Cenerentola - 1913
ABOUT THE FILM : Cenerentola
Cineteca del FriuliCinderella
Year: 1913
Under the protective wing of motion-picture star Jenny Smart, Silvietta, the orphan, goes with her to Ambrosio Studios in Turin. There, she meets the director Piccolini, who, after a screen test, offers her the part of Cinderella. After a painful farewell to her daughter, whom she entrusts to the care of nuns, Silvietta gives herself over to the cinema. Blending fiction and reality, an instructive incursion into Ambrosio Studios through the rediscovered fragment of the feature film Cenerentola.
Nationality: Italian
Actors: Fernanda Negri-Pouget, Mary Cléo Tarlarini, Ubaldo Stefani
Length: 8' 35"
Genre: fiction
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: tinted
Producer: Ambrosio Film
Composer: Vincent Lendower
Original language: Italian
A BRIEF HISTORY : Cenerentola
From 1911 to the beginning of WWI, Italian cinema enjoyed an extraordinary soar. The first motion-picture companies, equipped for production with studios as well as development laboratories, appeared in Rome and Turin between 1905 and 1906. Until the 1910's, the peninsula's principal production houses were Cines in Rome, and Ambrosio Films and Itala Films in Turin.
Produced by Ambrosio Films, Cenerentola, directed by Eleuterio Rodolfi (1876-1935), reveals to the public the secrets of motion-picture creation through the story of the shoot of Perrault's celebrated fairy tale. Certain scenes are filmed in the production house's own studios - as the name plate at the entrance so attests - with images where fiction blends with reality. It is thus for the pivotal scene of Cenerentola where the shooting camera, located to the left of the screen, films a scene from the fairy tale - women trying the slipper which is to tie them with the prince - while the other camera, that of Rodolfi, makes a long shot. In this sequence, the director-character, Piccolini, steps in and orchestrates the scene with a skilful mise en abyme.
An optician specialised in photographic equipment, Arturo Ambrosio (1870-1960) founded in 1906 with Alfredo Gandolfi (1885-1963), the production house Ambrosio Films from which emanated documentaries and fictional films which were admired and copied throughout the world. A major pioneer of the Italian motion-picture industry, Ambrosio Films produced adaptations of works by Gabriele d’Annunzio (1863-1938) and hit feature films such as Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (The Last Days of Pompeii) co-directed by Mario Caserini (1874-1920) and Rodolfi who, moreover, plays a part in the film. Indeed, in addition to his director's hat, Rodolfi was also a popular actor in a myriad of comedies such as Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), present on the website.
The original music for this film was composed by Vincent Lendower in 2011 in the context of the call for proposals launched in partnership with the Sacem (Société des auteurs compositeurs et éditeurs de musique – Society of authors, composers and music editors).
