When I heard that Cabiria was a silent film, I didn't get my hopes too high, as the only other silent film I've seen is some of Fantasia, which I found pretty boring. When watching it, the movie was very different from what I had expected, and the music accompaniment was pretty good. I didn't love the lack of variety in soundtracks and the only instrument being a piano or two, and really thought the repetition and lack of options took away from my engagement and the tones of some scenes. The emphasis on physical reactions and character expression to convey messages was definitely a large part of the film, especially given the lack of voice recordings. I think, for what was possible given the time, the movie really is great. I'm not gonna lie, though; I did fall asleep for a few minutes in the middle.
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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...
Your last sentence made me laugh. That was a great climax to the review. I wish you had spent a bit more time, though, on explaining in which way "Cabiria" was "very different from what I had expected." Instead, you focus mostly on the piano soundtrack. The soundtrack definitely contributes to a movie, and in this case you are right to identify its repetitiveness over large stretches of the movie as a weak point. But what about the plot, acting, cinematography (all the stuff that you probably meant when you said that the movie was different from what you expected)?
ReplyDeleteRegarding "Fantasia" (1940), by the way, most people seem to disagree with you, including myself. The movie won two Oscars, and the audience on Rotten Tomatoes gives it 4.1 out of 5 stars (the professional critics regard it even higher). I'm not a big Classical music fan myself, but I liked the lyrical quality of the film, and I find it amazing how well the Disney animators fit the plots of their episodic stories to the well-known music they worked with. For those who don't know "Fantasia," here is a brief 2:15 minute excerpt of Disney's dinosaurs and Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," performed by Leopold Stokovsky and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra (very famous director and orchestra in the 1940s):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3VqcTDf6l4