Cabiria

Three hundred years Before Christ, the volcanic Mount Etna erupts during an earthquake, destroying the Sicilian palace and estate where little "Cabiria" (Carolina Catena) lives. The young heiress manages to escape through a secret stairway leading underground, carried by nursemaid Gina Marangoni (as Croessa). When the dust clears, little "Cabiria" is believed to be dead and buried in the ruble. After escaping the devastation, she and Ms. Marangoni are sold as slaves, in Carthage.

Next, "Cabiria" is to be sacrificed as a burnt offering to "Moloch", a brazen God who likes to eat children.

Nurse Marangoni tries to save the girl, but is whipped for her efforts. She enlists help from Roman patrician Umberto Mozzato (as Fulvius Axilla) and his loyal dark-skinned slave Bartolomeo Pagano (as Maciste). With the muscular Mr. Pagano leading the charge, they rescue "Cabiria" from the fiery jaws of death. Obviously, this makes the God and his minions angry. The trio hideout at an inn while the plot thickens. Shuttled once more, "Cabiria" grows into a beautiful young woman, Lidia Quaranta (as Elissa).

Written, produced, and directed by Giovanni Pastrone, "Cabiria" is a classic early spectacular.

Most famous was Mr. Pastrone's use of camera tracking shots; this movement of camera increased the scope, and excitement, of motion pictures. He likes screen movement, as you'll see. This film also features Mr. Pagano's star-making role as the long-running character "Maciste". In fact, Pagano and Mr. Mozzato are the real "stars" of this story; after they save "Cabiria" from sacrifice, you care more about seeing them - especially "Maciste" - than you do about the frequently disappearing "Cabiria".

******* Cabiria (4/18/14) Giovanni Pastrone ~ Umberto Mozzato, Bartolomeo Pagano, Lidia Quaranta, Italia Almirante-Manzini

Without Gabriele D'Annunzio's florid commentary this film would have been substantially shorter, while the hammy "silent film" acting and melodramatic storytelling lags far behind Scandinavian cinema of this period. But technically this super-production from Italy otherwise blazes a colossal trail that plainly led the way for the silent spectacles of Griffith, DeMille and Lang; while the sense of fun of the action scenes (particularly a scene depicting the formation of a human pyramid to scale a wall) anticipates Fairbanks at his jauntiest.

Beginning with the eruption of Mount Etna (and a lot of toppling pillars) the pace never lets up. Next comes a truly hair-raising scene depicting infants cast into the flaming maw of a statue of Moloch (whose Temple - with three round windows that make it's façade resemble the face of an enormous spider - is one of the many deliriously stylised designs that obviously later inspired Lang and others during the early twenties); while later we see Archimedes gleefully incinerating the Roman fleet with history's first death ray during the Siege of Syracuse. Throw in the boisterous crowd scenes and graceful tracking shots director Pastrone innovatively employs throughout (far more elegant than Griffith's work of the same period) and we have the template for the historical epic as it existed for the next half-century.

'Cabiria' also displays a major advance in the use of special effects that marks a decisive break with the trick films of Georges Méliès. Skillful use is made throughout of double exposures to make the action and the locations look even grander in scale than they already are (such as Hannibal crossing the Alps). And there is an additional bonus in the form of an extraordinary dream sequence that anticipates by ten years Walter Ruttmann's 'Falkentraum' sequence in Lang's 'Die Nibelungen'.

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.)

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.