Ephemeral Architectures, Colossal Sets. The Intolerance of the Taviani Brothers and Identity Recovered

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between cinema and architecture based on the notion of the ephemeral. To do this, the object of analysis is the Babylonian set that appears in the silent film Intolerance (David Wark Griffith, 1916) and its subsequent depiction in the 1987 film Good Morning, Babylon (Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani). While Griffith’s work exalts a colossal view of the set, whose ephemeral nature appears to be determined by its monumental nature, the Taviani brothers’ film redefines and reinterprets this view to offer an alternative reading. Through an architectural and cinematic comparative study of the two films, we put forward the possibility that the colossal and ephemeral significance of the first set is transformed into an expression of cultural roots and a creative identity in the second.