Thursday 1 February 2024

Seneca (5 Stars)



I fear that "Seneca" won't be made available on disc, at least not in English. The subject matter is too obscure. It's about the last day in the life of the Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca. I can already hear my readers shouting "Who's that?" Don't feel ashamed. When I went to see the film in the cinema last year I also had no idea who he was. I could have googled before I went, but I wanted to be surprised by what I saw. And surprised I was. The scene where he makes repeated attempts to commit suicide by cutting his wrists seemed unrealistic, but I read about him afterwards and found it was true.

Seneca was the greatest philosopher of his time, the second half of the first century AD. He was arguably a hypocrite. He spoke about the virtues of a simple life, but he was also one of the richest men in Rome. In his defence he said, "I own my wealth, but my wealth doesn't own me". He was the personal tutor of the Emperor Nero, but he was foolish enough to speak his mind on too many occasions. He fell out of favour, and Nero ordered him to commit suicide.

The writings of Seneca remained popular for more than a thousand years. As recently as the 13th century the Catholic Church praised him and speculated that he might have been a Christian convert. That's highly unlikely, but I'm curious what was so special about his writings. Before beginning this post I ordered his complete works for my Kindle. The whole of his thoughts are now mine for less than two dollars. That's a small price for a lifetime's work.


I'm the first to admit that "Seneca" isn't a film for everyone, but everyone has to agree that John Malkovich puts on an excellent performance. The director/screenwriter says that he wrote the film with John Malkovich in mind, and if he'd turned down the role he wouldn't have made the film.

The film has been released on Blu-ray in Germany, but only in German. The original English dialogue is missing from the disc. That's weird. It hasn't been released in Britain or America. Luckily the original version is available on Amazon Prime.

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