Cabiria

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!

It is a little known fact that the feature film was born in Italy - that is, a film longer than the standard one or two reels in length -ten to twenty minutes. It is the crop of early Italian features, all epics, birthed in 1914, that influenced America's Griffith and DeMille. The length of CABIRIA is staggering - originally 2-1/2 hours in Italy and just over two hours here - considering most audiences were used to sitting and concentrating on a plot for only twenty minutes at most.

Were there Oscars then, the extraordinary art direction and special effects would have garnered noms - they are outstanding. The cinematography is unique in using early scanning and dollying techniques heretofore unknown in film. The plot becomes very hard to follow because the title cards are history lessons of alliances and battles that have little meaning for us and often we are aware of the cut 22 minutes in the surviving USA version as symbols and relationships which have great dramatic meaning for the players leave us baffled.

The print used by Kino and Grapevine video as well as Turner Classic Movies is impeccable - crystal clear and sharp.

For all fans of epic movies and for all film historians, this is a must see.

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 sheer infectious 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 elegantly deployed than in 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 - while 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'.

Giovanni Pastrone's grand-scale storytelling of a lost princess, her journey from being kidnapped to almost being offered as a child sacrifice and then ending up as a slave, 'Cabiria' is cinema's first true epic. Pastrone made several films, and the scope and spectacle of his films inspired directors like Griffith and Fellini, but 'Cabiria' is the only one which has stood the test of time. And since the story is set almost 2000 years ago, the aged quality of this 100-year-old film only adds to the feel of the time.

Like Griffith's 'Birth of a Nation', 'Cabiria' too was shrouded in controversy for its biased depiction of races, places and cultures. Like 'Birth of a Nation' propagated Ku Klux Klan's nobility and agenda, 'Cabiria' tried to legitimize Italy's distant past, and tried to promote and inspire themes like 'wars of conquest', Roman salute, racial nobility and virtue, etc. I mean, all the non-Roman characters in the film are depicted in negative light.

Whatever the controversial history the movie might have, if one is ready to ignore those aspects and try to acknowledge the feat it tries to achieve in the medium of filmmaking, it's an enjoyable journey. The movie offers many fascinating sequences, like, the child offerings at Temple of Moloch, Princess Sophonisba's pet leopard and even her spectacular arrival for her almost wedding, soldiers and elephants crossing the Alps, the pyramid formed by soldiers and shields in one continuous shot, and few others.

The original version is said to have been three hours long. I saw the truncated 1993 restoration, which is two hours long. In this itself, the number of characters and events seem too many, a few of them almost unnecessary; I wonder what the extra 60 minutes had in store. Better editing (I mean, even shorter than two hours) could have made the story tighter, more interesting and compelling.

Overall, it's an interesting story and a well-made film, and personally, I liked it much more than the overrated 'Ben-Hur'.

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