How sad is this?

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

So many viewers don't like "Last Days Of Pompeii". Well, the only surprising aspect of that is that these people have even seen this movie. As a silent film fanatic, the generally less than stellar notices posted on the movie prevented me from shelling out the 24 dollars the DVD cost. Don't know why I paid attention to the reviews. All I can say is, I'm glad I finally got it, because this is a truly, truly great motion picture. The lead actress is absolutely brilliant, one of the greatest performances that I've *ever* seen; why she didn't go on to megasuccess is beyond me (although she likely was popular in her native Italy but it seems very little is known about her today), and director Mario Caserini is every bit the artist that the much more celebrated America filmmakers of the time were - and actually more talented than most. "The Last Days Of Pompeii" is simply a brilliant film. Find out for yourself.

The romance of Glaucus and Ione (called Jone here) plus the hopeless love of blind Nidia, intertwine with the nefarious machinations of an Egyptian priest, to make up most of the story. For its time, this was a new departure in cinema, but today it will strike most viewers as too tame. There is no camera movement. Title cards carry little or no dialog. And most evidently the cast was not chosen for physical attractiveness, men or women. Still the story gets told, and rather catches one up, especially the portion of the plot involving blind Nidia. The special effects depicting the eruption of Vesuvius are not bad for 1913, but don't expect anything like the documentaries of the eruption of Hawaiian volcanoes!

An evil Egyptian priest menaces a young Roman maiden while a blind slave girl shows great courage in attempting to rescue her beloved master, during THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII.Produced less than two decades after the birth of cinema, this silent film is considered to be the first important historical epic filmed on a truly grand scale. It also heralded the arrival of the Italian movie industry as a force to be reckoned with, however briefly, in the halcyon days before World War One.Produced by prolific director Mario Caserini (1874-1920), it features a completely static camera which has the effect of turning each shot into a living tableau. (The only exceptions are a few pan shots of flowing lava which were inserted in the film's final moments.) Caserini manages his early crowd scenes very nicely, in which everyone looks like they're actually doing something and have a reason to be in the shot. The use of light & shadow on the large sets is also most commendable.The final twenty minutes, when Vesuvius blows her top and destroys Pompeii, features special effects which are still quite impressive. After more than an hour of silver toned film, the abrupt switch to red tints at the instant of the eruption is a definite attention grabber.Much of the acting is very theatrical & overripe, but that was the style back then and was probably much affected by grand opera. Two performers should be noted - Fernanda Negri Pouget is quite touching as the tragic blind girl, and Ubaldo Stefani, as the hero, is unintentionally hilarious in the scene in which he drinks a witch's poisoned brew.The film's final moments embrace a mature sensitivity and highlight the latent power of the cinematic image.

This amazing Italian silent epic, featuring a cast of millions, will blow your mind as thoroughly as Mt. Vesuvius blew up Pompeii. Breathtaking special effects, an excitingly melodramatic plot, stunning settings, and gorgeous cinematography combine to make this one of the first great feature films.The cinematography is very different to what we are used to today - the camera does not move at all - but the shots are so well lit that it hardly seems to matter. And the genuine beauty of the final shot makes the scene very moving indeed.This is an unmissable masterpiece of cinema.