Nero (2004 film)

Imperium Nero is an ItalianBritishSpanish TV movie, part of the Imperium series it was made film available on DVD as of November 2005 in the U.S.A. and Canada. Produced by EOS Entertainment and Lux Vide for RAI and Telecinco.

The movie in many ways tries to show Nero as a good soul gone mad, beginning as a brilliant young prince enduring injustice, then hailed enthusiastically at the beginning of his reign, implementing muchneeded reforms and enjoying immense popularity. Half the film concentrates on Neros teenage years and his love life with Acte.His relationship with Claudia Acte is altered, and its influence on his divorce of Claudia Octavia exaggerated. In fact after Neros divorce to Octavia he married his pregnant mistress Poppaea Sabina who had married twice before marrying Nero Rufrius Crispinus and the future Emperor Otho. Poppaea Sabinas death is portrayed differently than how it reportedly occurred. According to the historical sources, she was kicked to death by Nero in a vicious rage. The film also omits Neros other reported attempts to kill his mother Agrippina the Younger, first by poisoning. In his second attempt he had his mothers mattress fixed so that when she lay down, a decoration on the ceiling would fall onto the bed. A third attempt involved sabotaging a ship Agrippina was traveling on, but she managed to swim to shore. The fourth attempt, in which a soldier killed her on the spot, is shown in the movie as Agrippina walks toward the soldier and tells him, Strike the womb that bore him. In the film Nero is shown to have a fixation on playing the harp, which is only partly true. In a late part of the movie Nero is shown playing his harp in the center of a Roman Theatre as Emperor around 62 A.D. This is fiction, because Nero never played his harp in front of a large audience. He usually played it in isolation or within a small group of friends. ........

Source: Wikipedia