Moses the Lawgiver (1975)
Directed by Gianfranco DeBosio
Burt Lancaster as Moses
Directed by Gianfranco DeBosio
Burt Lancaster as Moses
From an email exchange with Dr. Rochelle Altman (August 5, 2003):
Now, the tablets for the Lancaster film are amusing. You did say this was produced by an Italian company, didn't you? That would explain a few things...
Well, we can't say they didn't try. The script is Phoenician, and an early one at that -- what looks like an ayin is still an 'O'. The text correctly fills the tablets leaving no room to insert a forged word. The writing area has been properly surfaced for writing on. So far, so good... BUT that's the "shield" shape of the Umbrians ... as in the 'Etruscan' kings of Rome back in the 7th-6th BCE!
On top of being Umbrian, the writing area has been excised and a raised frame left around it... and that's very Roman -- ca. 6th-5th BCE. Only the outside edges of the frame of the tablets are "primitive" and, as you said, "rough-hewn." Outdoing themselves, they went and made an "ark" with the sides one-half a stele each with a reversed half an Umbrian round-shield "arch" on top. Excised and framed, of course -- don't mind me; I can't help smiling -- it's so very Italian.
Now, the tablets for the Lancaster film are amusing. You did say this was produced by an Italian company, didn't you? That would explain a few things...
Well, we can't say they didn't try. The script is Phoenician, and an early one at that -- what looks like an ayin is still an 'O'. The text correctly fills the tablets leaving no room to insert a forged word. The writing area has been properly surfaced for writing on. So far, so good... BUT that's the "shield" shape of the Umbrians ... as in the 'Etruscan' kings of Rome back in the 7th-6th BCE!
On top of being Umbrian, the writing area has been excised and a raised frame left around it... and that's very Roman -- ca. 6th-5th BCE. Only the outside edges of the frame of the tablets are "primitive" and, as you said, "rough-hewn." Outdoing themselves, they went and made an "ark" with the sides one-half a stele each with a reversed half an Umbrian round-shield "arch" on top. Excised and framed, of course -- don't mind me; I can't help smiling -- it's so very Italian.