Country: Italy, France
Year: 1962
Duration: 115'


Cadmus, king and tyrant of Thebes, is informed by the oracle that his daughter Antiope will be the cause of his misfortune. He decides, together with his cruel wife, to keep her prisoner on the Island of the Gorgones in order to to execute her. Still not satisfied, he rises up against Jupiter and calls himself God. The gods grow angry, they release the titan Crius and they send him on Earth to defeat Cadmus. Crius, helped by the black fighter Rator and the dumb Achilles, saves Antiope and, thanks to Pluto’s invisible helmet, undermines the attempts of Cadmus’ men to follow him. In the meantime Crius’ titan brothers are stirring up the uprising of the people of Crete against their tyrant. The population rises up and Cadmus gets killed. Crius marries Antiope and they will rule the city together.
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

Biography

film director

Duccio Tessari

FILMOGRAFIA

1962: Arrivano i Titani. 1963: Il fornaretto di Venezia. 1965: La sfinge sorride prima di morire stop Londra; Una voglia da morire; Una pistola per Ringo; Il ritorno di Ringo. 1966: Kiss kiss... bang bang. 1967: Per amore... per magia. 1968: Meglio vedova; I bastardi. 1969: Vivi o preferibilmente morti. 1970: Quella piccola differenza; La morte risale a ieri sera oppure I milanesi ammazzano il sabato. 1971: Una farfalla con le ali insanguinate; Viva la muerte... tua! 1972: Forza "G" . 1973: Gli eroi; Tony Arzenta oppure Big Guns. 1974: L'uomo senza memoria; Uomini duri. 1975: Zorro. 1976: La madama; Safari Express. 1978. L'alba dei falsi dei oppure Il quinto comandamento.

Declaration

film director

In my opinion the Hercules and the Maciste have always been shown in all their omnipotence, because they were presented by directors who have lived this myth of Manichaenism since their childhood and early teenage years. So, even if unwittingly, because they were born and raised during the Fascist period and the war, they heard about the Duce and so the superman was still the superman, good guys and bad guys were always good guys and bad guys.
When I suggested that the superman was not a real superman, and in addition to the bad guys there was a series of half good and half bad people, it was clear that I was telling something new, but it was only a generational thing. (...)
Ercole alla conquista di Atlantide had a chubby Hercules, in a sort of science-fiction contest, with an atomic bomb destroying Atlantis, radioactivity, the Nazis and everything else. With Arrivano i titani I pushed myself even further, also thanks to Cristaldi’s help, and I made an epic-satirical film. I used music a lot: for example, when the black man is running away and he knocks down a little bridge on a stream, there was a comment like The bridge on the river Kwai, and so on. There was a comedy tone and very funny dialogues. At the end, the Titans look at each other, then look at the audience and say: “È stata veramente un’impresa titanica!” (“It really was a titanic challenge!”). This film, which was much appreciated in France, marked more or less the end of the genre, which at this point had debunked itself.

Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

Cast

& Credits

Director: Duccio Tessari.
Aiuto regia: Nino Zanchin, Edoardo Flory, Ariane Mnouchkine, Fabio Rinaudo.
Soggetto e sceneggiatura: Ennio De Concini, Duccio Tessari.
Fotografia (technicolor, cinemascope): Alfio Contini.
Operatore alla macchina: Maurizio Scanzani.
Art director: Ottavio Scotti.
Costume designer: Vittorio Rossi.
Special effects: Joseph Natanson.
Editor: Renzo Lucidi.
Music: Carlo Rustichelli.
Fonico: Adriano Taloni.
Maestro d'armi: Giorgio Ubaldi.
Cast and characters: Antonella Lualdi (Ermione), Pedro Armendariz (Cadmo), Jacqueline Sassard (Antiope), Giuliano Gemma (Krios), Gérard Séty, Serge Nubret, Tania Lopert, Ingrid Shoeller, Franco Lantieri, Monica Berger, Luisa Rispoli, Isarco Ravaioli, Iliana Grimandi, Erica Spaggiari.
Production company: Franco Cristaldi per la Vides-Les Films Ariane.
Italian distribution: Incei Film.
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