Cabiria (1914)

Set during the second Punic War (218-202 B.C.), a young child named Cabiria (Carolina Catena) is separated from her parents after the eruption of Mt. Etna. They assume she is dead but she has been kidnapped by pirates who sell her to a high priest (Dante Testa) in Carthage. Loosely based on two novels SALAMMBO by Gustav Flaubert and CARTHAGE IN FLAMES by Emilio Salgari and directed by Giovanni Pastrone. Visually, it's a spectacular epic. The sets alone are jaw dropping. The film was highly influential to film makers like D.W. Griffith (his INTOLERANCE) and Fritz Lang (his METROPOLIS). Pastrone's camera movements are highly fluid and lack the stagnation that sometimes plagued silent cinema. On the downside, the acting is crude with lots of indicating (heads tossed back, arms raised and pointed). Worst of all, the transfer I saw had a hideous tinkling solo piano as its score. An epic like this needs a full orchestral score and the jangling ivories were a sad representation of what is on the screen. Worth seeing for its historical importance in cinema. With Umberto Mozzato, Bartolomeo Pagano, Italia Almirante Manzini and Lidia Quaranta as the adult Cabiria.