Cabiria Review

 I loved the film “Cabiria”, especially in comparison to “Antony and Cleopatra”. The camera-work improved so much in only a year and it’s honestly astounding! The camera moved and followed characters to give depth, had zoom-ins and -outs, and had the first close up! The innovation of this film is amazing to think about, with the manual labor that went into splicing frames together to make special effects, and even the difficulty of shooting fire at night. In general, the movie was much more interesting, too, with entangled sub-plots for character development, plus characters moving in real-time instead of slow-mo. 

The only cons to this film were what we discussed in class–the demonizing of other cultures that were “exotic”, the black face, and the stereotyping of gender and race. I wish the women in the film were a little less helpless, I wish the Phoenician royalty were not played by white actors, I wish the protagonists of the film didn’t have an ulterior/materialistic motive, and I wish Cabiria didn’t end up with Fulvio because their age difference is concerning. However, I understand that for Italy in 1914 these issues were not public opinion, and it is simply a reflection of the time period. 


-Caitlyn Almquist

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