Film: Cabiria
Director: Giovanni Pastrone
Country: Italy
Released: April 1914
Runtime: 180 minutes
Genre: Epic
Studio: Itala Film
Influenced: D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, Federico Fellini, Martin Scorsese
So, here we go – 365 landmark films in 365 days. My furious, perhaps doomed, attempt to write a whirlwind history of a century of cinema from the 1910s to the noughties. The 1910s was the decade in which cinema really came of age, with a wave of epic movies based on stories from the classical world and the Bible. Italy was a forerunner in this new genre of film, with Quo Vadis? (Guazzoni) released in 1913 and Cabiria (Pastrone) in 1914, both inspired by Roman history.
Cabiria is a filmic vision of third century BC Carthage. Noticeable differences compared to early cinema are the breadth and scope of the film (clocking in at a more modern run time of 2 hours+), as well as the more elaborate, 3D sets and the moving (not static) camera that produced longer takes and the first example of a zoom tracking shot (using a "carrello", or dolly). Special effects also go up notch during this period of time, with Cabiria featuring a realistic portrayal of the explosion of Mount Etna and burning ships thanks to intricate miniature models.
Cinema in its early phase was still heavily reliant on older art forms such as theatre, classical music, opera and epic literature, and took a while to tread its own path – and you can see this process in action watching Cabiria. There are sublime moments in the film that completely transport the viewer back in time. For instance, the three-eyed Moloch with its mouth agape makes for a wonderful scene, while the high priest standing by the flames as part of the child sacrifice ceremony creates a real sense of drama.
Eccentric writer and Italian national hero Gabriele d'Annunzio wrote the screenplay and the film's many intertitles, which tell the story of a young Roman princess (Cabiria) kidnapped by Phoenician pirates, sold into slavery, almost sacrificed to the flames of Moloch but then saved by the film's hero (Maciste) and finally – after a long, drawn-out invasion of Carthage by the Roman army – returned to her parents. The film features some iconic figures from history, including Hannibal (depicted crossing the Alps with his elephants), Archimedes (using his scientific skill and mirrors to set fire to the sails of Roman ships) and Scipio Africanus (military strategist behind Rome's victory over Carthage in the Second Punic War).
D'Annunzio got top billing on the film posters, but it was Pastrone – a quiet revolutionary craftsman of cinema – who really deserves the credit for the film's many innovations, including cross-cutting. He would go on to make further films featuring the Maciste character, played by ex-dockworker Bartolomeo Pagano, and this Herculean figure would become a stock character of Italian cinema, revived in the 1960s as part of the fad for "swords and sandals". One of Pastrone's last acts before dying was to record the soundtrack for Cabiria, affirming his artistic stamp on the film.
Agreement is hard to come by on the authoritative edition of Cabiria. A restored, extended version of Cabiria was screened in 2006 at Cannes, featuring a filmed introduction by director Martin Scorsese, but it appears this is not currently available to watch digitally, or as a DVD or Blu Ray. For now, the best we have is YouTube.
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