viewThe Last Man on Earth (1964)
Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) walking down the stairs of the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana (aka the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro aka the Colosseo Quadrato), with bodies scattered around him. DP: Franco Delli Colli.
The Last Man on Earth (Ubaldo Ragona & Sidney Salkow, 1964)
Your new society sounds charming.
Rome's EUR was Italy's site for the 1942 World's Fair, and meant as a showcase for #Mussolini's then-20 year old fascist state. Due to the outbreak of World War 2, EUR was never used for the Fair. Instead, the Italian Republic restored the project after the war and – quite appropriately if I may say so – turned it into a business district.
An idealised, hypermodern interpretation of Classical Roman architecture, EUR feels alien and inhumane and serves as a perfect backdrop for the events a last man on earth may come up against.
Besides in The Last Man on Earth, EUR makes an appearance in L'Eclisse (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1962), Bertolucci's Il conformista (1970) and, Antonio Pietrangeli's Io la conoscevo bene (1965), and Peter Greenaway's The Belly of an Architect (1987).
#Bales2023FilmChallenge #UbaldoRagona #SidneySalkow #RichardMatheson #VincentPrice #FrancaBettoia #PaulSawtell #BertShefter #FrancoDelliColli #horror #drama #BookAdaptation #EUR #Rome #Italy #USA #architecture #fascism #1960s ★★★☆☆
