Cinema Retro has received the following press release from the BBC:
(Christmas
Eve; 10:40pm; BBC FOUR)
BBC
Bristol’s Timeshift reveals the Ten Commandments of Big Cinema as it goes
behind the scenes of the biggest film genre of them all - the Hollywood Epic. See
the biggest sets ever known! Hear the sound of Ancient Rome! Count the
spiralling costs as budgets soared!
From
Ben-Hur to The Ten Commandments, from El Cid to Cleopatra, these were films
that set a new standard in BIG. In the days before computers they recreated
ancient worlds on a vast scale, and they did it for real. Epic cinema hired
armies, defied the seasons and changed cinema. Even the screen wasn't big
enough for the epic, so Hollywood made it bigger - and some cinemagoers
experienced vertigo watching these vast productions.
Today,
the Epic lives on in the Oscar-laden Gladiator and the spectacular sweep of
Avatar. As this documentary reveals, the stories behind the films are as
spectacular as the films themselves.
The
programme will include a number of classic Hollywood Epics from the 1950s and
1960s, and will include rare behind the scenes footage of Charlton Heston being
interviewed on the set of El Cid.
BBC
Four will also see a Season of Classic Epics, including The Fall of the Roman
Empire, El Cid, Land of the Pharaohs and many more.
More
info can be found on the BBC Four Timeshift Programme Page:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018jp1v