The Google Earth version of ancient Rome is a bit like a collection of faked-up trainspotters’ notebooks. Until they find some way of populating it with exfoliant opera, our best bet as responsible amateur social historians is the porn industry:

European production company Daring Media Group will release its first movie, Roma, in October at the Venus Fair in Berlin. The movie is a sprawling historical trilogy, directed by Antonio Adamo. “Ancient Rome was an intricate world of power struggles, betrayals and above all sexual debauchery, clearly a theme for a must-be-done erotic film,” Jonas Ramirez, head of sales for Daring, told AVN.

Adamo previously helmed the historical adult titles Cleopatra and Private Gladiator for Private Media Group.

According to Ramirez, Adamo’s crew reconstructed the Roman setting in a Naples production studio. “Lots of masons, painters and decorators spent many weeks creating the Roman Empire, the Senate, the residences of Roman noblemen, the tents of Caesar’s army, the slave quarters and the brothels of Rome. When the work was done and the film lights were turned on, the Rome of Caesar and Mark Anthony had risen from the ashes.

“The exteriors of historic Rome were more difficult to reproduce,” continued Ramirez. “Antonio did find in Naples some places that resembled ancient Rome and he had put them to good use, but for the rest, just like in Hollywood, Antonio filmed in front of green screens. In the post production stage, the Daring team of computer-graphics designers transformed it into living images of ancient Rome.”

Roma stars a cast of over 40 actors, including Julia Taylor, Dora Venter, Angel Dark, Jennifer Love, Lydia St. Martin, Claudia Rossi, Corry Baby and Emily Doll.

“It took more than twenty days of intensive shooting…to film the sixty eight scenes that constitute the massive trilogy.”

As ever, valid professional reasons lie behind my choice of blogging material.

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Ah, they're celebrating Milton, I said to meself: Berth Milton, the legendary pornographer, the man behind the myth of the sueca. But no, it's John again.
]

Tags: ancient Rome, Naples, porn, Rome, virtual worlds
Categories: (Pre-)Roman, Cities, Les bourgeois, Theatre

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1. Trevor
   January 4th 2009 12:09

   Hilarious promotional material and ripped DVD here.