Fifty years of Italian cinema (1955)

their equally obvious abundance of snaky charms, let us not lose a sense of perspective in judging them. An earlier generation was as moved by them as we are by their successors today, and tribute must be paid the techniques evolved in those rapturous, pioneering days. When one entered the enchanted darkness of the cinemas, down from the posters and billboards came Linda Pini, Leda Gys, Antonietta Calderari, Lucana Delia Porta, Itala Almirante Mazzini, Diomira Jacobini, Vittorina Lepanto ; down came their bodyguard of elegantly gloved and cloaked admirers and defenders against all hazards — Alberto Capozzi, Amleto Novelli, Mario Bonnard, Alberto Collo, Febo Mari and Gustavo Serena. There, in the shades of night, is Emilio Ghione, that querulous knight of the taverns. From the stage came Lyda Borelli, too, with Ermete Zacconi, the protagonist of Padre (Father) and Lo Scomparso (The Man Who Disappeared), Ermete Novelli, who played King Lear, Michele Perrin and in Morte Civile (Civilian Death) ; and all the rest — the amusing Camillo di Riso, slyly maneuvering his enormous paunch, Ferruccio Carravaglia, Ciro Galvani, Ignazio Bracci, Ignazio Lupi, MariaMelato, Antonio Gandusio, Oreste Calabresi, Eleuterio Rodolfi, Enrico Roma, Alfredo de Antoni. Names that once made hearts beat faster — or even skip a beat ! The old Italian Commedia dell'Arte came to life once more before the cameras, displaying, as before, its astonishing inventiveness, sparkling improvisation and imaginative caprices, much as did those actors of the 15th to 18th centuries whom people flocked to see in the theatres, on improvised platforms here, there or anywhere, or in the public squares. The comedians among these names forever hallowed in the history of the Italian cinema, these « sons of the profession », known and unknown, comedians born to the stage, brought to the cameras a fecund vivacity, a gift of improvisation and a bravura technique that was steeped in a centuries-old tradition. By 1914, Italian films had captured the world market and were sold in « packages ». This year saw the appearance of Benelli's Gorgona (The Gorgon), with Tina di Lorenzo and Annibale Ninchi, and — at long last — the massive Cabiria, simultaneously presented for its premiere in Turin and Milan and adorned with the elegant signature of Gabriele D'Annunzio, who supplied the film's subject (or, perhaps, only the subtitles). Francesco Socco informs us that D'Annunzio, on May 24th, 1911, had allowed Ambrosio the « reproduction and film performance rights » to his works : La fiaccola sotto il moggio (Light under a Bushel), Iorio's Daughter, Dream of an Autumn Sunset, La Gioconda, The Ship and L'Innocente. D'Annunzio undertook to adapt each of these works for filming and to accompany each script with a description to be used for advertising purposes, « each work to be subject to the alterations necessary to the exigencies of the cinema industry. » These films were followed by Figlia di Torino (Torino's Daughter), a second version of La Gioconda and of Light under a Bushel, Giovanni Episcopo, Trionjo delta morte (The Triumph of Death) ; also after D'Annunzio were Piacere (Pleasure), 77 Ferro (Iron), Forse che si, forse che no (Perhaps Yes and Perhaps Not), Piu che I'amore (More Than Love), La morte del duca d'Orjena (The Death of the Duke of Orfena), Novelle delta Pescara (Tales of Pescara), and yet another work of d'Annunzio, the four-act mystery, La Crociata degli Innocenti (The Crusade of the Innocents), about which Luigi Bianconi comments, «...an original, though not very satisfactory, work... produced quite conventionally.)) But, out of this welter of films, only one was to survive the test of time and become indissolubly