Cabiria (1914) - Giovanni Pastrone

In the first decades of the twentieth century, all the countries of the world involved in cinematography were amending their styles, assimilating the novelties of the medium, without doubt being the most revolutionary, the sound. But before that, the cinemas of the dawn were emerging in each nation, and in the case of Italian cinema, the cinema of the extraordinary epic productions was in its heyday, the so-called Italian realism is what was known to the whole world as the maximum production, audiovisually speaking, of the Latin lands. Based on the writings of Titus Livy, the Italian Giovanni Pastrone takes to the big screen this huge story, in which he also recruits the celebrity of Italian letters, the famous Gabriele D'Annunzio, to elaborate the inter titles. The filmmaker tells us the story of Cabiria, a girl who gives the title to the film, who in times of the Punic wars, is separated from her family in Rome by pirates, sold in Carthage, but, when she is going to be sacrificed to the god Moloch, is rescued by a nobleman and his strong slave; years pass, the girl has grown already, but her rescuers will have more than one problem to be able to return to Carthage. One of the largest and most renowned productions of Italian classic cinema, jewel of silent films, a masterpiece inspiring of other masterpieces.

                         

First chapter, in Rome, the small Cabiria (Carolina Catena), is attended by her nurse, Croessa (Gina Marangoni); When the Etna erupts, some pirates kidnap her, the locals believe her dead. Second chapter, in Carthage, Cabiria and Croessa are bought as slaves by the high priest Karthalo (Dante Testa), will sacrifice them to the bronze god. Meanwhile, Fulvio 'Fulvius' Axilla (Umberto Mozzato) and his giant slave Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) have arrived clandestinely at Carthage, staying in an inn, they are able to rescue the girl from death. Third chapter, Hannibal (Emilio Vardannes) is crossing the sacred mountains, Fulvio and Maciste protect Cabiria; the beautiful Sophonisba (Italia Admiral-Manzini) is courted by the numidic king Massinissa (Vitale Di Stefano); Cabiria, already grown (Lidia Quaranta), is wanted to sacrifice her, they capture Maciste. Fourth chapter, Carthage is besieged, Hannibal is in danger, but they resist in a great way, they destroy the Roman fleet, Fulvio survives. Fifth chapter, Massinissa has lost her kingdom, Sophonisba must marry thinking of protecting Carthage; Fulvio enters Carthage again, Maciste escapes, together they advance, Sophonisba fears the gods for fleeing Cabiria, whom they believe another slave. Finally Cabiria escapes death, Sophonisba surrenders in sacrifice, Carthage falls before Rome.

In this immortal film the lost days of Roman glory are reflected, the empire was something irresistible for the whole globe, a suitable topic to praise his nation, the filmmakers of that time chose, and Pastrone feels one of the great cornerstones of this cinema, the epic cinema, great solemnity is observed from its first images. In these moments of embryonic development of audiovisual language, the camera is still mostly static, not even talk about speed in their movements, because the camera is static in the first instants, to finally acquire dynamism and a certain independence. Thus some travellings that still showed with timidity arise, an important part of the audiovisual language was born, of the cinematographic language, the liberation of the camera was initiated. And it is that the audiovisual language would be evolving -even today it still is like that- largely hand in hand with the liberation of the camera, its independence, and we have in this remarkable film the first steps in that process of visual expressive independence, with the camera traveling scenarios with tricliniums and clamids. Those were the first steps of the travellings, they were not yet elements, narrative, expressive resources, as much as, according to the director, resources to show all the great scenery; yes, a new audiovisual language was born. In Pastrone's film we will also find great sequences, great representations, thus we have the initial eruption of the Etna, one of the great visual achievements of the film, especially for the time, a well-achieved sequence in which the great Segundo de Chomón, with the unforgettable and egregious trucages of the powerful volcano unleashing fury, visual contraptions with the camera that would set the foundations of all the subsequent cinematographic movements. Among other sequences, of course, we have naval combats, maritime battles and the complexity that, above all, must have entailed, but the sequences, as brief and spectacular as they are, are among the most successful of the film. Likewise, the crossings through the Alps, the raids through the desert, are also proof of the mastery of the shooting, certainly complex sequences for the cinematography of that time, and all of them, combined with those previously mentioned, increase that epic aspect of the film.

It is notable that the feature film has a soundtrack, which certainly helps us to get better into the different sequences, and their different themes or expressive tones. Of course, we will find great sets, many humans, numerous extras, as human props, mega productions, epic productions were already defining their edges, large budgets designed to represent the grandeur of their ancestors. The composition of the images, of the frames, with the numerous humans that overflow the visual range, overflow the frames, and with that visual overflow they dynamize the images, plague of action what is observed, this is a pictorial principle that, transferred to the audiovisual field it just reinforces that feeling of dynamism. Highlight also the images of the temples, splendid and grandiose, the temple of Moloch, god of bronze, is particularly great example of the sumptuousness of this cinema, of the spectacular pageantry in its staging, in which at times humans are reduced to secondary elements of the scene. The scenarios and sets, an unparalleled pomp, unparalleled in representation in any other cinematographic genre, definitely the Italians sat school with their realism. It was their moment, it was their biggest production in the seventh art, immortal classics of the silent cinema saw the light, like La caduta di Troia (1911), by Luigi Romano Borgnetto and Pastrone himself, in which he also works as a screenwriter, Quo Vadis (1913) by Enrico Guazzoni, were the italian films the ones setting the trend. This sweeping epic is created in large part thanks to Segundo de Chomón, the mythical Aragonese, a grandiosity of film before which David W. Griffith himself was startled, overwhelmed, breathed in by an artistic alienation that led him to materialize on his part another ineluctable work of the cinema, Intolerance (1916). No resources were spared, human and economic, this is undoubtedly a milestone in italian cinema, and like Griffith, other masters, then find ways to direct their particular adventures in this type of cinema. The colossal stages, complemented by imposing details in papier-mâché, the hundreds of extras, the tricks and innovations in the audiovisual language, is a summit of italian cinema; before neorealism, there was an italian realism.

This film is one of the first relevant cinematographic treatises on lighting, with Chomón always very involved in these successes, it is increasing the importance given to this resource in a film, the powerful chiaroscuro in the desert and in Roman interiors and Carthaginians, they are flowing and developing valuable techniques, details that with the running of the quinquennials will be the basis of modern cinematographic languages. It is thus configured a type of language that could not be exempt from exoticism, details that enrich the representations, such as the leopard mascot with which Sophonisbe plays, the genre became completely fashionable, adapting great epic themes, brilliant historical moments and magnificent past opulence, the epic cinema had already been born, and was now consolidating. This film, as was usual then, suffered different cuts and footage, but what was unusual is the amount of these variations, with many restorations in recent decades, in each case generating respective versions of this feature film, which have circulated over the years. Another detail that enriches the film are the textual scope, the inter titles, whose inclusion, D'Annunzio's work, some foolish criticized, considering their inter titles as something not indispensable and that was detrimental to the silent work, but in reality, certainly positive these elements, they also attest to the ambition of the film, to be a work of five stars, in all aspects, the inclusion of this referential and multifaceted classic italian man does nothing but reinforce the intentions of the producers of the film. Before finishing, I think it is pertinent and necessary to point out another one of the most successful sequences, it is, in fact, one of the only two sequences in which the narrative linearity is broken, the conventional nature, in space, and flat, in time, of portrayed, this scene is the dream of Sophonisba. The then novel overlays of planes are responsible for engendering that oneiric atmosphere, that sensation of surreal atmosphere, three eyes that appear and disappear, a great hand that extends almost touching Sophonisba in the chest, she who is in the jaws of the creature of three eyes, the terror that she feels before the imminent and unsatisfied fury of the gods, because the necessary human sacrifice of Cabiria has not been carried out; short sequence, but very significant, and also enrich the enormous versatility of a film that, for details like this, is in the Olympus of silent movies. Also, again at the end we see a sequence of the same trend, after the Roman triumph over Carthage, we see Fulvio and Cabiria together, in that closing sequence we observe again the superposition of frames, another proof of versatility, the souls sacrificed in the war flows and they parade surreally around our protagonists, but Rome has won, the fates have favored it, Carthage falls, Rome, heart of the empire, regains its honor, Cabiria, the symbol in the film of that honor, cleans the affront. Certainly a major film, what is called a seamless film, it does not matter that a certain anachronism is noticed in the film, when time passes for Cabiria, being her benefactors, Fulvio and Macisto, apparently hermetic over time. Essential feature film, silent film classic, the first Italian realism, italian epic cinema, a reference for film posterity.

The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) - Alexander Korda

In the early thirties, in english territory, the hungarian directors found refuge in these lands, such is the case of Sándor Laszlo Kellner, known as Alexander Korda, as well as his brother, Zóltan, both fundamental for the revolutionary sound to be settle in the british film industry. Being the aforementioned decade also probably the best in terms of recognition of his film production, it is the present film that initiated those glorious five-year periods, and the first of his two collaborations with the legendary english actor, Charles Laughton, who in turn would be Oscar-winner for this memorable interpretation. The filmmaker adapts the life of the conspicuous monarch from the Tudor dynasty, and will take care of expressing his extensive and varied experience in the amatory field, exploring five of his six marital unions, highlighting among them Ana Bolena, Ana de Cleves, Katherine Howard, all the unions having dissimilar results, and always ending with the king every single time alone, with the whole kingdom being a witness of the marital life of its king, always pressing for a new marriage and begetting an heir. Referential film for british cinema, first to be nominated for Best Film in the then valuable Academy Awards, of the most notable works made by both the actor and the director.

                 

We are informed that Henry VIII had six wives, Catherine de Aragon was the first, Ana Bolena succeeded her. We see the servants whispering about the king, executioners are getting ready to execute Bolena (Merle Oberon), they finish her, and Henry (Laughton) then marries Jane Seymour (Wendy Barrie). With her everything is going well, even conceive a child, heir to the throne, but she dies in childbirth, and the scion soon takes the same path. It is then that Henry focus his attention on Katherine Howard (Binnie Barnes), but it is with Ana de Cleves (Elsa Lanchester) with whom he marries for the fourth time, while games of seduction the monarch performs, thinks he is discreet, but the whole court, and even the town knows what happens. He ends, despite having some chemistry, in any way breaking his union with Ana de Cleves, marries Katherine, his fifth wife, and feels that his body is already beginning to age. In parallel, his wife has affairs with Thomas Culpeper (Robert Donat), an infidelity of which the whole court is aware, including the populace. The furtive situation harasses Culpeper, Henry is aware of what happens and immediately executes the traitors. By influence of Ana de Cleves, and pressure from the people, an aged Henry agrees to his sixth marriage, but finally he directs us a curious epigram.

Crucial years were for british cinema and for cinema world, the sound had arrived, it had came to stay, in the United States the mass production of sound films was already beginning, with a few exceptions, some old filmmakers who refused to take for finalized, finished a sacred time, the silent cinema. In that context, not a few foreign filmmakers would find in England the desired refuge to various circumstances from which they escaped, and Alexander Korda, Austro-Hungarian nationalized British, along with his brother Zoltan, put his collaboration so that, with historicist films, like the present, the sonorous revolution would be installed on the islands. In this feature film, we will see a review of the varied love adventures of the egregious Henry VIII, some vainities, others more significant, a version of his life that will give prominence to these amatoria avatars, leaving very relegated an eventual follow-up to political developments, which are not fully addressed -except some mention of negotiations with France, being Flanders offered to Henry-, because the love affairs are all in the film. In this recreation of the conspicuous Tudor's love life, some initial informative vignettes will give us pertinent scopes of history, while the music, not abundant in the picture but present at the beginning, gives us an idea of ​​the playful and light tonic that we will appreciate in the movie. Then comes the scathing dialogue of the executioners, black humor as the executors debate on the best qualities to carry out an execution, kill a woman, not any woman, but a distinguished lady, a queen, Ana Bolena. Like those, there are many other sequences of humorous content, over which is based a presence of humor, because sharp and somewhat corrosive jokes are dispersed throughout the film, splashing with hilarity the footage.

The glittering star, Laughton, provides a decorated incarnation of the king, irascible, jocund, a good-natured air that permeates the entire film itself, with his changing mood, which varies according to the wife on duty that accompanies him, his six different marital adventures. The winner of the Oscar Laughton thus builds his character, a good-natured, round, energetic and funny king in his royal actions, with almost childlike dyes, the pinguid and regal Tudor capricious, libidinous, but also prey to the pressures of his people; it is a representation that nevertheless omits and leaves almost forgotten the characteristic of the personality of the real character, the love for the arts of Henry VIII, for literature -he was even a writer- naturally the famous painting by Hans Holbein the Younger was a reference for the construction of the personality of the cinematographic character. Given the approach to the human aspect that the film has, the aspect of reliable history has been left relegated, as was pointed out above, besides for example the detail of the bizarre final of the prince is omitted, no more is mentioned the son begotten with Jane Seymour, an ironic historical omission, this being a film with a historicist tendency. The picture is focused, naturally and as its title indicates, in the king's love life, with the whole kingdom knowing first-hand the royal infidelities, both those that Henry plays, and the ones in which he is a victim, a libidinous game in which the king's court will also have an active role. His marital life is therefore a national issue, almost a daily show, being the barber, one of the most common channels for him to learn about the feelings of the people, who longs for a male heir as much or more than the monarch himself and his court. However, again, Henry is the protagonist but focusing on his humanity, his pride, his humiliations, the vexations to his manhood, is an eminently human approach, the human being, the man behind the crown, after the king.

It is undeniably a classic of british cinema, both actor and director saw their reputations, and their careers, enlarged not a little after this film: the industry's greatest recognition, the Oscar, was granted for his characterization to Laughton, and to Korda, was to strengthen his position as one of the leading spearheads in the process of transition from silent to sound in England; in addition, there is the fact that this film was the first british work to be nominated for Best Film in the annual edition of the then valuable Academy Awards. The sound was barely reaching the cinema, the english cinema was, like the great majority of the world, assimilating the great change, the great novelty, were being crucial years for the consolidation of the sound revolution in british lands, and the Korda brothers helped an industry to adapt to the irreversible change, and to start taking advantage of the splendid magnitude of the resource. Thus, and as it is natural, in this film the musical accompaniment is meager, it was the logical thing, those were the first steps, but already it began the use of the sound in a professional way. It is a feature with rigor in its filming, a technically sumptuous movie, in which we find symmetry in its frames, as well as a camera that moves in equally rigorous travellings to go through the sober compositions of its frames. The ambience and the decoration of the period, relatively frugal, is somewhat austere, you can appreciate a relative absence of the royal pageantry, however it is a sober exercise, a sober mise-en-scène, it does not shine artistically, it does not overflow art, but it is a very serious cinematographic exercise in years of the dawn of sound movies in England. The approach in a certain comic key lightens the viewing of the film, it is maintained a guideline to document historic incidents, without due to these touches of hilarity, landing completely in a comedy, though. In the end there is a resource, a narrative license by the filmmaker, very consistent and coherent with the overall tone of the film, but for the time with a certain freshness and irreverence greater than in current days, Laughton, Henry, speaks directly to us, speaks direct to the camera, to the spectator, aims an ironic comment, resource therefore according to the general humor of many passages of the movie. Memorable and decorated film, referential within english cinema, a new cinematographic era was beginning to settle in the islands.