Marcin Kukuczka Orson Welles once said that "sound is the first human sense of the theater" and while this may accurately refer to majority of movies, it is not the sound but image that appears to be the first sense of the epic.When dealing with the history of cinema, sooner or later, one is bound to encounter the epic in the purest sense of the word, the mother of all spectacles, the inspiration that lies behind the greatest showmanship of D.W. Griffith and Cecil B DeMille. At the dawn of the medium, people were interested in showing antiquity but the thought was not born in Hollywood but where it actually has its historical roots, the Mediterranean. Yes, this time all roads lead to Italy. Apart from the greatest masterpieces of art throughout the centuries, it is also Italy that gave birth to the most stupendous, elaborate, stunning visuals that have awed the imagination of viewers for the last century.CABIRIA by Giovanni Pastrone with the restored music piano score by Jacques Gauthiers was made at a very significant point of history: Italy had been victorious after the Lybian War and, similarly to the role greatest epics of Hollywood served, the film with the setting of its story appeared to be a manifestation of power centered again, after all these, in Rome ---not the Imperial Rome but the Rome the Republic, at a very interesting period: the Punic Wars in the 3rd century before Christ. The story of Cabiria is nicely incorporated into the motives of a marvelous visual display of powerful nature and army. Its mixture of attraction and repulsion, mighty volcanoes and delicate doves, well built giants and delicious women, cruel army leaders and clever inventors lead to all hallmarks of an epic/drama. It's all in CABIRIA starting with hatred destined to be conquered and concluding with love always destined to be the conqueror. AMOR VINCIT OMNIA But let me highlight a few points about the visuals now.It is important to keep in mind that CABIRIA is heavily influenced by operatic feeling. All this grandeur is the pure essence of what we find in opera. Its strength lies in visuals. Naturally, however, we treat them absolutely differently from today's standpoint. It seems that only a very in-depth eye may capture certain details. The film is divided into 5 episodes which a little bit distract the holistic viewing of the story. Nevertheless, each one has something to offer, if not the costumes, then the great sets, marvelous for the time and still awe inspiring after a century. The eruption of Etna, Hannibal crossing the Italian Alps, the huge temple of Moloch sequence, the war with Carthage, the assault on Syracuse in Sicily (consider the mention of the 'sea of Aretusa'), the interiors of palaces and outstanding costumes. It is significant that the story begins in Sicily, the source of food in ancient Rome and, at the same time, the island that has for ages frightened people with Europe's biggest volcano. While the beginning of the movie is a pure spectacle of nature, it slowly turns to the spectacle of army in order to reach a rather poetic conclusion. American showmen used to say and still many keep saying: "It's all BIG!" We might say the roar of crater turns into roar of war and jealousy. And the characters? The title Cabiria (Lidia Quaranta) is rather shadowed by other characters who either help her keeping in mind the motto: "Help you give, Help you will receive" or do not seem to have much in common with her but serve as emotional resonance of historical period. Although they are not much developed and seen as if through the curtain of spectacle, we get quite a variety: Croessa (Gina Maragnoni), Cabiria's nurse, Fulvius the Roman (Umberto Mozzato) who may draw parallels to plenty of noble Roman characters in various epics; Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) who bears resemblance with Hellenic Hercules, Sienkiewicz Ursus and biblical Samson; queen Sophonisba (Italia Almirante-Manzini) who reveals certain features of ancient femme fatale, Poppaea-like character with a pet leopard (not only Patricia Laffan echoes the image in 1951 QUO VADIS but also Claudette Colbert in 1932 THE SIGN OF THE CROSS) but appears to redeem herself ostentatiously, operatically and dramatically at the end; the elderly Carthaginian architect Archimede (Enrico Gernelli) who creates a terrific machine of war; the funny Bodastoret, the innkeeper; the villainous Massinissa (Vitale Di Stefano), the Numidian impostor of the throne; Syphax (Alessandro Bernard), the old, powerful man who marries a beauty as his loveless political toy; the High Priest Karthalo (Dante Testa), a devil-incarnate who demands human sacrifices to a god (consider the clever representation of a belief/religion that may be of some help but may also resort to most disgusting systematic cruelty). All of the characters contribute to the various strong points of CABIRIA.Almost half a century later, Federico Fellini made a parallel to the character' name, Cabiria, in his 1957 Oscar winning achievement. Strangely, I had a feeling that if the people of yore, the people of ancient times would have any link with modern times, CABIRIA would be one of those films which would occur to capture the gist within the recreation of antiquity. Perhaps, it is because of the test of time it has undeniably stood. No matter what emotions, feelings, imagination it evokes, this silent gem should be more known today. It might serve modern epic as an old tutor full of novelty what to change, what to get rid of in order to come back to the roots again. Surely worth seeking out! HAPPY CENTENARY, CABIRIA!

OttoVonB Imagine Pericles, Shakespeare's surreal drama, recast with a young female lead, and with the epic factor amped up to 11: elephants, volcanos, death cults and all the horrors of the Punic Wars, and you have Cabiria.It takes a particular self-distancing aptitude to appreciate silent films in our age as more that curiosities. For the most part, they fall into two categories: flat filmed melodrama that predates the sound era, and visual extravaganza that takes full advantage of the form.Metropolis and The Nibelungen are examples of the latter. Thankfully, so is Cabiria.Cabiria takes you - and let us not forget, the undoubtedly spellbound audience of 1914 - on a visual journey that would have been impossible on stage, showing a sophistication in its characterization, mise-en-scene, art direction and effects that is well ahead of its time. More importantly, it is a compelling tale of adventure. A silent film today's audience could actually enjoy!A word about access: I love watching people's reaction to the Eureka Blu-Ray of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. People think silent films were meant to look all soft and scratched. it is truly a wondrous thing to see these films as they were meant to be seen. Doing so for Cabiria is a bit harder: the Kino DVD transfer is far from ideal, and the imposed piano score does little justice to the scale of the film. An easy solution is to mute the audio on your DVD player or TV and patch in something grandiose, like Wagner's Ring...In any case, if you love films and are curious about their history, try this one on for size.

thisglimpse Everyone says the plot is convoluted, impossible to follow and boring, and that the only reason to watch this is for the costumes and set pieces. but I think they're missing something.The plot moves forward on two levels - the personal and the political, so the real theme behind this movie is how the political affects the personal, and vice versa. Especially by the end of the film, shifting political alliances, military victories and defeats are clearly and dramatically affecting the fates of our heroes. And then, ultimately, Cabiria is freed because of the personal effect of a political move: Scipio takes Sophonisba away from Massinissa to eliminate the threat of rebellion, and in doing so, takes away the queen's reason to live.Curiously, Cabiria, the center of the movie, is the most passive and perhaps least developed character in the film. She might as well be buried treasure. And yet she is the center of the movie, and sometimes we are reminded of her because the camera seems to forget her. Take the garden scene, when it is not at all clear what happens to her, and then we don't know for a good long time: she does not appear again literally for ten years, and then when she does reappear, it is with a different name, and we are not told it is her. She is there because she is not there; the fact that her fate is unresolved remains the central tension and dramatic force of the movie.Ultimately, I think this form of storytelling - both the "big world/little world" plot development and the "unresolved character" issue work better in literature/theater than on film, and that's probably why, in retrospect, we watch this movie mostly for the costumes. But what I see is the developing language of cinema, and an experiment tried by a director and screenwriter in 1914 that would never be considered today.Which adds up to a fascinating movie worth watching, in my book.

arneblaze 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.