Iconographies of medieval theater and iconographies of pioneer Cinema: A scene from Michael Curtiz's 1956 film "The Vagabond King"

Abstract

This study analyses a sequence from Michael Curtiz’s film The Vagabond King (1956). It is a scene that is presented as a parenthesis not only of musical but also of theatrical representation, whose iconographic references are rooted in medieval mysteria (in this case, the Ordo Representationis Ade) and the cinema of Georges Méliès. The motif of the biblical apple is analysed as a political key in which the anti-monarchical character of the figure of the poet Villon and political systems such as that of the USA, the country that produced the film, coincide.