From silent cinema to Indiana Jones: "The archaeologist on the big screen"

By now archaeologist and Indiana Jones are synonymous thanks to the success of the series on the big screen signed by Spielberg and Lucas. « We all dream of being like Harrison Ford, but the reality in Italy is that the archaeologist is more like Paolo Calabresi's Arturo Frantini in the "I stop when I want" trilogy : he has to do with emergency excavations and little financial rewards ». These are the words of Francesco Bellu , a journalist with a preference for cinema and an archaeologist who specialized in archaeological heritage at the Oristano branch of the University of Sassari.

Combining the two passions, the forty-two-year-old Benetutti journalist wrote the book " The archaeologist on the big screen " (NPE Editions). The subtitle is from the silent era to Indiana Jones, a journey to discover the figure of the cinema archaeologist.

It is a work with an original cut, which provides a rich and detailed overview with references also to literature and real archaeological research, thanks also to splendid photos on the set and period posters. Traverse over a century of cinematic history.

The first film starring an archaeologist is the Egyptologist of a 1908 silent short film: “The Princess in the Vase”. Francesco Bellu specifies: «The book starts from the thesis of five years ago for the Specialization which was entitled ' The X is never the place to dig. Archeology on the big screen, from silent cinema to today' and had as speaker Professor Raimondo Zucca. During the lockdown I thought of expanding the work and the publishing house liked the proposal». And so the journalist-archaeologist dived into the precious and massive online databases of American newspapers from the early decades of the 1900s and of the American Film Institute, finding photos, posters and reviews even of now lost films.

In the full list of films there are some essential works, such as "The Mummy" of 1932 with a magnetic Boris Karloff and "The secret of the Incas" of 1954 with Charlton Heston who in clothing suggests a lot to the future Indiana Jones.

An almost exclusively male figure, the archaeologist finds the female equivalent with Lara Croft but the character born as a videogame and played on the big screen by Angelina Jolie is more of a sexy version with a male gaze. Definitely better the heroine of "Adele and the riddle of the pharaoh" (2010) in the film by director Luc Besson.