THE SWORD DIVIDED (1983f). Excellent English Civil War drama by the BBC
Came across this oldish photo and, lacking anything more interesting to say, thought I'd repost it
Just started watching ALL OF US STRANGERS & had no idea (part of?) it is set in Sanderstead where I lived between the ages of 5 & 10. Geared up for nostalgia now.
Having written about Gabriellino D'Annunzio's 1924 film QUO VADIS? last week, I'm intrigued to discover there was a biopic about his father Gabriele in 2020 called IL CATTIVEO POETA (The Bad Poet). It's available on RAI player (though I don't have a VPN)
QUO VADIS? (D'Annunzio/Jacoby, 1924) covers several of my special interests. It's a #SilentFilm, a #BibleFilm and an #ItalianFilm. So I blogged about it , particularly from the perspective of the Fascist rise to power 2 years earlier. biblefilms.blogspot.com/2026/05/quo-...
QUO VADIS? (D'Annunzio/Jacoby, 1924) covers several of my special interests. It's a #JesusFilm, and #ItalianFilm and a #SilentFilm all rolled into one. So it's about time I wrote about it & how to read it in the light of the Fascist rise to power 2 years prior biblefilms.blogspot.com/2026/05/quo-...
I thought it would be funny to compare an AI generated image based on that description with an actual shot from it and, as you can see, they are eerily similar.
Francesca Braggiotti as Queen Sophonisba in the 1937 fascist epic SCIPIONE L'AFRICANO (Carmine Gallone, 1937).
A chapter I wrote looking at adaptations of the Flood Story from an ecocritical perspective was published yesterday as part of this fascinating-looking collection edited by Pamela Demory, "Ecoadaptation: Mediating Nature and the Environment". link.springer.com/book/10.1007...
Just invented a new drink #BlackShandy - Guinness and Coke (or in this case non-alcoholic Guinness and Diet Coke)
Heads up Italian Peplum / Horror fans: Mario Bava's classic crossover ERCOLE AL CENTRO DELLA TERRA (HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD, 1961) is currently screening on @itvx.com for free/with ads. It’s a good quality print as well. Christopher Lee stars, with Reg Park as Hercules.
Here's the moment when the live action is mixed with animation/animatronics with a fire-breathing dragon who is probably related to the dinosaurs from THE LOST WORLD [also 1925]
