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‘Joy Luck Club,’ ‘Lilies of the Field,’ ‘Grease,’ ‘Shrek,’ ‘The Dark Knight’ Among 25 Titles Selected for Preservation

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today the annual selection of 25 of America’s most influential motion pictures to be inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. These films range from the innovative silent film “Suspense,” which was co-directed by a woman in 1913, and Sidney Poitier’s Oscar-winning performance in 1963’s “Lilies of the Field” to the 1978 mega-hit musical “Grease,” 1980’s musical comedy “The Blues Brothers,” and one of the biggest public vote getters, Christopher Nolan’s 2008 Batman film “The Dark Knight.”

“This is not only a great honor for all of us who worked on ‘The Dark Knight,’ this is also a tribute to all of the amazing artists and writers who have worked on the great mythology of Batman over the decades,” said Nolan, director of “The Dark Knight.”

Selected because of their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance to the nation’s film heritage, the 2020 titles include blockbusters, musicals, silent films, documentaries and diverse stories transferred from books to screen. They bring the number of films selected for preservation in the registry to 800, a fraction of the 1.3 million films in the Library’s collections.

This year’s selections include a record number of films directed by women and filmmakers of color, including 10 directed by women and seven by people of color.

“The National Film Registry is an important record of American history, culture and creativity, captured through one of the great American artforms, our cinematic experience,” Hayden said. “With the inclusion of diverse filmmakers, we are not trying to set records but rather to set the record straight by spotlighting the astonishing contributions women and people of color have made to American cinema, despite facing often-overwhelming hurdles.”

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will host a television special Tuesday, Dec. 15, starting at 8 p.m. ET to screen a selection of motion pictures named to the registry this year. Hayden will join TCM host and film historian Jacqueline Stewart, to discuss the films. Also, select titles from 30 years of the National Film Registry are freely available online in the National Screening Room. Follow the conversation about the 2020 National Film Registry on Twitter at @librarycongress and #NatFilmRegistry.

Several films showcase diverse stories told through American cinema and groundbreaking performances. For his 1963 portrayal of an itinerant worker who helps refugee nuns build a chapel in “Lilies of the Field,” Sidney Poitier became the first African American to win the Oscar for best actor. Poitier said he has fond memories of the role.

“‘Lilies of the Field’ stirs up such great remembrances in our family, from the littlest Poitiers watching a young and agile ‘Papa’ to the oldest – Papa Sidney himself!” Poitier said in a statement with his family.

In “The Joy Luck Club” from 1993, director Wayne Wang featured a formidable group of actresses telling the saga of two generations of Asian-American women, based on the bestselling book by Amy Tan.

“I could have never imagined, after reading a few chapters of Amy’s manuscript that eventually became ‘The Joy Luck Club’ book, that my dream of its adaptation would result in a movie that is still talked about decades later,” said producer Janet Yang. “When people tell me – and so many from so many cultures have – that the movie helped heal a rift with their family, I am immensely gratified, and it reminds me of the power of the moving image.”

The 2020 film selections span nearly a century of filmmaking – from the silent era to the most recent film added to the registry, the PBS documentary “Freedom Riders” from 2010 where filmmaker Stanley Nelson captures the inspiring story of 1961 when 400 Black and white Americans risked their lives challenging Jim Crow segregation by traveling together on buses and trains through the Deep South.

The record-setting 10 films directed by women on the 2020 list include the 1913 silent film “Suspense” co-directed by Lois Weber; the 1918 silent film “Bread” about a woman struggling to pull herself out of poverty, directed by Ida May Park; the 1929 film “With Car and Camera Around the World” by Aloha Wanderwell; the 1950 film “Outrage” about the once verboten topic of sexual assault directed by Ida Lupino; one of the first feature films directed by a Black woman with Kathleen Collins’ “Losing Ground” from 1982; groundbreaking director Julie Dash’s student film “Illusions” confronting Hollywood racism from 1982; the 1994 film “The Devil Never Sleeps” by Lourdes Portillo; “Shrek,” co-directed by Vicky Jenson in 2001; the 2006 film “Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege” co-directed by Joan Lander; and the atypical war film “The Hurt Locker” about soldiers in Baghdad dismantling unexploded bombs, directed by Kathryn Bigelow in 2008.

“My desire in making ‘The Hurt Locker’ was to honor those in uniform serving in dangerous posts abroad, so I have been gratified by the resonance the film has had over the last 10 years,” said Bigelow, who was the first woman to win an Oscar for best director for “The Hurt Locker.” “For it to be selected by the National Film Registry is both humbling and thrilling.”

Music is featured prominently in this year’s selections, including the film adaptations of the Broadway musicals “Cabin in the Sky” in 1943 and “Grease” in 1978, with unforgettable performances of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in the lead roles.

“The cast and crew of ‘Grease’ have remained close for the past 40 years,” said director Randal Kleiser. “We are all honored to be included in this year’s national registry selection. Personally, I’ve spent the last year composing all my script notations, storyboards and photographs.”

This year’s class also features the 1980 musical comedy “The Blues Brothers” with its tribute to Chicago, soul and R&B music – and cameos by legends like Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin.

“Having ‘The Blues Brothers’ chosen to be included in the National Film Registry is both a great honor and a delightful surprise. The film is the result of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s genuine passion for rhythm and blues and our mutual love for these great African American artists and the city of Chicago,” said director John Landis, who has two additional films in the National Film Registry, “Animal House” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

Aykroyd added that “Judy Belushi and I are exhilarated to see the performances of the African American musical stars in ‘The Blues Brothers’ film formally treasured for all time by the people of the United States. We feel grateful at being participants in making the movie and for this most worthwhile cultural preservation initiative.”

In 2013, the Library of Congress released a report that conclusively determined that 70 percent of the nation’s silent feature films have been lost forever and only 14 percent exist in their original 35 mm format.

Under the terms of the National Film Preservation Act, each year the Librarian of Congress names to the National Film Registry 25 motion pictures that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant. The films must be at least 10 years old. More information about the National Film Registry can be found at loc.gov/film.

The Librarian makes the annual registry selections after conferring with the distinguished members of the National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) and a cadre of Library specialists. Also considered were more than 5,500 titles nominated by the public. Nominations for next year will be accepted through the fall at loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/nominate/.

In addition to advising the Librarian of Congress on the annual selection of titles to the National Film Registry, the NFPB also provides counsel on national preservation planning policy.

Many titles named to the registry have already been preserved by the copyright holders, filmmakers or other archives. In cases where a selected title has not already been preserved, the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation works to ensure that the film will be preserved by some entity and available for future generations, either through the Library’s motion picture preservation program or through collaborative ventures with other archives, motion picture studios and independent filmmakers.

The Packard Campus is a state-of-the-art facility where the nation’s library acquires, preserves and provides access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of films, television programs, radio broadcasts and sound recordings (loc.gov/avconservation/). It is home to more than 8.8 million collection items.

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

2020 National Film Registry (alphabetical order)

The Battle of the Century (1927)
“Battle of the Century” is a classic Laurel and Hardy silent short comedy (2 reels, ca. 20 minutes) unseen in its entirety since its original release. The comic bits include a renowned pie-fighting sequence where the principle of “reciprocal destruction” escalates to epic proportions. “Battle” offers a stark illustration of the detective work (and luck) required to locate and preserve films from the silent era. Only excerpts from reel two of the film had survived for many years. Critic Leonard Maltin discovered a mostly complete nitrate copy of reel one at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1970s. Then in 2015, film collector and silent film accompanist Jon Mirsalis located a complete version of reel two as part of a film collection he purchased from the Estate of Gordon Berkow. The film still lacks brief scenes from reel one, but the film is now almost complete, comprising elements from MoMA, the Library of Congress, UCLA and other sources. It was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive in conjunction with Jeff Joseph/SabuCat. The nearly complete film was preserved from one reel of 35mm nitrate print, one reel of a 35mm acetate dupe negative and a 16mm acetate print. Laboratory Services: The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Cineaste Restoration/Thad Komorowksi, Point 360/Joe Alloy.  Special Thanks: Jon Mirsalis, Paramount Pictures Archives, Richard W. Bann, Ray Faiola, David Gerstein.

The Blues Brothers (1980)
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, then both best known for their star-turns as part of the “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players” troupe on TV’s “Saturday Night Live,” took their recurring “Blues Brothers” SNL sketch to the big screen in this loving and madcap musical misadventures of Jake and Elwood Blues on a mission from God. An homage of sorts to various classic movie genres — from screwball comedy to road movie — “The Blues Brothers” serves as a tribute to the lead duo’s favorite city (Chicago) as well as a lovely paean to great soul and R&B music.  In musical cameos, such legends as Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and John Lee Hooker all ignite the screen.

Bread (1918)
Billed as a “sociological photodrama, “Bread” tells the story of a naïve young woman in a narrow-minded town who journeys to New York to become a star but faces disillusionment when she learns that sex is demanded as the price for fame. Ida May Park, director and scenarist of “Bread,” was among more than a half-dozen prolific women directors working at the Universal Film Manufacturing Company during the period in which Los Angeles became the home of America’s movie industry. Park directed 14 feature-length films between 1917 and 1920, and her career as a scenarist lasted until 1931. She reasoned that because the majority of movie fans were women, “it follows that a member of the sex is best able to gauge their wants in the form of stories and plays.” In an essay Park contributed to the book “Careers for Women,” she stated that women were advantaged as motion picture directors because of “the superiority of their emotional and imaginative faculties.” In the two surviving reels of “Bread,” one of only three films Park directed that are currently known to exist, she displays an accomplished ability to knowingly vivify her protagonist’s plight as she fends off an attacker and places her frail hopes in a misshapen loaf of bread that has come to symbolize for her the good things in life.

Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
“The best Wim Wenders documentary to date and an uncommonly self-effacing one, this 1999 concert movie about performance and lifestyle is comparable in some ways to ‘Latcho Drom,’ the great Gypsy documentary/musical. In 1996, musician Ry Cooder traveled to Havana to reunite some of the greatest stars of Cuban pop music from the Batista era (who were virtually forgotten after Castro came to power) with the aim of making a record, a highly successful venture that led to concerts in Amsterdam and New York. The players and their stories are as wonderful as the music, and the filmmaking is uncommonly sensitive and alert,” wrote film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Cabin in the Sky (1943)
“Cabin” tells the story of a man (Eddie “Rochester” Anderson) trying to make it into heaven and who is sent back to earth for one last shot at redemption. Released the same year as Fox’s “Stormy Weather,” this film adaptation of the 1940 Broadway musical marked the directing debut of renowned director Vincente Minnelli (“Meet Me in St. Louis,” “An American in Paris,” “Bad and the Beautiful,” “The Band Wagon,” and “Gigi”). Minnelli’s gift for ingeniously blending in dazzling musical numbers is on full display throughout. Lauded at the time for showcasing an all-Black cast in a major Hollywood film when many theaters in the U.S. were still segregated, the film also sadly demonstrates the limited film opportunities and acting compromises African Americans had to make during the Hollywood classic era. These notable concerns aside, “Cabin” remains a glittering cultural record of outstanding African American artistic talent of the era (Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Rex Ingram, and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson.)

A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Though based on the book by Anthony Burgess, it certainly took an eye and a mind like director Stanley Kubrick’s to bring this film to life. Set in a not-so-distant future, that is equal parts dystopian and cartoonish, “Clockwork,” now almost 50 years after its creation, remains as it always was: disturbing, controversial and startlingly unsettling. Malcolm MacDowell (in his most legendary role) stars as Alex DeLarge, the demented, de facto leader of a gang of boys– sporting bowler hats, canes and codpieces–who wreak havoc all over what used to be England.  But as evil as Alex is, when he’s caught and subjected to a type of state-sanctioned crime aversion therapy, his “treatment” turns out to be far more brutal than any of the crimes he’s ever committed.

The Dark Knight (2008)
Bob Kane and Bill Finger’s dark, enduring creation first flew onto the screen in a 1943 B-movie serial and would return to theaters several times in treatments both camp and action-oriented. But Christopher Nolan’s evocative 2008 work reinvented the already vast Batman mythos thanks in no small part to its two intense, now legendary, lead performances:  Christian Bale as the titular character and Heath Ledger, in a remarkable, Oscar-winning take on Bat super-villain “The Joker.”  Set in a dark, modern-day Gotham City, “The Dark Knight” is a visual feast of memorable set pieces, screenwriting flair, and characters and situations imbued with a soul and a conscience. “Pitched at the divide between art and industry, poetry and entertainment, “The Dark Knight” goes darker and deeper than any Hollywood movie of its comic-book kind,” wrote Manohla Dargis of The New York Times. The theme of a world turned upside down by fear and dystopian chaos resonates eerily well in the pandemic havoc of 2020.

The Devil Never Sleeps (1994)
Early one Sunday morning in July, the filmmaker receives a phone call informing her that her beloved tio (uncle) Oscar Ruiz Almeida has been found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in Chihuahua, Mexico. His widow has declared his death a suicide. Most of his family, however, cry murder and point to a number of possible suspects: his business partner, his ranch-hand, the widow herself. In “The Devil Never Sleeps,” Lourdes Portillo returns to the land of her birth to find out exactly who her uncle was and to investigate the circumstances of his death. She explores “irrational” as well as “logical” explanations, searching for clues on both sides of the border and in the history of her family. Old tales of betrayal, passion, lust and supernatural visitation emerge as we follow the filmmaker deep into the life of a community in the homeland of Pancho Villa. “The Devil Never Sleeps” exposes the loves and hatreds of a Mexican family convulsed by the death of one of its members. The emotions that Portillo captures in her particular blend of traditional and experimental techniques bring out the nuances of Mexican social and family order. Poetic, tragic, humorous and mythic, this film crosses the borders of personal values, cultural mores and the discipline of filmmaking itself. It is a key film by a Latina filmmaker.

Freedom Riders (2010)
During 1961, more than 400 people from across the nation, black and white, women and men, old and young, challenged state-sanctioned segregation on buses and in bus terminals in the Deep South, segregation that continued after the Supreme Court had ruled the practice to be in violation of interstate commerce laws. Some 50 years later, “Freedom Riders,” a two-hour PBS American Experience documentary made by Stanley Nelson, charted their course in considerable depth as they faced savage retaliatory attacks and forced a reluctant federal government to back their cause. The riveting story is told without narration using archival film and stills and, most engagingly, through testimonies of the Freedom Riders themselves, journalists who followed their trail, federal, state, and local officials, white southerners, and chroniclers of the movement including Raymond Arsenault, whose book inspired the documentary. The film takes viewers through many complex twists and turns of the journey with extraordinary clarity and emotional force. The courage and conviction of the Freedom Riders, ordinary Americans willing to risk bodily harm and death to combat injustice nonviolently, will inspire later generations who watch Nelson’s eloquent film. Nearly 50 full interviews conducted for the film are now available in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting at https://americanarchive.org/special_collections/freedom-riders-interviews.

Grease (1978)
This tuneful, loving tribute to 1950s America — perhaps more romanticized than accurate — was first staged on Broadway in 1972. A huge hit, it would run for over 3,000 performances before closing in 1980. In 1978, the production was brought to the big screen with the addition of a few fresh songs and a cast including newly-minted superstar John Travolta and pop/country chanteuse Olivia Newton-John. Energetically directed by Randal Kleiser and loaded with beloved songs like “You’re the One that I Want,” “We Go Together,” “Summer Nights,” “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and “Greased Lightin’,” “Grease” became the film of that year. It has never really left — becoming a staple for both local and high school productions, several Broadway revivals and even a live TV adaptation in 2016.  “Grease” is still the word.

The Ground (1993-2001)
The films of Robert Beavers are exceptional for their visual beauty, aural texture and depth of emotional expression. Beavers’ films occupy a noble place within the history of avant-garde film, positioned at the intersection of structural and lyrical filmmaking traditions. They seem to embody the ideals of the Renaissance in their fascination with perception, psychology, literature, the natural world, architectural space, musical phrasing and aesthetic beauty. “The Ground” uses seemingly simple components — the sunbaked landscape of a Greek island, the blue waters of the Aegean Sea and images of a man chiseling stone — to conjure the fundamental experience of holding something close to one’s heart.

The Hurt Locker (2008)
That great Hollywood staple, the “war movie,” got a major reinvention in director Kathryn Bigelow’s 2008 riveting and uncompromising look at contemporary warfare. Following the work of a Baghdad-based explosive ordnance disposal team, “The Hurt Locker” strips away sentiment — and politics — to  focus its camera on the rampant, second-by-second dangers and ethical dilemmas of modern-day soldiers. Jeremy Renner leads the skillful cast as a detonation expert for whom war seems a little too “normal.” Along with winning that year’s Best Picture Oscar, Bigelow was named as “Best Director” by the Academy, the first woman to receive that honor.

Illusions (1982)
Born in New York City, Julie Dash is a filmmaker, music video and commercial director, author and website creator. Her film studies began in Harlem in 1969 but eventually led her to the American Film Institute and UCLA, where she made “The Diary of an African Nun” (1977), based on a short story by Alice Walker, which won a student award from the Directors Guild of America. Dash’s critically acclaimed short film “Illusions” (1982) later won the Jury Prize for Best Film of the Decade awarded by the Black Filmmakers Foundation. Created for her MFA thesis at UCLA, “Illusions, is set in World War II-era Hollywood and explores the nature of Hollywood racial politics, fantasy and the illusion of racial identity.

The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Director Wayne Wang’s adaptation of Amy Tan’s novel tells a story of relationships between Chinese-American women and their Chinese immigrant mothers.  The four mothers meet weekly to play Mahjong, tell stories and reminisce. The richly layered plot features key themes including the often complicated relationships between mothers and daughters, assimilation into a far different culture, wistfulness for aspects of former lifestyles, the intersections between past and present, and the strong bond of family ties between two generations who grew up in vastly different circumstances.  Wang’s film “Chan Is Missing” was selected to the National Film Registry in 1995.

Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)
A milestone in film history, “Kid Auto Races at Venice” features the debut of Charlie Chaplin’s little tramp character as he continually disrupts a cameraman trying to film a soapbox derby car race. A contemporary review in The Cinema noted, “Kid Auto Races struck us as about the funniest film we have ever seen. When we subsequently saw Chaplin in more ambitious efforts, our opinion that the Keystone Company had made the capture of their career was strengthened. Chaplin is a born screen comedian; he does things we have never seen done on the screen before.”

Lilies of the Field (1963)
From 1950 to 1980, Sidney Poitier ranked among the top American film stars (“No Way Out,” “Blackboard Jungle,” “Edge of the City,” “The Defiant Ones,” “Raisin in the Sun,” “Paris Blues,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”). In “Lilies,” Poitier has another of his classic roles where he plays an itinerant worker who helps refugee East European nuns build a chapel in Arizona. The nuns cannot pay him for the work and implore him to do so by citing various Biblical verses (Sermon on the Mount). Poitier, for his part, is moved by their plight but also wants to demonstrate his skills as an architect and builder. The film serves as a parable highlighting mutual respect via common purpose, the austere Arizona desert landscape, the impoverished nuns, and a man they believe God sent to help them. For his portrayal, Poitier became the first African American to win the Oscar for best actor.

Losing Ground (1982)
One of the first feature films directed by an African American woman, Kathleen Collins’ “Losing Ground” tells the story of a marriage between two remarkable people, both at a crossroads in their lives. “Losing Ground” centers on the experiences of Sara (Seret Scott), an African American philosophy professor whose artist husband Victor (Bill Gunn) rents a country house for a month to celebrate a recent museum sale. The couple’s summer idyll becomes complicated as Sara struggles to research the philosophical and religious meaning of ecstatic experience …and to discover it for herself.

The Man With the Golden Arm (1955)
The subject of drug addiction has been addressed in Hollywood films many times before, dating all the way back to the silent era (Kevin Brownlow’s seminal “Behind the Mask of Innocence” chronicles these amazing early productions). But few dared to be as honest, blunt or graphic as this Otto Preminger treatment, which featured Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak. Sinatra stars as the heroin-addicted hero who, having gotten clean while in prison, now struggles to remain “straight” after release. Oscar-nominated for his work in the film, Sinatra is a raw nerve in his unvarnished portrayal of a “junkie,” most memorably in his brutal withdrawal scenes. Along with its still topical subject and powerful storytelling, the film is further enhanced by its eye-popping Saul Bass opening credits sequence and Elmer Bernstein’s remarkable jazz score. Critic Dave Kehr has noted that “Otto Preminger’s 1955 adaptation of Nelson Algren’s novel is something of a crossroads movie, suspended between the swirling expressionism of Preminger’s early career and the balanced realism that would later become his forte.”  The film was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005 with funding from the Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege (2006)
Produced and directed by Puhipau and Joan Lander of Nā Maka o ka ʻĀina, this documentary about the dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawai’i examines the development vs. ecological preservation battle between scientists who use the mountain summit as an astronomical observatory and Hawaiians who want the mountain preserved as a cultural landscape sacred to the Hawaiian people.

Outrage (1950)
For a few years beginning in the late 1940s, Ida Lupino, Hollywood’s only woman director of the period, made a series of distinctive films that spoke to the public’s desire, she stated, “to see something that fits in with their own concepts of the way people actually live in the world and the problems they must meet and overcome.” In “Outrage,” an unblinking examination of the traumatic effects of rape on a vulnerable young woman, Lupino, an actress of consummate grace and power, masterfully employed sound and silence, light and shadow, depth of field and cutting, camera movement and careful framing to cinematically capture the psychological impact of her character’s shattered world. Inspired by a question that Italian neo-realist director Roberto Rossellini posed to her at a party – “When are you going to make pictures about ordinary people, in ordinary situations” – Lupino, along with her husband Collier Young, associate producer Malvin Wald, and cinematographer Archie Stout created a series of low-budget impactful films with newfound talent, like Mala Powers, star of “Outrage.” Lupino’s films, Martin Scorsese has observed, “addressed the wounded soul and traced the slow, painful process of women trying to wrestle with despair and reclaim their lives.”

Shrek (2001)
Even by DreamWorks standards, the charm and magic of “Shrek” seemed extraordinary upon its initial release almost 20 years ago — and its power has yet to diminish in the intervening years. With this story of a green-skinned, solitude-loving ogre, Shrek, who embarks on a noble quest, alongside his new friend, a lovable donkey, the film manages to be both a send-up of fairy tale tropes and an affectionate tribute to them. Entertaining and emotionally impactful at levels to be appreciated by both children and their adults, “Shrek” was a mega-hit upon its release and has been followed by three equally enchanting sequels, a TV holiday special and a Broadway adaption. Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz lead the strong voice cast.

Suspense (1913)
During the 1910s, women directors played a prominent role in the development of film as an art form. Chief among them was Lois Weber who was recognized alongside directors such as D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. Weber’s films often touched on controversial social issues such as poverty and contraception.  In a 1913 Photoplay interview, Weber spoke of her desire to create films “that will have an influence for good on the public mind.” In this 1913 short, “A wife and her baby are alone in an isolated house when a tramp breaks in. As the wife tries to keep the invader at bay, her husband happens to telephone and learn what’s happening. He scrambles to return home. He steals an idle car, and its owner, accompanied by police, race after him. We cut rapidly between the besieged mother and the husband’s frantic drive, as he is in turn pursued. Just as the tramp is about to attack the wife, the husband bursts in, followed by the police. The family is saved. This is the plot of “Suspense,” co-directed by Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley. If the plot sounds familiar, it’s probably because you know that one of D.W. Griffith’s most famous films, “The Lonely Villa” (1909) tells the same basic tale. So Weber and Smalley are reviving an old idea. Their task is to make it fresh. How they do so has been studied in depth by Charlie Keil in his book “Early American Cinema in Transition: Story, Style, and Filmmaking, 1907-1913,” wrote film historian David Bordwell.

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)
With “Sweet Sweetback,” director Melvin Van Peebles touched off a wave of imitative Black features, few of which matched his startling originality and fierce attacks. The story of a male “performer” at a ghetto bordello and his run from the law, the film shrewdly mixes commercial ingredients and ideological intent. “It would be difficult to underestimate Melvin Van Peebles’s achievement in producing, directing, writing, scoring and starring in this film, not to mention financing it with the salary he had earned while directing “Watermelon Man” (1970). Not since Oscar Micheaux had an African American filmmaker taken such complete control of the creative process, turning out a work so deeply connected to his own personal and cultural reality that he was not surprised when the white critical establishment professed bewilderment upon its release in 1971. Filled with enough sex, rage and violence to earn it an X rating, the success of “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” depends less on its story of a superstud running from the police than it does on its disinterest in referencing white culture and its radically new understanding of how style and substance inform each other,” wrote Steven Higgins in “Still Moving: The Film and Media Collections of the Museum of Modern Art.” MoMA has preserve the film from its original camera negative.

Wattstax (1973)
Often called the “Black Woodstock,” this documentary from Memphis’ Stax Records stands as far more than simply a great concert film. “Wattstax” chronicles the renowned 1972 LA Memorial Coliseum concert and celebrates the Los Angeles’ black community’s rebirth after the tragedy of the Watts riots a few years earlier. Richard Pryor’s knowing monologues frame and serve as a Shakespearean musing on race relations and Black American life, alongside the incisive comments from people on the Watts streets. “Wattstax” also features dazzling music highlights  from artists such as Isaac Hayes and the Staple Singers, capped  by Rufus Thomas dancing the Funky Chicken in hot pants.

With Car and Camera Around the World (1929)
Filmed from 1922 to 1929, “With Car and Camera Around the World” (1929) documented the expeditions of Walter Wanderwell and Aloha Wanderwell Baker, the first woman to travel around the world by car. The couple, along with a crew of volunteers, crisscrossed dozens of countries in a caravan of Ford Model Ts, filming people, cultures and historical landmarks on 35mm film. Learning the filmmaking craft along the way, Aloha served as camera assistant, cinematographer, editor, actress, screenwriter, interpreter, driver, negotiator, and, at times, director. The Academy has preserved both edited and unedited shots from “With Car and Camera Around the World” in addition to a few sequences and outtakes from other films, including “The Last of the Bororos” (1931), “The River of Death” (1934) and “To See the World by Car” (1937). More information is available at: https://www.oscars.org/film-archive/collections/aloha-wanderwell-film-collection

Films Selected for the 2020 National Film Registry
(chronological order)

1. Suspense (1913)
2. Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)
3. Bread (1918)
4. The Battle of the Century (1927)
5. With Car and Camera Around the World (1929)
6. Cabin in the Sky (1943)
7. Outrage (1950)
8. The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
9. Lilies of the Field (1963)
10. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
11. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971)
12. Wattstax (1973)
13. Grease (1978)
14. The Blues Brothers (1980)
15. Losing Ground (1982)
16. Illusions (1982)
17. The Joy Luck Club (1993)
18. The Devil Never Sleeps (1994)
19. Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
20. The Ground (1993-2001)
21. Shrek (2001)
22. Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege (2006)
23. The Hurt Locker (2008)
24. The Dark Knight (2008)
25. Freedom Riders (2010)

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A labor economist by training, Yellen has spoken in favor of additional short-term stimulus to help sustain the economy during the covid-19 pandemic. She has been a strong supporter of a carbon tax. And she has argued that insufficient tax revenue, not rising costs for programs such as Medicare and Social Security, are largely to blame for exploding budget deficits.

If confirmed, Yellen would arguably be the most influential public policy economist of our time. Previously, she was the first woman to chair the Federal Reserve Board. She headed the Council of Economic Advisers under President Bill Clinton. Before that, she was an economics professor at Harvard and the University of California at Berkeley.

As an expert in labor economics and, of course, monetary policy, Yellen has not written or spoken prolifically on taxes. But she has made her views known on several key tax issues. Here’s a closer look at her thinking:

Carbon tax. Yellen was a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council, a bipartisan group of influential economists and business leaders that aims to find a “cost-effect climate policy solution.” The group’s top priority: A carbon tax.

She also has worked with international groups to build consensus for such a levy. The concept has broad support among economists across the political spectrum because it harnesses market forces to solve an environmental problem. But Yellen’s coming role as Treasury Secretary could boost prospects for the idea.

While Biden made climate change a key element in his agenda, he has not endorsed a carbon tax. Yellen, however, has been an outspoken backer. In an October 8 interview with Reuters, Yellen was even upbeat about its political chances:  “There’s no question that if…the Biden administration comes into place then climate change will be a very high priority… I do see Republican support, and not only Democrat support, for an approach that would involve a carbon tax with redistribution. It’s not politically impossible.”

Tax cuts and deficits. In an April 8, 2018 Washington Post column written jointly with four former CEA chairs, Yellen was sharply critical of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that Congress enacted four months earlier.  She and her coauthors wrote, “The primary reason the deficit in coming years will now be higher than had been expected is the reduction in tax revenue from last year’s tax cuts, not an increase in spending.”

To reduce debt over the long term, government should run smaller deficits when the economy is strong. Yet, they said, “Last year’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act turned that economic logic on its head. The economy was already at or close to full employment and did not need a boost.”  Yellen is likely to play a key role when the Biden Administration attempts to confront a burgeoning national debt.

Social Security. In that same essay, Yellen and her coauthors said the growth of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other federal entitlement programs was not the primary cause of rising federal debt. Insufficient revenue was. However, they also urged government to restore Social Security solvency through “adjustments in both spending and revenue.”

They added, “Additional revenue is critical because Social Security has become even more vital as fewer and fewer people have defined-benefit pensions.” Biden is likely to address other issues first, but with Social Security scheduled to become insolvent by 2035 or sooner, keep an eye on Yellen’s views.

Income inequality. Yellen has been concerned about income inequality for years and has explored several solutions. Notably, using the tax code to redistribute income, an idea favored by some Democrats on the left, is not among her priorities. Her focus has been on increasing wealth and income opportunities for low-income people rather than reducing the wealth of those at the top of the income distribution.

In one of her first speeches as Fed Chair, Yellen outlined four “building blocks” to increase incomes and build wealth: Resources for children, affordable higher education, and opportunities for business ownership and inheritances. Through his presidential campaign, Biden seemed to echo many of Yellen’s ideas, especially her views on the importance of education and business ownership. And inequality will be an important issue for his presidency.

Stimulus: In joint testimony before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on July 17, Yellen and former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke called for further aggressive pandemic relief: “With interest rates extremely low and likely to remain so for some time, we do not believe that concerns about the deficit and debt should prevent the Congress from responding robustly to this emergency. The top priorities at this time should be protecting our citizens from the pandemic and pursuing a stronger and equitable economic recovery.”

Yellen said the top economic priorities of that measure should be assistance to state and local governments. She said, “federal support should be substantial and conditions on the aid should not be overly restrictive.”

In Janet Yellen, Biden has chosen a Treasury Secretary who is highly respected among her peers and who is largely in sync with his own economic views. She’ll likely play a key role in building his economic agenda.

From  Bloomberg

By  Olivia Carville/Katie Roof/Crystal Tse

Airbnb Inc. shares more than doubled in their trading debut, propelling the home-rental company to about a $100 billion valuation and one of the biggest first-day rallies on record.

The shares closed Thursday at $144.71 up 113% from the $68 initial public offering price. The listing came 10 months after the Covid-19 pandemic upended travel and 24 hours after DoorDash Inc. soared in its public debut.

Airbnb joined DoorDash in what is quickly becoming a euphoric moment for new listings in America’s equity markets, egged on by retail investors embracing companies poised to thrive as vaccines promise a loosening of pandemic restrictions. While soaring valuations for IPOs give many market veterans pause, Airbnb is at least earning money, unlike 80% of firms that have sold new shares in 2020. The company just reported its most profitable quarter ever.

“I don’t know what else to say,” Airbnb Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky said in an earlier Bloomberg Television interview, when indications showed the stock could open at more than $139 per share. “I’m very humbled by it.”

Airbnb’s market value, based on its outstanding shares, makes it the world’s biggest online travel company. Its $86.5 billion market value narrowly tops Booking Holdings Inc.’s $86.2 billion market capitalization, and eclipses Expedia Group Inc. and TripAdvisor Inc. Airbnb’s market value, about 19 or 20 times its 2021 revenue at the opening price Thursday, also topped that of the four largest public hotel chains combined.

San Francisco-based Airbnb’s fully diluted valuation is even higher, around $100 billion including employee stock options and restricted stock units.

‘Resilient’ Model

Alfred Lin, a Sequoia Capital partner who sits on the boards of both Airbnb and DoorDash, said the past two days have been a blur. Strong investor demand shows investors recognize Airbnb’s potential, he said.

“We’ve seen how resilient this business model is and we’ve seen the company stare into the abyss of a pandemic that shut down global travel and figure their way out of it,” Lin said.

DoorDash’s debut surge — elevating its fully diluted value to about $71 billion — played a role in Airbnb’s discussion about pricing its IPO above the marketed range, according to people familiar with the matter. An Airbnb representative declined to comment.

For More: DoorDash Pop Stokes Renewed Debate on IPO Pricing to Perfection

To hang on to its lofty valuation, Airbnb will need to grapple with a litany of threats, as outlined in its IPO prospectus, ranging from a surge in party houses that carry liability risks to an increase in professionally run properties that lack the charm that made Airbnb rentals famous.

IPO Record

Airbnb and DoorDash propelled IPO volume to all-time high for December, surpassing the $8.3 billion mark set for the month in both 2001 and 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

There’s more to come. Other consumer-facing web-based companies set to go public this month include video-game company Roblox Corp., installment loans provider Affirm Holdings Inc. and ContextLogic Inc., the parent of online discount retailer Wish Inc. Those listings will add to what is already a record year for IPOs, with more than $167 billion raised on U.S. exchanges, including Airbnb and DoorDash, the data show.

Airbnb’s offering was led by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Its shares trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol ABNB.

Pandemic Crush

San Francisco-based Airbnb has seen a bounce back in domestic bookings since the early days of the pandemic crushed demand.

“No year in our history has been as wild and crazy and defining as this year,” Chesky said in an earlier interview, from the original Airbnb apartment on Rausch Street in San Francisco where the idea for the company was born in 2007.

For More: Airbnb’s $3.1 Billion IPO Hinges on Rentals That Feel Like Home

In the past 13 years, Airbnb has totally upended the travel market, given people an opportunity for income and created a whole new market for services related to real estate and hosts.

The company’s IPO plans were put on hold in March as the pandemic ground global travel to a halt. By April, room bookings and experiences had plunged 72%. Airbnb rolled out a blanket refund policy and doled out more than $1 billion in cancellation fees.

By June, though, things were starting to look up. City dwellers who were sick of being stuck inside their homes got in their cars and drove to mountain towns and rural communities, often setting up for weeks or months at a time as work-from-home policies allowed.

Domestic Boost

International travel was down, but demand for domestic, short-distance trips and stays outside of the top 20 cities proved resilient.

In the third quarter, Airbnb’s revenue declined only 18%, compared to the near 60% decline for Expedia and Marriott International Inc. The three-month period was also Airbnb’s most profitable ever when adjusted for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

For the first nine months of 2020, Airbnb had a net loss of $697 million on revenue of $2.5 billion, compared with a net loss of $323 million on revenue of $3.7 billion for the same period last year, according to its filings.

Reid Hoffman, of early Airbnb investor Greylock Partners, credited the company’s leadership with steering the company through the pandemic crisis. That included making difficult decisions to refund guests while providing partial payments to hosts, even though that had the painful consequence of laying off 25% of its employees, he said.

“Today, Airbnb is thriving, and when effective vaccines are broadly available, it will no doubt adapt to those changed circumstances as well,” Hoffman said.

Founders’ Control

Airbnb’s four classes of stock give holders of its Class B — with 20 votes each compared to one each for the Class A shares sold in the IPO — control of the company.

Chesky, with co-founders Nathan Blecharczyk and Joseph Gebbia, will have 42.9% of the company’s voting power, according to its filings. Sequoia Capital will have 16.4% of the voting power, the filings show.

Another early investor in both Airbnb and DoorDash, Ron Conway, distinguished current market enthusiasm and valuations from the dot.com bubble era two decades ago.

“It’s not like the last bubble where you had companies that were two years old with no revenues getting a $20 billion market cap,” said Conway. “You have companies that are 10 years old with very significant revenues.”

— With assistance by Patrick Clark

These seven women represent fascinating examples of the experiences of women in ancient Rome. Read on to discover the amazing details of their lives.

Graeco-Roman terracotta sculpture of two seated women, possibly the goddesses Demeter and Persephone, 100 BC, via The British Museum, London

Women in ancient Rome rarely make the headlines of Roman history. But when they do it is a depiction presented largely through the eyes of men, which is often prone to idealization and sensationalism. Roman women are praised for their beauty and virtue, cunning and dishonesty in equal measure, with little middle ground.

The Roman male gaze focused on three main archetypes: the wife, the domestic matron, and the sexual object. The seven women presented here cover the full social range, from the Roman empress Livia, to the freedwoman Regina and the mother Agrippina the Younger. On the surface, each fits into at least one of the archetypical categories. But digging deeper into the details of their lives often reveals a more complex and multi-faceted character. Here are seven women in ancient Rome who embodied all of these traits.

The Role Of Women In Ancient Rome

Women in ancient Rome had the legal status of ‘minors in law’. This put them on a par with children and marginally above slaves. Most free born women were under the legal control of a man, normally a male relative. This power was known as patria potestas, which translates roughly as ‘fatherly power’. The only real exceptions to this were priestesses, such as the Vestal Virgins.

In the republican era, this power could transfer to the husband, often accompanied by a financial sum. Roman women had little economic or practical freedom. Instead, their fundamental role, in the eyes of Roman society, was to provide legal heirs for their husbands. They were also expected to run the everyday life of their household and manage everything from slaves to making clothes. By the imperial era, women could inherit property, which, particularly if their husbands had died, allowed them greater financial liberty.

Agrippina The Younger: Ruthless Mother Of Rome

Of all the imperial women in ancient Rome, Agrippina the Younger (AD 15–59), is perhaps the most notorious. Agrippina had an impressive royal pedigree. She was the sister of Emperor Caligula, the niece and wife of Emperor Claudius and the mother of Emperor Nero. At the tender age of 13 Agrippina the Younger married Gnaius Domitius Ahenobarbus and bore him one son, Nero, in AD 37. She was highly ambitious from a young age. At 24 she was convicted of being involved in a political conspiracy and banished into exile. Her uncle, Emperor Claudius, brought her out of exile and married her in AD 49.

Agrippina the Younger was now Roman empress, also known as ‘Augusta’, a title of which she was particularly proud. However, both Claudius and his heir Britannicus soon died, within a year of each other. The historical sources imply that Nero and Agrippina had arranged to have them poisoned.

Nero, aged 16, was now free to reign as emperor. But, initially, it was Agrippina the Younger who took control of important political and military decisions. But as Nero grew older he became irritated with his mother’s interference. After Agrippina’s disapproval of his latest mistress, he decided to have her murdered. Strong-willed to the end, she survived an attempted drowning by swimming ashore. But Nero’s freedman, Anticetus, stabbed her to death in March AD 59.

Most of what we know about this infamous Roman empress comes from the historians Tacitus and Suetonius. Tacitus describes her as a woman of ‘feminine rage’ and ‘natural greed’, while Suetonius even refers to her as ‘incestuous’. However, these men had their own literary and political agendas. It is quite likely that much of what we know of Agrippina the Younger today is a vastly exaggerated account of an ambitious mother with misplaced ideals.

Livia Drusilla: The First Roman Empress

In 39 BC, Livia Drusilla (58 BC–AD 29) married Gaius Octavius. In 27 BC, Octavius would become Emperor Augustus, first ruler of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and founder of the Roman Principate. Livia Drusilla became the first Roman empress. She and Augustus were devoted to each other and remained married until Augustus’ death in AD 14.

Augustus elevated Livia to a status rarely seen with later emperors. She was his wife but also his advisor and confidante. Aided by Livia, Augustus set in place a number of conservative reforms of Roman society. He launched an ambitious building program for temples in Rome and introduced legislation promoting family values. Livia appears to have been the ultimate example of the ideal wife in early imperial Rome. She was beautiful, intelligent, and loyal, with strong moral principles.

Some sources view Livia as manipulative and overbearing. These opinions were perhaps largely fuelled by the fact that she had risen to a position of relative power. Many men thought that power was dangerous for women in ancient Rome.

Some years after her death in AD 29, Livia was deified like her husband before her. She became a symbol of the univira. This term roughly equates to ‘a one-man woman’. It was an ideal to which all Roman women were expected to aspire. She never remarried after Augustus’ death and was closely involved in the administration of his posthumous cult.

Livia left an impressive legacy in her wake. She was not just the first Roman empress but she was also the first woman in western history to have been officially commemorated over an extended period of time. Her image can be found today on numerous state-sanctioned coins, statues, and paintings.

Julia The Elder: Rebellious Imperial Daughter

Julia the Elder (39 BC–AD 14), was the only daughter of Emperor Augustus and step-daughter of the Roman Empress Livia. Her early years were spent living in accordance with the strict, conservative values of Augustus and Livia. This period perhaps sowed the seed for the rebellious nature of her adult life.

Julia was married three times. Her third marriage to her step-brother Tiberius, the future emperor, was a very unhappy union and she is said to have had multiple affairs. Many of the historical sources focus on her promiscuity. Seneca even claims that she acted as a prostitute in the streets, taking many ‘clients’ in a night.

In 2 BC, Julia was arrested for treason and adultery in a scandal which rocked the imperial household. Julia’s social circle included those who thought Tiberius was an unfit successor to Augustus. She was convicted of being a conspirator in a plot to assassinate him.

Augustus was the man who many believed had brought a sense of virtue and justice back to Rome. He could not be seen to be lenient towards his daughter. Instead of having her executed, he exiled her to the tiny island of Pandateria. In AD 4, she was moved to Rhegium and was given a small allowance. When Tiberius became emperor he withdrew his ex-wife’s financial support and left her destitute. She died of malnutrition in AD 14 and was not even allowed to be buried in the family tomb.

While Julia is often associated with scandal, the satirist Macrobius presents a different picture of her. He describes her as witty, popular, and of a great intellect, with a particular passion for Latin literature. It is argued by some scholars that she had an involvement with the love poet Ovid. Ovid was also exiled by Augustus, perhaps due to his relationship with Julia.

Clodia: Medea Of The Palatine And Poet’s Muse

Clodia Pulchra is another of the many women in ancient Rome who were readily condemned by scandal. Born around 96 BC into an ancient noble family, she married into another family of long lineage in her union with Metellus Celer. She was also the sister of the notorious Publius Clodius Pulcher, who became tribune of the plebs in 58 BC. Clodius was a violent troublemaker who made many enemies during his tenure, notably the orator and politician Cicero.

In 56 BC, Cicero acted in the defense of Marcus Caelius Rufus. Caelius Rufus had conducted an open affair with Clodia while she was married. After it ended, Clodia accused him of attempting to poison her. During the trial, Cicero launched a vicious attack on Clodia, perhaps largely due to his personal feud with her brother. He is said to have nicknamed her the Medea of the Palatine and accused her of incest with her brother.

A rumour spread through Roman high society claiming that Clodia had slept with half of Rome during her marriage to Metellus Celer. One of her most famous liaisons is believed to have been with the poet Catullus. We do not know for sure but Clodia is the most likely candidate behind the pseudonym ‘Lesbia’ in Catullus’ poetry. This created a poetic link between Clodia and the Greek poet of Lesbos, Sappho, who was a great inspiration to Catullus.

Catullus charts the course of his relationship with Clodia, from the early flames of passion to the anger and despair at their parting. His poems are one of the earliest Latin examples of personal, lyric poetry where the poet examines his innermost thoughts on love. This work went on to inspire countless poets, from Virgil to W. B. Yeats. Clodia is therefore at the heart of one of the greatest innovations in western poetry.

Boudicca: Queen Of The Iceni And Enemy of Rome

Boudicca was the wife of Prasutagus and queen of the Iceni. The Iceni were a tribe belonging to a client kingdom of East Anglia in Roman Britain. Client kingdoms were set up in various Roman provinces around the Empire. They were semi-autonomous but also had obligations to Rome. Prasutagus died in AD 60/61, in his will he left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and Emperor Nero. Not long after, Roman officials visited the Iceni, ignored the will and attempted to take power for themselves. They beat Boudicca and raped her daughters. Once the men left, Boudicca plotted her revenge.

She waited until the Roman governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, and his legions were occupied in the west of Britain. Then, with help from the Trinovantes, a local tribe, the Iceni launched their revolt against the Romans under Boudicca’s command. Unlike women in ancient Rome, women in Roman Britain were embraced as leaders in war.

At first, Boudicca and her forces were very successful and invaded Camulodunum (Colchester), Londinium (London), and Verulamium (St. Albans). The historian Tacitus suggests that over 70,000 people were killed during the attacks. Roman officials were treated particularly harshly and many were tortured to death. The Roman governor Paulinus soon heard of the revolt and marched eastward with a large number of skilled legionary soldiers. His men outnumbered the Iceni and quickly defeated them.

Instead of surrendering, Boudicca is said to have drunk a vial of poison. She preferred to die by her own hand, rather than become a Roman slave.

Boudicca’s courageous story has captured the imaginations of many artists and writers throughout the centuries. She was apparently even a source of inspiration for the British queen Elizabeth I. She stands as a symbol of freedom and female strength, and as one who dared to defy the might of Rome.

Regina: Freedwoman Of Roman Britain

In 1878 in the North East of England, archaeologists excavated one of the most fascinating Roman tombstones ever discovered in Britain. The tombstone, pictured above, has a detailed but heavily worn relief carving of a seated woman with an epitaph inscription below. This inscription is in two languages: Latin and, unusually, Syrian Aramaic. What exactly was an Aramaic inscription doing in the north of England?

The text answers some questions for us. The woman depicted is Regina from the Catuvellauni tribe, a freedwoman and wife who was 30 years old when she died. The dedicator of the tombstone is her husband, Barates of Palmyra, Syria. Barates has chosen to honour his wife in both Latin, the official language of Roman Britain, and Palmyrene Aramaic, his native tongue. It is likely that Barates was a merchant or army official who relocated to Britain where he met or bought Regina.

Accurate details about the lives of women from the non-elite sections of Roman society are hard to come by. Regina’s tombstone is an excellent example of why that is.

The imagery surrounding Regina combines Roman and Syrian elements. The emphasis on her jewelry is a Syrian motif. Regina is wearing bracelets and a necklace and her hand rests on a locked jewelry box. The items around her have Roman connotations. In her lap is a spindle for spinning wool and at her feet is a basket of wool to be worked on. This image of spinning wool is an idealised representation of the Roman matrona.

But there is nothing to represent Regina’s home tribe, the Catuvellauni, from whom she was presumably sold into slavery as a young girl. Her tombstone is therefore a striking example of how women in ancient Rome had identities and ideals imposed upon them with little space remaining for self-representation.

Cornelia: Chief Vestal Virgin Of Rome

Vestal virgins were a unique category of women in ancient Rome. Their status as priestesses granted them certain freedom but also imposed strict limitations upon them. Vestals were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. Therefore, one of the Vestals’ main duties was to keep alive the flame of Vesta, housed within her temple in the Forum. If the flame went out it was considered to be a terrible omen for the city.

Vestals were expected to be sexually pure and therefore did not marry or have children. They were not under the protection of a man which allowed them greater freedom than other women in ancient Rome. However, there were also great sacrifices to be made. Vestals were selected as children and went to live in the House of the Vestals near the Forum. They would remain there for 30 years. Throughout this time they were expected to abide by their vow of chastity.

In around AD 90, in the reign of Emperor Domitian, Cornelia the Chief Vestal at the time, was convicted of violating this vow. Pliny the Younger tells us that Domitian, as emperor and head priest, found Cornelia guilty in her absence. She was denied the right to prove her innocence and was sentenced to death. Domitian decided to reinstate one of the most barbaric forms of execution in the Roman world – she was to be buried alive. Her ‘lover’, named Celer by Pliny, was to be publicly flogged to death.

Pliny argues that Cornelia was likely innocent of her ‘crimes’ and was the victim of Domitian’s violent desire to bring back traditional moral values. His obsessions and cruelty resulted in him later being erased from official state records in a process known as damnatio memoriae.

On the day of execution, Cornelia was taken to the Campus Sceleratus, an underground chamber outside the city walls. Just before she entered she is said to have caught her dress on a rock. As the priests moved to assist her, she declined their help and walked calmly into the chamber to meet her unjust death with dignity and grace.

Understanding Women In Ancient Rome

The details of the lives of these seven women can tell us a lot about the experiences of women in ancient Rome. In many ways, these women led quite different lives from one another. But what unites them is that they were all women living in a man’s world. We must remember that the images and historical portrayals of these women that we have today are shaped by the men who created them. They have had identities, social ideals, and injustices imposed upon them, which has arguably obscured their true selves. Despite this, however, these seven fascinating women from the past have still continued to shine their own lights some two thousand years later.