Re-embroidering the Bayeux Tapestry in Film and Media: The Flip Side of History in Opening and End Title Sequences

Abstract

This essay explores homologies between the Tapestry and cinema, focusing on the opening title sequences of several films that cite the Bayeux Tapestry, including The Vikings; Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves; Bedknobs and Broomsticks; Blackadder; and La Chanson de Roland. The cinematic adaptation of a medieval artifact such as the Bayeux Tapestry suggests that history, whether located in the archive, museum, or movie medievalism, always has a more or less obscure and parodic flip side, and that history, written or cinematic, tells a narrative disturbed by uncanny hauntings and ghostly citations.

Keywords:

• BAYEUX TAPESTRY
• MEDIEVAL
• FILM
• SCROLL
• OPENING TITLE SEQUENCE
• PARODY
• CREDITS
• PARATEXT