Angels and Demons

Over the course of the semester we have been watching viewing films for one of our classes, Rhetoric of Film: Italian Cinema. The films are Italian, and most are black and white, filmed around the mid-20th century. The city of Rome provides a backdrop for these films, and in many of them it is easy to recognize famous sites, like the Pantheon. Because of Rome’s beauty and history, it has continued to be used as the setting for movies after those we have been watching in class.

We saw this first hand on Friday as we watched a scene for the movie Angels and Demons being shot. One end of Piazza Navona set the scene. A crowd gathered around to catch glimpses of Tom Hanks, the star of the film. All the scene entailed was Tom Hanks getting out of a police car, dressed in a suit, then walking with two police men toward the other side of the piazza and pointing at something ahead of him. The director, Ron Howard, ran back and forth during every take.

As I watch our films in class, I continually recognize sights that I have seen, decades later. Now I will have to go see Angels and Demons in the theater so I can see the Piazza Navona scene that I witnessed first hand.