Cabiria
Cabiria is a 1914 Italian epic silent film, directed by Giovanni Pastrone and shot in Turin. The film is set in ancient Sicily, Carthage, and Cirta during the period of the Second Punic War (218–202 BC). It follows a melodramatic main plot about an abducted little girl, Cabiria, and features an eruption of Mount Etna, heinous religious rituals in Carthage, the alpine trek of Hannibal, Archimedes' defeat of the Roman fleet at the Siege of Syracuse and Scipio maneuvering in North Africa. Apart from being a classic on its own terms, the film is also notable for being the first film in which the long-running film character Maciste makes his debut. According to Martin Scorsese, in this work Pastrone invented the epic movie and deserves credit for many of the innovations often attributed to D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille.[4] Among those was the extensive use of a moving camera, thus freeing the feature-length narrative film from "static gaze".
This article is about the 1914 silent film. It is not to be confused with the 1957 film Nights of Cabiria.Cabiria
- Giovanni Pastrone
A book by Titus Livius and a novel by Emilio Salgari[1]
Giovanni Pastrone
- August Battagliotti
- Eugenio Bava
- Natale Chiusano
- Segundo de Chomon[1]
Manlio Mazza
Ildebrando Pizzetti
- 18 April 1914 (Italy)
- 200 minutes (original cut)
- 190 minutes (2006 restoration)
- 148 minutes[1] (surviving Italian cuts)
- 126 minutes (surviving USA cuts)
Italy
Silent
Italian Intertitles
£50,000[3]
₤1 million
The historical background and characters in the story are taken from Livy's Ab Urbe Condita (written ca. 27–25 BC). In addition, the script of Cabiria was partially based on Gustave Flaubert's 1862 novel Salammbô and Emilio Salgari's 1908 novel Cartagine in fiamme (Carthage in Flames). It was the first film shown at the White House, having been viewed on the South Lawn, by the President, First Lady, Vice President, his wife, members of the Cabinet and their wives, due to the summer heat in June 1914.[5]
Plot summary[edit]
First episode[edit]
Batto and his young daughter, Cabiria, live in a lavish estate in the shadow of Mount Etna, at Catania, on the island of Sicily. Cabiria plays with dolls with her nurse, Croessa. When the volcanic Etna erupts violently, Batto prays to the god Pluto for deliverance but receives only a brief respite before his home and gardens are destroyed. While attempting to escape, servants discover a secret stairway leading underground. Taking advantage of the chaos and plundering Batto's hidden underground treasure, the servants, along with Croessa and Cabiria, flee to the countryside. Batto and his wife mourn the loss of Cabiria, as they believe her to be buried beneath the rubble.[6]
Music[edit]
The pastiche film score was composed largely by Manlio Mazza, who reworked the music of several composers including Mozart, Mendelssohn, Spontini, Donizetti and Gluck. But the film also contained an original composition by Mazza's former teacher Ildebrando Pizzetti, which was composed on d'Annunzio's recommendation: the ten-minute Sinfonia del fuoco. The piece was written to accompany the Invocation to Moloch, in the pivotal Second Episode of the film, when one hundred naked children are sacrificed to the god of Carthage. Scored for a large orchestra, including six first and six second violas, baritone, and a mixed chorus of more than five parts, the Sinfonia del fuoco was performed once only, on the evening of the film's première, conducted by Mazza, at the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Turin, on 18 April 1914. Contemporary reviews indicate that on this occasion the work was performed as an Overture at the start of the film.
The size of the forces involved, coupled with Pizzetti's refusal to allow others to conduct the work, and the fact that he himself never included it in his own concerts, meant that no further performances took place until 1988, when the 1914 version of the film was presented, with live orchestral accompaniment of the complete score, at the Orto Botanico, Rome. The Sinfonia del fuoco has since been recorded by Naxos Records in 1997.
Distribution, remake and restorations[edit]
Cabiria was released in Italy on April 18, 1914.[1]
In June 1914, Cabiria became the first motion picture to be screened at the White House, when a screening on the lawn was viewed by President Wilson and his family from the porch and lawn chairs.[9][10][11] (The Birth of a Nation was the first movie shown in the White House, in the East Room.)
A restored version of Cabiria was screened on 27 May 2006 at the Cannes Film Festival, featuring a filmed introduction by director Martin Scorsese.