Creating Coriolanus’s Rome

One of the many striking aspects about Ralph Fiennes’ interpretation of Shakespeare’s political drama Coriolanus is how easily it fits into a modern-day setting, given the story at its core of a republic caught up in a long and bitter war.

It all adds up to a stunningly realistic depiction of ‘Rome’ as a modern, urban city and the state of a society in the middle of brutal political struggles

Many images from the film could well be scenes pulled from TV news footage of the recent Arab Spring uprisings and other brutal conflicts that have dominated the world headlines in the 20-odd years that surround the turn of the century.

Conflicts of recent memory include those which blighted the Balkans in the early to mid-1990s, and it is no coincidence that Fiennes, after considering locations as far afield as South America and extensive location searches in eastern Europe, chose Belgrade as the site for his vision of the drama.

In the film’s production notes, much is made of the director’s wish that his version of ‘Rome’ should reflect any recognisable city and in Belgrade, Serbia he found a city that perfectly represents the extremes of the modern metropolis: urban decay, poverty, run-down apartment blocks, bustling market places and aging industrial sites standing in stark contrast to luxury homes of the wealthy, fashionable bars and restaurants, modern office blocks and proud 19th century buildings and public open spaces.

Coriolanus was one of the first major international film productions to use Serbia as a location, and Fiennes and his crew were given major access to many locations in the country, with the Serbian parliament building being used for scenes depicting the Roman Senate and protest scenes filmed on the building’s outside steps. The still existing bombed-out part of the Hotel Jugoslavia, once a leading hotel in the area, was utilised effectively for some of the film’s crucial battle scenes.

“The great thing about doing Shakespeare on film is that when you are sitting in row 13C at the theatre you get to see the scenario from a distance, but on film you get right into the action. You see these incredible close-ups and nuances – the audience becomes a silent participant in every scene,’ says producer Julia Taylor-Stanley.

To this end, the Serbian government was instrumental in allowing the crew access to the SAJ, Serbia’s prime counter-terrorist unit whose presence added stark realism to the battle scenes, thereby enhancing the production as a whole.

Ralph Fiennes and Dragan Miéanovié, who plays Titus Lartius, trained intensively with the SAJ – learning how soldiers move and react in the throes of battle. Most the troops on screen are members of the SAJ and all the armoured vehicles, tanks and weaponry are real.

The Corioles battle scenes ruthlessly depict the chaos, destruction and brutality of war, and much of these were shot in the neighbouring town of Pancevo. The locals had a week of Roman soldiers, Volscian guerrilla fighters, guns, rocket launchers, armoured vehicles, burning cars and war debris on their streets.

The film’s director of photography Barry Ackroyd and his cameras were in the thick of the action, capturing the intensity and fluidity of all the combat scenes; be they the actual scenes of war, or those depicting Coriolanus’s uncomfortable interactions with the crowds in the streets

Production designer Ricky Eyres and the team set to work enhancing the existing textures of the indoor and outdoor locations of Belgrade and Pancevo.

Grafitti was added to enhance the battered down building, new structures were erected, including the city gate of Corioles, while other major works included the construction of the crucial truck stop meeting point on an isolated and windy road in the middle of nowhere, and the creation of the secret Volsce hideout, acting as headquarters for Gerard Butler’s Tullius Aufidius.

The overall look of the film was complemented by the film’s costumes and designer Bojana Nikitovié was inspired by the incessant worldwide political unrest.

The Volsce have no standardised uniform so they were decked in ill-matched army fatigues, jeans, leather jackets and bandanas and are heavily tattooed, with designs by make-up designer Daniel Parker.

On the other hand, the Roman army are a stark contrast. They boast the latest design of army fatigues and the most modern weaponry. They are professional soldiers, the symbol of the powerful Republic at war, while the warmongering members of the Consul strut around in their impeccable designer pin-striped suits looking more like corporate officers than generals.

It all adds up to a stunningly realistic depiction of ‘Rome’ as a modern, urban city and the state of a society in the middle of brutal political struggles, which are as relevant now as when Plutarch’s original source story, on which the play itself is based, was written.