Un duello allo schrapnell - 1913
ABOUT THE FILM : Un duello allo schrapnell
Cineteca del Friuli
Cineteca di BolognaShrapnel Duel
Year: 1913
Two friends on a jaunt in the Alps soon become rivals fighting over a damsel’s heart. The suitors barter their muskets for Shrapnel bombshells fastened to their back. Chases and special effects guaranteed!
All the means of comedy are used to liven up this "silly" movie with a colorful array of tints. Un Duello Allo Schrapnell is completely nonsensical. And the tinting follows in this senseless manner!
Nationality: Italian
Length: 6' 47"
Genre: comedy
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: tinted
Producer: Itala Films
Composer: Antonio Coppola
Original language: English
A BRIEF HISTORY : Un duello allo schrapnell
This tinted comic film is the fruit of the collaboration between the Bologna film archives and the Cineteca del Friuli (Germona), and has been restored at the laboratory L'imagine Rittrovata of Bologna. It is the proof that moviemakers from 1913 weren't afraid of the absurd.
Produced by Itala Films in 1913, from a print titled in English, Un Duello Allo Schrapnell is multi-tinted, meaning that each shot is filmed in black and white and is printed on a differently tinted piece of film.
In the olden days, color couldn't be recorded onto film, hence this process of film tinting which entails having to splice together the negative of each different shot. General rules developed for what color to use in certain scenes: blue for night scenes, red for firelight, yellow for sunshine, amber for artificial lighting.
The tinting of Un Duello Allo Schrapnell is completely nonsensical? How fortunate, for the film is also. Let's forget our classics, arm ourselves with hammers and bombshells (or perhaps funnels and toothbrushes?) and long-live cinema!
The original music for this film was composed by Antonio Coppola in 2008.
