Amid the chaos, Sophonisba, Cabiria, and a servant run away while Massinissa falsely denies to the Priest's men that he has seen any little girl. Maciste implores the aristocratic couple, who have both concealed their true identities, to rescue Cabiria. Maciste and Cabiria flee with henchmen hard on their heels to the cedar garden of Hasdrubal and encounter Massinissa and Sophonisba just as their secret tryst is commencing. Fulvius, Maciste, and Cabiria are ambushed by the Priest's henchmen as they attempt to flee the city the next morning, but Fulvius escapes by leaping spectacularly from a high precipice and swimming away. In a great audience hall with two huge elephantine columns, Massinissa dispatches gifts and a message to meet secretly to Sophonisba, who, on receiving them, is giddy with anticipation.īodastoret, the innkeeper, sneaks into the Temple of Moloch and for a reward betrays the Romans' whereabouts and intentions. Numidian King Massinissa is visiting Carthage, and Hasdrubal, brother of Hannibal, promises him his beautiful daughter, Sophonisba, in marriage. Learning of the military events, Fulvius resolves to flee back to Rome after further intimidating the innkeeper to ensure silence. Soldiers, elephants and other animals pick their way through the passes. Meanwhile, Hannibal and his troops make their way across the snow-laden Alps towards Rome. However, Croessa pays a fatal price for the rescue. Pursued by a frenzied mob, they make their way up to the roof, down the gargantuan façade, and back to the inn. Croessa, Fulvius, and Maciste sneak into the temple, and the slave boldly snatches Cabiria away from the priest. The great chest opens for each victim, and when a youngster is slid into the inferno, the door closes and the open mouth belches flame. Inside the temple are frenzied devotees, and the colossal seated statue of the winged god Moloch is a hollow bronze furnace. One hundred young children are to perish as offerings. The entrance to the huge Temple of Moloch is a gigantic three-eyed head, with the mouth as portal. Moloch statue from Giovanni Pastrone's Cabiria (1914), National Museum of Cinema (Turin). Batto and his wife mourn the loss of Cabiria, as they believe her to be buried beneath the rubble. Taking advantage of the chaos and plundering Batto's hidden underground treasure, the servants, along with Croessa and Cabiria, flee to the countryside. While attempting to escape, servants discover a secret stairway leading underground. When the volcanic Etna erupts violently, Batto prays to the god Pluto for deliverance but receives only a brief respite before his home and gardens are destroyed.
Cabiria plays with dolls with her nurse, Croessa. Plot summary First episode īatto and his young daughter, Cabiria, live in a lavish estate in the shadow of Mount Etna, at Catana, on the island of Sicily. 5 Distribution, remake and restorations.It was the first film shown at the White House, having been viewed on the South Lawn, by the President, First Lady, Vice President, his wife, members of the Cabinet and their wives, due to the summer heat in June 1914. In addition, the script of Cabiria was partially based on Gustave Flaubert's 1862 novel Salammbo and Emilio Salgari's 1908 novel Cartagine in fiamme ( Carthage in Flames).
The historical background and characters in the story are taken from Livy's Ab Urbe Condita (written ca. Among those was the extensive use of a moving camera, thus freeing the feature-length narrative film from "static gaze".
According to Martin Scorsese, in this work Pastrone invented the epic movie and deserves credit for many of the innovations often attributed to D.W. Apart from being a classic on its own terms, the film is also notable for being the first film in which the long-running film character Maciste makes his debut. It follows a melodramatic main plot about an abducted little girl, Cabiria, and features an eruption of Mount Etna, heinous religious rituals in Carthage, the alpine trek of Hannibal, Archimedes' defeat of the Roman fleet at the Siege of Syracuse and Scipio maneuvering in North Africa. The film is set in ancient Sicily, Carthage, and Cirta during the period of the Second Punic War (218–202 BC). Cabiria is a 1914 Italian epic silent film, directed by Giovanni Pastrone and shot in Turin.