For a black and white silent movie, "Cabiria" was what I expected. Over dramatic acting and flamboyant costumes. Both are used to compensate for the fact that the actors and actresses do not speak. A silent movie requires a more intense attention as oftentimes the scenes tie in with other scenes in order to tell a story. The movie itself was interesting but I found it difficult to watch. The scenes had decent flow and the sets were nice, however, you need more than a nice set and flow to have a good movie. A movie should hook in an audience and leave them wanting more. Personally I was not hooked during this movie. If you have seen silent movies before you will probably enjoy "Cabiria." If you are watching your first silent movie it could be a hit or miss as you are relying entirely on sight to tell a complicated story.
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Going into "Cabiria", I was concerned it was going to be dull. It was my first silent film, and it spanned a whopping 2 hours. How...
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Though dreading having to see this film due to its silent, black & white nature, I was pleasantly surprised that I found myself genuinel...
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Please introduce yourself briefly and talk about your background with film and/or interest in this class. What kind of movies do you like, w...
The lack of sound dialogue and color is definitely a hurdle for modern viewers. So I am not completely surprised that "Cabiria" was unable to pull you in. I hope the more recent "Cleopatra" was a different story.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the review, you are doing a good job justifying your verdict. Maybe it would have been even more helpful if you could have pinpointed what exactly prevented you from becoming hooked, apart from the lack of spoken dialogue.
Regarding the movie's "flow", scenes always need to tie in with the following scenes, regardless whether a movie is silent or not. "Cabiria" actually seems to be doing a decent job with that, just as you say. When movies fail to do that, that tends to bother viewers, as it did with you and your classmates with the examples of discontinuity in the second half of "Cleopatra".