What if marrying off your tyrant boss was the only way to freedom? Chaos ensues.
Faustus, advisor to Emperor Maximus, is at the end of his rope. He's promised freedom if he succeeds in marrying his boss off to Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. On the papyrus, it's a simple plan, but when the equation combines famine, uprisings, Christians, strikers, putschists and two temperamental people to marry off... it's no simple plan.
Writing
Ridiculous historical anachronisms played completely straight
Acting
Éric Elmosnino's exhausted everyman energy carries the chaos
Costume
Gaudy peplum aesthetics meeting modern bureaucratic drab
Director
Maurice Barthélemy
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The title references 'peplum,' the 1950s-60s Italian sword-and-sandal genre that this film gleefully satirizes. Maurice Barthélemy is a veteran French comedy writer from 'Les Nuls.'
Jonathan Lambert's Maximus is clearly modeled on petulant tech-bro dictators, making this ancient Rome satire weirdly prescient for 2019.
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