Cabiria

This was a confusing, yet highly important, one to watch. I have to say that I haven't watched a silent film in a long time so adjusting to the many, many differences was a struggle. I found the captions to be really lacking in clarity. I appreciate the beauty of their writing but I'm not really trying to decode poetry when watching a silent epic, you know? It's not even that, really, it was the constant introduction of new names without describing who they were or what the hell their problem was. I was under the impression that the captions would describe what was about to happen, but really they just introduced it, which meant that I understood a bit of what was happening before their mouths kept moving and their arms started flailing and fights started happening and I was lost again. I definitely wish I had a historian in my room just quietly explaining where these ancient cities were and why everyone was so upset all the time. I could Google it while watching but I have a strict rule against touching my phone while a movie is on. Try to read up on the context surrounding the story before watching if you can.

Anyway, the sets were grand even by today's standards and that impressed me a lot. Even the special effects they utilized were outstanding, because at that time in cinema, they weren't special effects as much as they were visual tricks that the filmmakers had to figure out and pioneer on their own essentially. I really liked the Maciste character and I wasn't surprised to find that he was extremely popular when this movie came out, too. The naked children everywhere and live birds flying around a set that is actively crumbling and in flames was bananas! It made me wonder how many people/animals died on sets back before there were regulations. The story had many complexities to it and that was cool. It definitely deserves it's title as an epic. It is not an easy watch, but it is a worthwhile one. No doubt it was piloted by a strong plot. I agree with the many others who have said that this is a must-see for people who truly love film. I definitely recommend it and am happy to have it in my movie collection.

An engrossing historical melodrama with all the trimmings, "Cabiria" would be rather impressive if it had been made in the mid- or late- 1920's, and the fact that it was made in 1914 is astounding. While it was widely known in its time, and apparently was once given full credit for its influence on other film-makers, it has been largely forgotten today, for no good reason. The story is involved and ambitious, the settings and scale are lavish and creative, and the historical scenario comes from the fascinating (if today little-known) period of the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. It's all very good in its own right, and it's even more of a success when you consider the new ground they had to break in bringing it all together so well.

The story blends together several fictional and several historical characters, centering on the adventures and misfortunes of the girl Cabiria. As in any melodrama, there are some implausible developments, yet it rarely seems overly forced. The historical setting is used creatively, both to drive the action and to provide interesting settings and characters. While it is clearly fiction, it takes fewer liberties with history than do many other movies with historical settings, since it is designed for entertainment rather than to promote a particular viewpoint.

And as entertainment, it delivers handsomely. This is well worth the trouble to find for anyone who enjoys watching silent movies. It is also worth seeing if you have even a passing interest in the development of cinema, because few movies have ever been so creative in using and improving upon the means available in their own era.

1914 was quite a year. Charlie Chaplin made his film debut, WWI began -- and set the stage for a lot of what happened in the 20th century -- and my great-grandparents immigrated to the United States (sorry, I couldn't resist adding that last one).

But that year also saw the release of Giovanni Pastrone's "Cabiria". This epic depicts the kidnapping of a Sicilian girl following an eruption of Mt. Etna, her sale into slavery in Carthage, and a Roman nobleman's quest to rescue her. It's like nothing that you've ever seen before.

The movie has drawn controversy due to its depiction of the Romans as pure and the Carthaginians as monstrous (thereby glorifying the idea of Italian supremacy). To be certain, producer Gabriele d'Annunzio's ideology influenced Benito Mussolini, although d'Annunzio had no actual association with Il Duce.

Regardless of that, the movie is still a fun -- and visually breathtaking -- romp. Maciste got his own series of movies. The ones immediately after "Cabiria" starred Bartolomeo Pagano, and then there was a new series in the 1960s.

Anyway, really cool!

Silent films don't have much of an audience these days. Be that as it may, I would like to recommend this film as a hugely influential costume epic that had great influence over the likes of D.W. Griffith (who did Intolerence right after!), Cecil B. DeMille, and even Fritz Lang (when he did Metropolis). Sure, it's long and it's got one of those convuluted plotlines typical of the period and historically it's crap, but the sets and costumes have to be seen to be believed! The scale of things is just fantastic, with giant temples and houses, all sorts of huge rooms and decoration all over anything, and hundreds and hundreds of extras with fabulous costumes, all done in pastiche of styles that range from Egyptian to Babylonian to this whole weird Indian look, although it's all set in North Africa. Then there's the melodramatic acting, which really can't be judged by today's standards, as there are few subtitles of dialogue, only very grand and wordy intertitles summarzing the plot and offering odes to gods and goddesses. This movie is a must-see if you're studying the history of epic films, early full-length movie, Griffith, etc., and even if you're not, it's a hoot (at least until half-way through, at which point you may decide you've had enough of the plot and can guess the rest.)

This is one grand looking and made movie, with plenty of mass sequences, impressive sets and costumes and a story that just screams epic.

It's pretty nice to see how some early film-makers got influenced by this movie. Film-makers such as Fritz Lang, D.W. Griffith, who were also all pioneers by themselves. They were obviously inspired by some of the sequences, its scale, sets and compositions, since this movie in some of its sequences show some definite similarities to some sequences in movies such as "Metropolis" and "Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages". Only in that regard you can already call this movie an innovative and important movie. Its sets, compositions and just overall way of story-telling were all quite new and innovating for its time. It's also the first ever movie to use a dolly-track system, which provides the movie with a couple of nice moments as well.

The movie its story is very epic, since it's set at many different locations, with also many different characters. It features historical well known figures such as Hannibal, Hasdrubal, Scipio, Archimede, Massinissa, which makes the movie real interesting but is also one of its weaker points, since it makes the movie and its story-telling a bit disjointed at parts.

It perhaps also makes the movie feel overlong in parts, even though the movie is only about 2 hours long (well, depending on which version you'll watch), which is actually quite short for an epic movie, especially for one that got made early in the 20th century. 4 hour epics from the same time period are no rarity. The movie just goes on for a bit too long with some of its sequences. After a while you get the point but the scene will just go on and on. It doesn't always makes this an easy but pleasant movie to watch.

But overall the movie of course is pleasant as well as impressive, not only because of its visuals but also because of its story that is actually quite adventurous, as long as it knows to focus on the movie its key players. It's adventurous in the same way as a movie like "Ben-Hur" for instance.

Also especially when you realize that this is an 1914 movie, it's a real excellent, innovative and interesting, fun movie to watch.

8/10

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