| Release Date: |
Jan 1975 |
| Genre: |
Drama / Biography |
| Cast: |
Topol (Galileo Galilei), James Aubrey (Monk-Scholar), Colin Blakely (Priuli), Robert Bridges (Fat Prelate), Georgia Brown (Ballad Singer's Wife), Tom Chatto (Town Crier), Dermot Colman (Choirboy), Tom Conti (Andrea Sarti (man)), Paul Curran (Mathematician), Mischa De La Motte (Third Sacristan), Richard Dennis (Peasant), Vernon Dobtcheff (First Secretary), Edward Fox (Cardinal Inquisitor), John Gielgud (The Old Cardinal), William Gossling (First Sacristan), Michael Gough (Sagredo), Andrew Harding (Choirboy), Brian Hawksley (Second Sacristan), Basil Henson (Infuriated Monk), Ian Hoare (Duke Cosimo di Medici), Harold Innocent (Second Secretary-Informer), Robert Langdon Lloyd (Monk-Scholar (as Robert Lloyd)), Mary Larkin (Virginia), Margaret Leighton (Elderly Court Lady), Michael Lonsdale (Cardinal Barberini (later Pope Urban...), Patrick Magee (Cardinal Bellarmin), John McEnery (Federzoni), Martin Milman (Monk-Scholar), John Moffatt (Philosopher), Richard O'Callaghan (Fulganzio), Robert Owens (Choirboy), Judy Parfitt (Angelica Sarti), Maurice Quick (Fourth Sacristan), Ronald Radd (Vanni), Clive Revill (Ballad Singer), John Savident (Second Senator), Norman Scace (First Senator), John Sharp (Monk Official), Leon Silver (Monk-Scholar), Madeline Smith (Young Court Lady), Job Stewart (Monk-Scholar), Peggy Thorpe-Bates (Court Lady), Iain Travers (Andrea Sarti (boy)), Bill Wallis (Supporting Monk), Charles West (Rector-Gaffone), William Wild (Guard), Tim Woodward (Ludovico Marsili), Henry Woolf (Father Clavius), Ken Wynne (Court Official) |
This bio-pic is about Galileo, the 17th century Italian who laid the foundations of modern science. Galileo made himself one of the world's first telescopes and discovered the moons of Jupiter. He supported Copernicus' theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun. This brought him in conflict with the Catholic Church. By threatening him with torture, the Church forced him to recant his views in front of a tribunal, and sentenced him to house arrest. However, Galileo's trials and theories inspired others like Newton and Kepler to prove that the Earth was not the centre of the Universe. Some years ago, the Pope accepted that Earth does revolve around the Sun and issued a rare apology for what the Church had done to Galileo, i.e., the Catholic Church recanted!
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