Cabiria

Cabiria (1914)

Runtime: 125 minutes

Directed by: Giovanni Pastrone

Starring: Carolina Catena, Lidia Quartana, Dante Testa, Umberto Mozzato, Bartolomeo Pagano

From: Itala Film

Here's an obscure Italian silent which deserves to have more renown:

It was not until recently that I had even heard of this epic silent movie and that is a shame; this deserves more attention. As others have argued, techniques that were first attributed to Griffith and DeMille perhaps should be acknowledged as being done by Cabiria first. For certain, Fellini (this is why one of his most famous works is Nights in Cabiria), & Lang were inspired-and possibly also John Milius-plus the strongman character of Maciste is first seen here. What an odd character history: appearing in many silents before returning in the 1960's sword & sandal era where outside of Italy the film's titles substitute a more famous strongman, like Hercules or Samson.

The film concerns events in actual ancient history, both in Italy and Northern Africa back in the Second Punic Wars (the second century B.C.) although naturally things are altered for dramatic effect. The movie starts off with a bang: the first half hour features a volcano erupting, a pirate raid, a Temple of Moloc-a great and expansive set-children sacrifice and Hannibal crossing the Alps with his troops & elephants. To be specific, the key plot point is that the titular Cabiria is a young girl of noble birth who is kidnapped; a spy named Fulvius and his slave Maciste are on the hunt for her, a task that takes years. To address an uncomfortable aspect: yes there is blackface & brownface. That noted, it is far from being as heinous and nauseous as in The Birth of a Nation.

It is a fun adventure with strongman feats, impressive sets, action, drama, intrigue... it is quite the spectacle. Of course the storytelling is not perfect but for myself that did not do irreparable harm to my enjoyment of this epic-as always YMMV. It was restored in 1990-with any luck it will receive a new HD restoration in the future so it can truly shine.