"Cabiria" is the pinnacle of the early Italian spectacle, which helped push cinema into the age of feature-length pictures and introduced the epic to film. Reportedly, it cost some 1 million lire (or $100,000) to make and was financially successful, although due to the war, perhaps, not as successful as was "Quo Vadis?" (1913). It had a direct influence on D.W. Griffith's production of "Intolerance." According to Griffith biographer Richard Schickel, Griffith insisted on including large elephant statues in the courtyard setting, even though his researchers could find no evidence that pachyderms were ever a significant part of Babylonian iconography, because Pastrone used them in "Cabiria."
Pastrone's film begins with grandeur; the explosion of Etna is the most impressive sequence. Nurse Croessa (played by Gina Marangoni) kidnaps little Cabiria (played by Carolina Catena); then, Phoenician pirates abduct Croessa, Cabiria and the other runaway slaves. In Carthage, High Priest Karthalo (played by Dante Testa) buys the child and wants to sacrifice her at The Temple of Moloch. Magnificent sets and the horror of child sacrifice make it the second best sequence in the movie. Roman patrician Fulvius Axilla (played by Umberto Mozzato) and his loyal slave Maciste (played by Bartolomeo Pagano) enter the scene, and we mostly follow them through the rest of the proceedings.
"Cabiria" gets rather boring after The Temple of Moloch escapade, as the film relies less on grand set design and special effects and more on a dull and confused plot and bad acting--historical facsimiles, such as Hannibal climbing the Alps, a crazed Archimedes raving his large magnifying glass invention on as it sets fire to the Roman fleet and other moments withstanding. The performances are overacted, histrionic--even Pagano, who would become something of a star from his performance here. I can see why: he's muscular, and it's somewhat interesting to watch him do various acrobatics. Italia Almirante-Manzini, who plays Sophonisba, is the hammiest of all. Besides the sets and special effects by Eugenio Bava and Sergundo de Chomón, there is some nice nighttime tinting and Pastrone's dolly shots help pass some of the time. Nevertheless, the film lacks much cinematic innovation and remains largely theatrical and slowly paced; there is only one close-up, a point-of-view shot of a ring.
Pastrone's film begins with grandeur; the explosion of Etna is the most impressive sequence. Nurse Croessa (played by Gina Marangoni) kidnaps little Cabiria (played by Carolina Catena); then, Phoenician pirates abduct Croessa, Cabiria and the other runaway slaves. In Carthage, High Priest Karthalo (played by Dante Testa) buys the child and wants to sacrifice her at The Temple of Moloch. Magnificent sets and the horror of child sacrifice make it the second best sequence in the movie. Roman patrician Fulvius Axilla (played by Umberto Mozzato) and his loyal slave Maciste (played by Bartolomeo Pagano) enter the scene, and we mostly follow them through the rest of the proceedings.
"Cabiria" gets rather boring after The Temple of Moloch escapade, as the film relies less on grand set design and special effects and more on a dull and confused plot and bad acting--historical facsimiles, such as Hannibal climbing the Alps, a crazed Archimedes raving his large magnifying glass invention on as it sets fire to the Roman fleet and other moments withstanding. The performances are overacted, histrionic--even Pagano, who would become something of a star from his performance here. I can see why: he's muscular, and it's somewhat interesting to watch him do various acrobatics. Italia Almirante-Manzini, who plays Sophonisba, is the hammiest of all. Besides the sets and special effects by Eugenio Bava and Sergundo de Chomón, there is some nice nighttime tinting and Pastrone's dolly shots help pass some of the time. Nevertheless, the film lacks much cinematic innovation and remains largely theatrical and slowly paced; there is only one close-up, a point-of-view shot of a ring.