Cabiria

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Movie
German title Cabiria
Original title Cabiria
Cabiria Poster Metlicovitz.jpg
Country of production Italy
original language Italian
Publishing year 1914
length 168 minutes
Rod
Director Giovanni Pastrone
script Gabriele D'Annunzio
production Giovanni Pastrone
music Manlio Mazza
camera Augusto Battagliotti
Eugenio Bava
Natale Chiusano
Segundo de Chomón
Carlo Franzeri
Giovanni Tomatis
occupation

Cabiria is a historical film epic filmed in 1913 from the early years of the Italian film industry by Giovanni Pastrone . It was published in 1914 . The film is very loosely based on Gustave Flaubert's exotic novel Salambo .

action

Note: The table of contents refers to the 123-minute version available on DVD.

Third century BC: The girl Cabiria is the daughter of a wealthy patrician family who lives in Catania at the foot of Mount Etna . When the volcano erupts, Cabiria is separated from her parents, but is saved by the nanny Croessa. Together with others they flee to the beach, where they discover a boat left behind by Phoenician pirates.

When the pirates return to their boat, a scuffle ensues in which Cabiria and Croessa are kidnapped and taken to Carthage . There they are sold as slaves to the high priest Karthalo, who wants to sacrifice Cabiria to the god Moloch . Croessa escapes and meets the Roman Fulvius Axilla, who lives as a spy with his loyal servant Maciste undetected by the innkeeper Bodastoret. She persuades Fulvius and Maciste to save Cabiria. So they sneak into the temple of Moloch and snatch the girl from the priests. Pursued by the angry priests, Fulvius and Maciste escape with Cabiria. Croessa is caught and sentenced to death by the priests.

In the meantime Hannibal crosses the Alps with his army to attack Rome . The Second Punic War breaks out. Fulvius secretly wants to leave Carthage that night to support Rome in the war. But Bodastoret betrays his guests, and so the Carthaginians lie in wait for the Romans. Fulvius can save himself by jumping into the sea, Maciste remains behind with the child. On their escape they arrive in a garden where the Carthaginian princess Sophonisba secretly meets with the Numidian king Massinissa . Maciste manages to entrust the child to the princess before he is discovered and overwhelmed by the priests. He is chained to a millstone as a punishment.

Fulvius returns to Rome and fights the Punians in the army of Marcellus . During the siege of Syracuse , the Roman fleet is sunk thanks to the defense machines developed by Archimedes . Fulvius ends up shipwrecked on the beach at Cabiria's home. Citizens of Catania discover the weakened soldier and the ring on his finger, which was owned by Cabiria's family and given to him by Croessa. Fulvius is brought to the patrician and tells him that Cabiria survived the volcanic eruption and is staying in Carthage. He promises to bring her back to her family should he ever return to Carthage.

Ten years later, Fulvius supports Scipio as a scout on his campaign against Carthage. In the meantime, Sophonisba, although she was engaged to Massinissa, married his more powerful opponent Syphax and accompanied him to the capital Cirta , which he presided over. Cabiria grew up under an assumed name as the princess's slave. Fulvius manages to sneak into Carthage and free Maciste. On the way back to the Roman camp, they are picked up by Syphax's soldiers and brought to Cirta. Syphax himself is captured by the Romans thanks to the support of Massinissa. While Cabiria is exposed and picked up by the high priest Karthalo, Fulvius and Maciste manage to escape from the dungeon. They entrench themselves in a storage cellar and offer bitter resistance until they are allowed to leave. Massinissa takes the town of Cirta and moves to the palace to propose marriage to Sophonisba. Sophonisba sees her chance to turn Massinissa against the Romans. But Scipio sees through the plan and demands the extradition of the queen. Massinissa agrees, but sends Maciste to Sophonisba with a poison cup. The queen decides to die, but first shows mercy again and hands over the Cabiria, believed dead, to Fulvius, who has since fallen in love with the young woman.

After defeating Carthage, Fulvius, Maciste and Cabiria happily return to Rome.

Remarks

The Italian writer Gabriele d'Annunzio contributed to the script. The film produced by Itala was film and camera technology revolutionary at the time and was a major influence on The Birth of a Nation by David Wark Griffith . The film also marked the beginning of the character Maciste , who had a long career in the Italian sandal films .

A newly restored version of the film with a running time of 180 minutes was shown on May 27, 2006 at the Cannes International Film Festival with a cinematic introduction by Martin Scorsese . This version is not available on DVD or Blu-ray.

criticism

Reclam's film guide judged the film: “Pastrone was able to put a sensational effort into making his film. Cabiria had a run time of over three hours. For the interior shots, the former engineer Pastrone built a three-dimensional scenery, while at that time people often filmed in front of painted backdrops. He shot outdoor shots a. a. in the Alps and in Tunisia. The real meaning of the film is by no means the financial and technical effort; Pastrone's staging is also formally remarkable. He was the first to systematically use a camera car, which he even patented. This gave the decorations a sculptural presence. With the help of the car, he also took close-ups that would otherwise have required a cut. He drove up to the main characters or made trips back and was able to separate them from a crowd or place them in an initially invisible crowd. The use of the light, which Pastrone consciously used for artistic effects, was also new. "

literature

  • Irmbert Schenk: The Italian historical film from 1905 to 1914. Uni, Bremen 1991, ISBN 3-88722-662-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dieter Krusche, Jürgen Labenski : Reclams film guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-15-010205-7 , p. 42.