A reconstructed print of this mini-epic was shown this spring at the Tribeca Film Festival, in Lower Manhattan. The Fall of Troy was the work of Giovanni Pastrone, the director who went on to make the highly influential feature-length epic Cabiria two years later; it's said that the success of this film persuaded him to take on the far more ambitious project for which he's best remembered. Here Pastrone tells the story of the ten year Trojan War in about ten minutes, in a series of tableau-like scenes. Stylistically, the production switches back and forth from the stage technique of the day (i.e. painted backdrops, operatic acting) to the more naturalistic style made possible by the cinema (i.e. outdoor scenes, and real items used as props). Helen's seduction of Paris in a lavish royal garden opens the film in a fairly restrained fashion, but it's followed by a fantastic, dreamlike image of the runaway lovers fleeing Greece in a kind of flying chariot drawn by cherubs. When the Greeks gather their forces to sail to Troy we can see that their boats are real and that this is no stage set: right before our eyes the soldiers actually launch their (rather small) boats on a body of water. The actors' costumes and other trappings are quite lavish for this era of film-making. The most memorable moment comes when, after years of fighting -- which must be briskly implied, of course, given the brief running time -- the Greeks build their wooden horse and withdraw to the woods. The image of the enormous horse looming over the beach must have greatly impressed audiences in 1911. Unfortunately, this sense of grandeur is undercut in the scene that follows, when the Trojans pull the horse within their gates. Once the "wooden" horse is inside we can see all too clearly that it is a stage contrivance of canvas flats. When the Greeks start popping out the scene becomes unintentionally comic, suggestive of those little clown cars in the circus that hold an impossible number of people.
The print of The Fall of Troy shown at the festival was pieced together from several sources. The film ends after Troy has fallen to the Greeks, when Helen is brought before her husband Menelaus. In the final moments she appears to beg for mercy as he turns away. Whether or not the film originally ended with their reconciliation is impossible to say, unless a more complete print is found. Over all, this film represents a great leap forward for the cinema in almost every department, from visual effects to the comparatively restrained acting style -- that is, aside from one over-excited actor who played a messenger in wildly histrionic fashion, drawing chuckles from the festival crowd. And apparently a crew member in contemporary clothes is visible at the edge of the frame during one battle scene, although I didn't see him myself. Even so, viewers familiar with very early movies that relate classical tales, such as Ferdinand Zecca's 1903 version of Samson and Delilah, will recognize that Pastrone was far ahead of his contemporaries, and the proof can be found in his subsequent work.
The print of The Fall of Troy shown at the festival was pieced together from several sources. The film ends after Troy has fallen to the Greeks, when Helen is brought before her husband Menelaus. In the final moments she appears to beg for mercy as he turns away. Whether or not the film originally ended with their reconciliation is impossible to say, unless a more complete print is found. Over all, this film represents a great leap forward for the cinema in almost every department, from visual effects to the comparatively restrained acting style -- that is, aside from one over-excited actor who played a messenger in wildly histrionic fashion, drawing chuckles from the festival crowd. And apparently a crew member in contemporary clothes is visible at the edge of the frame during one battle scene, although I didn't see him myself. Even so, viewers familiar with very early movies that relate classical tales, such as Ferdinand Zecca's 1903 version of Samson and Delilah, will recognize that Pastrone was far ahead of his contemporaries, and the proof can be found in his subsequent work.