Pastrone's somewhat rambling narrative features the battle between Rome and Carthage, and includes such remarkable sights as the eruption of Mt. Etna and Hannibal's mountain crossing. Several fictional characters (including the aforementioned slave girl, a Roman spy, and a muscle-bound servant) are followed through startling recreations of historic events. D.W. Griffith was obviously influenced by Cabiria when he shot his similarly grandiose historical epic, Intolerance (1916).
Pastrone, much like Griffith, would stop at nothing to realize his vision. Before production began, he spent long hours researching period clothing, buildings, and decor, and he set the picture's budget at the then unheard-of sum of one million lire. He shot over 66,000 feet of film for what would become a 14,800 foot final print, another move that set the standard for future directors. This illustrates that Pastrone viewed editing as a pivotal element of the filmmaking process, a belief that would be accepted as gospel in the ensuing years.
Forever pushing the boundaries of the form, he also invented new equipment, including a device he called a "carello", which would come to be known as a "dolly." This enabled him to track his camera through Cabiria's massive sets, thus utilizing the space to its fullest effect. New lighting techniques were also employed to add depth and mood to the shots, a method that had never been fully explored for an entire production.
In what would appear to be an odd move, Pastrone enlisted the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio to take co-credit for the screenplay of Cabiria. Though D'Annunzio was an important literary figure who was viewed as Italy's "poet warrior," he actually had very little to do with the creation of the film, outside of writing one or two overtly flowery title cards. But his theoretical involvement was a major publicity coup, one that translated into a larger haul at the box office. If ever a filmmaker was ahead of his time, both as an artist and a showman, it was Giovanni Pastrone.
Director/Producer: Piero Fosco (Giovanni Pastrone)
Screenplay: Giovanni Pastrone and Gabriele D'Annunzio
Cinematographers: Augusto Battagliotti, Eugenio Bava, Natale Chiusano, Segundo de Chomon, Carlo Franzeri, Giovanni Tomatis
Special Effects: Eugenio Bava, Segundo de Chomon
Principal Cast: Italia Almirante-Manzini (Sophonisba), Lidia Quaranta (Cabiria), Catena (Young Cabiria), Umberto Mozzato (Fulvio Axilla), Bartolomeo Pagano (Maciste), Luigi Chellini (Scipione).
BW-127m.
by Paul Tatara
