ADG Perspective

July-August 2017

Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/834282

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 101 of 103

100 P E R S P E C T I V E | J U LY / AU G U S T 2 0 1 7 reshoots The huge Babylon set in D.W. Griffith's INTOLERANCE (1916), with its avenue of giant undulating columns and rampant elephant statues, is one of the most expansive and lavish sets of the early silent era, but it is by no means the only one. The Italian film CABIRIA (1914), set at the time of the Second Punic War (218 BC–202 BC), had dozens of awe-inspiring sets and special effects, including the eruption of Mount Etna. Based on earlier book illustrations, CABIRIA's Temple of Moloch (shown above) with its huge maw into which children must be sacrificed, is just one of the sets that reconstructed the magnificence of ancient Carthage. Directed by Giovanni Pastrone and shot in Turin, the film originally ran 200 minutes, but survives today in cuts anywhere from 126 minutes to 190 minutes (in a 2006 restoration). It's a movie that was unprecedented in its length and scope, and whose sheer scale made an obvious impact on Griffith. The Fall of Babylon portion of his 1916 epic is generally agreed to be his deliberate attempt to out-CABIRIA CABIRIA. Although the film is justly renowned for its spectacle, the vividness of the set design and other elements of the mise-en-scéne, the designer—as was common then—is not credited. Images courtesy of notrecinema.com ®

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

view archives of ADG Perspective - July-August 2017