Good morning Babilonia

Story has two Italian brothers who are stonemasons going to America and eventually finding themselves in California where they eventually find work as part of the team that builds the Italian Towers and the Tower of Jewels for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.

When legendary movie maker D.W. Griffith sees the film CABIRIA and the exposition lit by searchlights he calls for the Italians to come to Hollywood. He has a grand idea for a film he's making. The films is INTOLERANCE.

The brothers finally break through the bureaucracy surrounding Griffith and design the gigantic elephants and other designs for the massive Babylonian sets for the film. Along the way they marry movie extras and settle into a successful life as artisans in Hollywood. Then comes World War I.

The film by the Taviani brothers has a dreamlike quality that blurs the line between fact and fiction. While Griffith (played by Charles Dance) is front and center in the Hollywood segments, his wife, Linda Arvidson, is never mentioned by name nor is cameraman Billy Bitzer. Aside from Griffith, no real person in Hollywood is mentioned by name.

Vincent Spano and Joaquim de Almeida are fine as the Italian brothers, and Greta Scacchi is good as the doomed wife.

After all the hubbub about INTOLERANCE and much time spent on the building of the sets, there's only a very brief clip from the real film shown.