Full List of Adam and Eve Films

On Sunday I started compiling a list of films featuring Adam and Eve. I've now had a chance to work through that previous list, and eliminate a few films which seem only tangentially linked to the biblical story. In some cases however there isn't really enough evidence to tell. I've also arranged them in ascending order of year. Here's the full list, 44 films in total:

Adam & Eve (1910)
Adam & Eve [Vitagraph] (1912)
The New Adam and Eve (1915)
Young Eve and Old Adam (1920)
Adam and Eve a la Mode (1920)
Adam and Eve in the Andes (1920)
The Bible: Creation (1921)
Adam and Eve (1921)
Good Morning Eve (1934)
Green Pastures (1936)
Adán, Eva y el diablo [aka Adam, Eve and the Devil] (1945)
Der Apfel ist AB (1948)
Adamo ed Eva (1949)
Adamo ed Eva (1950)
Adam wa Hawa (1951)
Adan y Eva (1956)
Stvoreni Sveta [The Creation of the World] (1958)
The Creation of Woman (1960)
The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960)
Male and Female Since Adam and Eve (1961)
Adam & Eve (1962)
I Patriarchi Della Bibbia (1963)
The Bible: In The Beginning (1966)
La Creacion (1968)
El Peco de Adan Y Eva [The Sin of Adam and Eve] (1968)
El pecado de Adán y Eva [aka The Sin of Adam and Eve] (1969)
Bible (1974)
New Media Bible: Book of Genesis [Genesis Project] (1979)
The Diary of Adam and Eve (1980)
Adamo ed Eva, la prima storia d'amore (1983)
Angyali üdvözlet (The Annunciation) (1984)
Second Time Lucky (1984)
The Diaries of Adam and Eve (1988)
Genesis: Creation and Flood (1994)
Testament: The Bible in Animation: Creation and the Flood (1996)
In The Beginning (1999)
Loss of Sexual Innocence (1999)
Expulsion from Paradise (2001)
The Story of Adam & Eve (2002)
The Real Old Testament (2003)
Iván Ávila Dueñas's Adán y Eva [Todavía] (2004)
Adam and Eve: Uncensored (2006)
The God Complex (2009)
Year One (2009)
The Unauthorized Biography of Adam and Eve (2009)


There's also 3 Adam and Eve related films being produced at the moment:


Keanu Reeves in a sci-fi version of the Adam and Eve story
David L. Cunningham's forthcoming 3D In the Beginning
Scott Derrickson's planned adaptation of Paradise Lost,

Did I miss anything?

Keanu to Play Adam in Space?

Whoa...

Keanu Reeves already has been locked up as the male lead, while his female love interest is still being sought for what the producers short-handed as "Adam & Eve in Space."

...Set in the future, "Passengers" centers on Jim Preston (Reeves), a mechanic on a 120-year journey to a distant colonized planet in another galaxy, who becomes the first traveler to experience pod hibernation failure. Having woken up 100 years too soon, he is stranded in the world of an interstellar spaceship with only robots and androids for companionship

Thanks to Film School Rejects for highlighting this one.

Gladiator Graveyard Found in York

This is somewhat off-topic, but I know a number of the readers of this blog are interested in either the Romans or archaeology, and as it interested me I thought I'd pass it on.

According to The Guardian, the results of forensic tests on 80 plus Roman male skeletons found in York has suggested that they may have been gladiators. It is apparently the "best-preserved" gladiator graveyard in the world. York is best known for the Viking site that was discovered there a few decades ago. It would be nice to see York known for its Roman history as much as it is for its Viking history, particularly as my parents live relatively nearby.

A documentary about the discovery, Gladiators: Back from the Dead, will be shown on Channel 4 next Monday (14th June 2010) at 9pm.

Finding Adam and Eve Films

Recently, I've been thinking about films about the creation of the world and Adam and Eve. In part this is because it seems to me that there are so many that I have heard of but am yet to see, and I struggle to distinguish some of them from one another. SO, just as I have previously tried to list "all" films on Noah and Samson, I'm going to try to do the same for this part of the Bible.

Firstly there are the films I have seen (linking to my writings on them - though some you may have to scroll down to reach).

Green Pastures (1936)
The Bible: In The Beginning (1966)
Genesis: Creation and Flood (1994)
Testament: The Bible in Animation: Creation and the Flood (1996)
In The Beginning (1999)
The Real Old Testament (2003)
The God Complex (2009)

Next up are the films that Campbell and Pitts name in "The Bible on Film":

Adam & Eve (1910)
Adam & Eve (1912) - Vitagraph
The Bible: Creation (1921-22)
Good Morning Eve (1934)
Der Apfel ist AB (1948)
Adamo ed Eva (1950)
Adan y Eva (1956) - poster above
Stvoreni Sveta (the Creation of the World) (1958)
The Creation of Woman (1960)
The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960)
Adam & Eve (1962)
I Patriarchi Della Bibbia (1963)
La Creacion (1968)
El Peco de Adan Y Eva (The Sin of Adam and Eve) (1968)
Bible (1974)

In addition to this there are a number of other films which I'm aware of which are not included in the above:

Mike Figgis's Loss of Sexual Innocence (pictured above)
The Genesis Project: Genesis,
Year One (2009)
David L. Cunningham's forthcoming 3D In the Beginning,
Scott Derrickson's planned adaptation of Paradise Lost,
The Annunciation (Angyali üdvözlet) (1984)
Iván Ávila Dueñas's Adán y Eva (Todavía).

Leafing through the Internet Movie Database reveals a number of other likely possibilities. Firstly those named simply "Adam and Eve"

Adam and Eve (1921)
Adamo ed Eva (1949)
Adam wa Hawa (1951)
Adam og Eva (1953)
Adam och Eva (1963)
Adam i Heva (1969)
Adamo ed Eva, la prima storia d'amore (1983) aka "Adam and Eve"
Adam & Eve (2002) aka "Forbidden Fruit"
Adam & Eve (2003)

There is also Adam and Eve (2005) better known as National Lampoon: Adam and Eve, but from what I can make out that one has little to do with the biblical story.

Then there are also these films which include "Adam and Eve" in the title, and might well be based on the Bible in some way:

The New Adam and Eve (1915)
Young Eve and Old Adam (1920)
Adam and Eve a la Mode (1920)
Adam and Eve in the Andes (1920)
Adán, Eva y el diablo (1945) aka "Adam, Eve and the Devil"
Male and Female Since Adam and Eve (1961)
El pecado de Adán y Eva (1969)aka "The Sin of Adam and Eve" - USA
The Diary of Adam and Eve (1980)
The Diaries of Adam and Eve (1988) (TV)
The Story of Adam & Eve (2002)
Eve & Adam (2004)
Adam and Eve: Uncensored (2006)
The Unauthorized Biography of Adam and Eve (2009)

I haven't had time to check the descriptions of the films on the IMDB as usually a few of them prove to be largely unrelated. So when I get another chance I'll work through all those, eliminate any spurious entries and post a complete list.

Will Esther Feature in Xerxes?

The Los Angeles Times has an interview with Frank Miller about his plans for a 300 prequel mini-series, Xerxes. He talks about the impact of the last movie and gives some outlines as to the scope of this new project. This part stood out in particular:

"There's an extended scene set in Persepolis," adds Miller, "for instance, where he [Xerxes] takes power and there are several scenes where he is going through his transitions and he's shown speaking to his mother and his wife..."

The wife is unnamed, but among the various contenders for who this might be is the biblical queen, Esther. It's true that we're unclear whether the king she married was Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I or even Artaxerxes II, and even if it was Xerxes I then it could be either his wife Amestris or even Vashti that Miller is thinking of. Nevertheless there is a chance it could be Esther.

That said, Xerxes and Vashti are also biblical characters to an extent so even their portrayal would be of some relevance. It's quite interesting to juxtapose portrayals of Xerxes in Esther films with that in 300: in the former Xerxes is usually portrayed (bizarrely in my opinion) as a hero, whereas in 300, and the Greek historical sources that the film is very loosely based on, he is very much the villain.

Comingsoon.net
has also covered the story.

A New Modernisation of the Jesus Story: In Our Time

I got an email a week or two back from the producers of In Our Time - a contemporary version of the story of Jesus. It's due to be released in December 2010 and will be distributed by Lions Gate Films.

There's a handful of details about the film available in the latest press release and it also has a facebook page. There's also the beginnings of an official website with a good deal of information including plot synopsis, production locations and cast biographies.

DJ Perry (pictured above in last year's Book of Ruth) will be heading up the cast as Jesus, and the actors starring in most of the main parts have been named, although only Matthew has been named amongst the apostles. There also seems to be a chance that Jon Voight and/or Richard Dreyfuss will have cameos. Richard N. Bailey has written the screenplay.

According to the press release, the story is narrated by Mary which will make for an interesting comparison with Jezile (Son of Man) another modernised take on the story of Jesus (albeit set in South Africa) which places Mary very much towards the film's centre.

Charlie Brooker on Spartacus

As far as I'm aware there's nothing that connects Spartacus: Blood and Sand to the Bible, and so this post is slightly off-topic. But it's rare that one of my favourite columnists / TV presenters even mentions an almost-Bible film, so now that Charlie Brooker actually has, I can't resist mentioning it. Readers should be aware that, like the programme itself, the column is not for the easily offended. But on the other hand it does have some very funny lines such as this:

Make no mistake: the gladiatorial scenes are pretty brutal. Limbs are hacked off with such nonchalant frequency, it sometimes feels more like an extreme whittling contest.

Incidentally, this was apparently covered in the first episode in the current series of Brooker's Channel 4 show You Have Been Watching, but unfortunately, that was the one episode I missed.

Juliette Harrisson has also posted her take on the series over at Pop Classics.