Cabiria, Italy’s first colossal silent film, is reborn after 110 years thanks to new technologies

by Redazione, published on 05/25/2024
Categories: Cinema, theater and TV / Legal notices

110 years after its creation, Cabiria, the first colossal of Italian silent cinema, is reborn and becomes a multiplatform project thanks to the use of the latest technologies.

Cabiria Experience is a innovative and immersive project created by Raï Cinema in collaboration with the National Cinema Museum from Turin, Spazio Koch And Cuba. The project aims to offer a unique cinematic experience, revitalizing the film Cabiria by Giovanni Pastroneconsidered to be the first kolossal of Italian silent cinema. The aim is to introduce this masterpiece also to younger people, making it more accessible and engaging through the use of new technologies.

Made in 1914 and enriched with literary legends by Gabriele D’Annunzio, the film had its world premiere at the Teatro Regio during the pre-opening of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. It was then officially screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006, in the presence of Martin Scorsese, in a version restored by the National Cinema Museum. 110 years after its creation, Cabiria is being relaunched through Cabiria ExperienceA cross-platform project who benefits from the latest technologies such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence, the Metaverse and especially the Unreal Engine. This powerful 3D graphics engine, developed by Epic Games and known mainly for video games, is also increasingly used in the cinema sector. Thanks to these technologies, Cabiria is now presented in a new appearanceoffering an innovative and immersive cinematic experience that allows new generations to rediscover this masterpiece of Italian silent cinema.

The initiative aims to merge the great cinematographic tradition with modern technological innovations in order to capture the interest of new generations and guide them towards the rediscovery of fundamental historical content. The plot of the original film is full of twists and turns. The protagonist of the story is the young Cabiria, who is kidnapped by Phoenician pirates and sold to the Carthaginians. The latter intend to sacrifice it to the god Moloch. However, the Roman Fulvio Axilia, with the help of the powerful Maciste, manages to save her, all against the backdrop of the Second Punic War.

THE Cabiria Experience the project includes a series of innovative content, developed by the Strategic and Digital Marketing sector of Rai Cinema in collaboration with a team of experts. Here are the main elements of the project:

– A Immersive short film and linear short film: created using the Unreal Engine 3D graphics engine and a combination of artificial intelligence tools in which the first two chapters of the original work are covered, including The Eruption of Etna and The Sacrifice and Rescue. The VR short film will be screened at the National Cinema Museum and usable on the Rai Cinema Channel VR application via VR viewers; while the linear short film will be available on RaiPlay.

– Agaming experience: the opportunity for users to embody Maciste, one of the protagonists of the film, and to participate, through his avatar, in some adventurous missions of the Metaverse of Rai Cinema and that of the National Cinema Museum on the platform of entertainment offering innovative virtual reality experiences The Nemesis. The experience will be available on mobile and desktop.

The entire project, in its different forms, will be presented in its entirety at the 76th Italian Prizewhich will be held in Turin, Italy, from October 1 to 4, 2024. On this occasion, the public will also be able to attend the screening of the restored original version of Cabiria at the Massimo Cinema in Turin. Cabiria Experience is a project of Rai Cinema and the National Cinema Museum of Turin with Spazio Koch and Cubia.

“Rai Cinema continues its path of innovation, research and experimentation with languages,” comments Paulo Del Broccogeneral director of Rai Cinema, “with the aim of presiding and managing change without losing our cultural roots. And Cabiria Experience is a project which perfectly fits, in this area, our public service mandate: it makes it possible to reach new audiences, particularly young people, and to promote digital culture by guaranteeing a presidency of innovative media. In this project, the cinematic tradition is closely linked to the most advanced technologies, creating an environment where the past and the future intertwine, and the cinematic experience is expanded in all its forms. This fusion of languages ​​allows us to bring a masterpiece of classic cinema back to life and make it accessible in a modern key. A cultural operation to bring new generations closer to the films that belong to the heritage of our cinema, and at the same time try to offer new stimuli for the development of our industry.

“With the aim of promoting its collections and promoting the history of cinema, the National Cinema Museum always offers innovative ways to make its cinematographic heritage accessible to the widest possible audience, by developing large-scale projects that oscillate between past and future. ” stress Enzo Ghigopresident of the National Cinema Museum.“Cabiria Experience celebrates 110 years since the first screening of Giovanni Pastrone’s masterpiece, the first colossal that gave so much brilliance to Italian cinema at the turn of the century.

“How to propose Cabiria, the Museum’s cult film, among younger generations? How can we succeed in bringing back to today’s young people the spectacular and exciting experience that the adventures of the superhero Maciste generated among spectators at the turn of the century? These are some of the questions to which the Museum is seeking new answers,” concludes Dominique De Gaetano, director of the National Cinema Museum. “In collaboration with Rai Cinema and the University of Turin, we have been committed for several years to studying and evaluating the impact of the most innovative technologies and tools on the museum dimension. This multiplatform project is among the first experiments in the world of contemporary transposition and reinterpretation of a silent film using virtual reality, the unreal engine, the metaverse and artificial intelligence.

Cabiria, Italy’s first colossal silent film, is reborn after 110 years thanks to new technologies

Please note: the English translation of the original Italian article was carried out using automatic tools. We undertake to proofread all articles, but we do not guarantee the complete absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find an error, please contact us.