Judith and Holofernes: from the Old Testament to the Silver Screen. Notes on a reinvented and reappropriated text

The biblical narrative about Judith and Holofernes tells the story of a Jewish widow who, upon seeing her city surrounded by Assyrian troops, and after a long prayer, intercedes for the community and kills the hostile general. Symbol of the faith in the biblical God, the young woman has been diachronically portrayed by western societies through various means, such as literature, painting, and opera. In the 20th century, cinema also focused on this narrative and different productions were released. In this article, we will focus on two cinematographic productions - Judith of Bethulia (1914) by the North-American director David W. Griffith and Giuditta e Oloferne (1959) by the Italian director Fernando Cerchio - in order to assess the analogies established between antiquity and contemporaneity and the values and ideas conveyed on the screen.