Louis Feuillade | L’orgie romaine (aka Héliogabale) A Roman Orgy (aka Heliogabalus) / 1911

the last days of heliogabalus

by Douglas Messerli

 

Louis Feuillade (scenarist and director) L’orgie romaine (aka Héliogabale) A Roman Orgy (aka

Heliogabalus) / 1911

 

Louis Feuillade’s 1911 short epic, L'orgie romaine deals with the rule of the Roman emperor Elagabalus (Heliogabalus) who was described by historians of the day, mostly in an attempt to diminish his power, as a cruel and lecherous ruler, who in this story opens the den of lions so that they might dine on his guests during an orgy.

     The historical Elagabalus, also called Heliogabalus and officially known as Antoninus, was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while still a teenager. Disinterested in Roman gods and politics in general, he allowed his mother to sit at the Senate, often making decisions for him, actions that obviously riled Roman leaders who have never previously permitted a woman to sit in the Senate.

      Although the Roman historian Cassius Dio reports that Elagabalus married five women, including the Vestal Virgin Julia Aquilia Severa, Elagabalus was far more interested in male sex partners, often describing himself as female. Dio also states that the emperor, representing himself as a female, married an ex-slave and chariot drive from Caria, Hierocles, and later married an athlete from Smyrna, Zoticus, as well as prostituting himself in taverns and brothels.

 

     Dio also wrote that Elagabalus delighted in being called Hierocles' mistress, wife, and queen. The emperor reportedly wore makeup and wigs, preferred to be called a lady and not a lord, and supposedly offered vast sums to any physician who could provide him with a vagina. The emperor is seen by some writers, accordingly, as an early transgender figure, perhaps the first to go on record as seeking sex reassignment surgery.

    In the 8.33-minute-long film, director Louis Feuillade suggests most of these aspects of Heliogabalus’ life by first having the emperor inspect a new member of his “harem,” in which the current women are seemingly more interested in her than in Heliogabalus (Jean Aymé) himself; the fact that all the eyes of the women are trained on the new recruit, as well as the fact that the lead wife constantly reaches out to touch the new girl, hints at lesbian attraction.

      Certainly by the time of the bath scene, when we see the obvious “feminized” emperor more closely, we recognize that his real attentions are focused on the young boy by his side working on his nails, whom he strokes and hugs closely several times, while the young male foot pedicurist, seemingly distracted by his master’s attention to the other boy, accidently scratches him and is sentenced to death and put into the cage with the lions, the court rushing to the area of the cages to observe the gruesome event.

       By comparison, the orgy that follows is a rather tame affair, with the lounging men and women mostly hugging and being entertained by female dancers, confetti falling from the skies. But the sudden appearance of lions in their midst—the door to their cage obviously having been ordered to have been left open by their host—results in chaos as the masses rush in opposite directions, being met by lions no matter which route they have chosen.

       The event, moreover, finally results in a revolution of the guards, as the emperor, hiding while pleading for his life, is killed and a new emperor crowned.

       With regard to the films I’ve witnessed, this seems to be the first time homosexual pedophilic behavior has been represented on film.

       A full copy of the film exists in the Dutch Film Museum.

 

Los Angeles, July 5, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (July 2022).