There are an awful lot of film adaptations of Ancient Greek plays, a few of which I have seen. Are there any films adapted from Ancient Roman plays, such as those of Terence? I haven’t heard of any but would love to learn that there are indeed some. And if anyone has actually watched some and can recommend any in particular, so much the better.
Someone will say this, so I will. It’s not really what you’re looking for, but the stage show a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum cribs heavily from the works of Plautus (including characters’ names – Miles Gloriosus, the soldier who bought the female slave, is the title and main character in one of Plautus’ works. and Pseudolus is similarly the main character and title of one of Plautus’ plays.). And, of course, it became a movie starring Zero Mostel.
Several Roman plays got indirectly filmed, as when Plautus’ Menaechmi became Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors, which has been sort-of filmed.
I like Plautus’ work (read the surviving plays, and even translated part of one back in high school), but I can’t recall any films of them, and a quick survey fails to turn anything up. Given my druthers, I’d take a nice low-brow heavy slapstick Plautus play over the proper and high-minded Terence any day.
Looking up Plautus on the internet movie data base reveals several entries, but they’re virtually all works based on Plautus, and no based directly on Plautus’ plays.
Here’s probably the closest you’ll find – a TV version of the Mostellaria from 1960