Seneca (4 Stars)

Today I went to see the German premiere of "Seneca", sometimes called the longer title "Seneca, on the Creation of Earthquakes". In attendance were the director Robert Schwentke, the producers and some of the special effects team.

The film is about the last days of the Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca, played by John Malkovich. He'd previously been the mentor of the Emperor Nero, giving him spiritual guidance and writing his speeches. As the film states, Nero was the first Roman emperor who didn't write his own speeches. It's well known that he was lacking any morality present in his predecessors, but he was obviously less intelligent as well. The film portrays Nero, 28 years old at the time, as an uncouth lout. He had all his family executed, finally his mother, and after killing her he had to kill others to satisfy his paranoia.

Seneca was a complicated person. He recommended that Nero should be a generous, merciful leader, but Nero thought this was weakness and refused to listen to the advice. On the other hand, Seneca did things that would shock people today. He wrote plays in which actors were killed; not just acting, they were really murdered in the plays. When the audience complained about the brutality he said, "If this were all that happened, it wouldn't be too bad. But while you're watching my play, Emperor Nero is killing hundreds of people". That's a strange way to teach his audience morality.

At some point Nero turned against Seneca, and ordered him to kill himself. Seneca had always said that death shouldn't be feared, so he prepared to kill himself surrounded by his closest friends. But one by one they turned against him, refusing to stand by him, in case they too were sentenced to death.

I was happy to see that the cinema was almost sold out. The only free seats were in the first two rows. I had to sit in the fifth row, further forward than I would usually sit. Maybe that was a good seat, because people at the back of the room complained that the microphone wasn't loud enough.

I'd prepared some questions, but they were answered in Robert Schwentke's opening speech. He picked John Malkovich for the role when he wrote the film, and he says that without him he probably wouldn't have made the film. John Malkovich is an imposing classical actor, perfect for a role like this. He's worked with Robert Schwentke in a previous film, "Red", but that was an untypical role for him. Luckily they've stayed in touch ever since.

 

Robert says that he's discussed converting the film into a play and going on the road with John Malkovich. That would work. The film has minimalist settings, and the second half of the film takes place in a single house.

The premiere was shown with the film dubbed into German. I intend to see it again next week in English.