The Historical Chronicle of the Sacking of Rome Surprisingly, cinema avoided such a dramatic event as the occupation of Rome by the troops of Emperor Charles V in 1527. And it is gratifying that a Russian-Italian film with our actors filled the niche.
The background of the events is as follows - after the defeat of the troops of the Cognac League, crowds of mercenaries spread across the Apenines, there were Spaniards - Catholics, and Germans - Protestants, and Italian condottiers, and what are the names of the leaders Charles de Bourbon, Georg von Frundsberg, Ferrante Gonzaga - personalities of that era. And so all these citizens, or rather noble knights and their moneyless soldiers, found themselves at the walls of the Eternal City (as rumor informs not without the secret approval of Emperor Charles V) and decided to improve their financial affairs by robbery. For this purpose, Rome was stormed, by the way defended by a few garrisons, and then for a number of months the city was looted. In the course of which the death toll was in the tens of thousands, the abused women were not counted at all, everything that could be taken away was taken out and under the curtain for many thousands of ducats Pope Clement was released and the army went on to rampage. In general, the usual story for those times dark and harsh.
And here in the film we see all these deeds firsthand - the role of the main villain is the German Andreas who settled in the house of the artist Gabrielle. Violence and humiliation of human dignity by the right of the winner is shown so piercingly and reliably that this film cannot be ignored. The viewer sees firsthand what was waiting for the citizens of the city taken by such troops. It doesn’t matter that Andreas Lutheran, his brothers-in-arms, the Spaniards, and the Italian Catholics behaved no better in the Catholic city. The pain and humiliation of Gabrielle and the household is one side of the film, the second is associated with resisting the violence of Jezuina, who must dutifully endure the violence of Landsknecht and support the artist. This is a love triangle with a touch of blood. And the third facet of the film is whether an artist can retain inspiration after seeing the horrors of war.
I think that in “Gold” was able to show the color and events of 1527, so that the film turned out to be memorable. But in addition, they were able to make a human beginning with the disclosure of the inner world of the heroes, and not only the main, but also episodic characters, such as Don Diego, Hans, Belotio - by the way, all three were played by domestic actors (Smoktunovsky, Larionov, Zbruev). The main characters also looked great and Franco Nero, Vittoria Belvedere, and Alexander Abdulov, who managed to show the essence of a soldier - a mercenary of that time.
The only drawback of the picture can be considered the time when it was removed, low-budget was visible to the naked eye. But this is the past story, as well as the events shown in the film.