Luigi Serventi
Italian postcard. Ed. Vettori, Bologna.
Luigi Serventi, aka Gigi Serventi (1885-1976), was a male star of Italian silent cinema, often casted with Italian divas such as Pina Menichelli. After his Italian career he continued in Germany and Czechoslovakia in the 1920s.
Luigi Serventi, born in Rome on 31 July 1885, came from a Roman bourgeois family. He started his stage acting career in 1911, entering the theatre company of Vittoria Lepanto, and afterwards moving over to those of Ermete Novelli and Ettore Berti. In 1914 he abandoned the stage to fully dedicate himself to film acting, first as extra at the Latium Film company. Afterwards he moved to other production companies, such as Pasquali, Cines, Milano, Itala, etc. He was the male lead in successful films such as Il vetturale del Moncenisio (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1916) with Lina Millefleurs, Il Re, le Torri e gli Alfieri (Ivo Illuminati, 1917), a rare, lost futurist film with Giorgina Dentice di Frasso, Il padrone delle ferriere (Eugenio Perego, 1919) with Amleto Novelli and Pina Menichelli, and Il romanzo di un giovane povero (1920) with again Menichelli.
Serventi confirmed himself as one the male stars of Italian cinema in the silent era. He specialized in romantic roles, and often he acted together with Italian female stars such as Mercedes Brignone (Vizio atavico, 1914; La dote del burattinaio, 1914; Lo spettro bianco a Saint Moritz, 1914; Mezzanotte, 1915), Hesperia (Per la felicità degli altri, 1914; Dopo il veglione, 1914), Bianca Virginia Camagni (Non è tutto oro, 1914; La fioraia di Como, 1915; La gelosia, 1915; La crociata degli innocenti, 1917), Gemma Stagno Belllincioni (Cavalleria rusticana, 1916), Leda Gys (La Bohème, 1918), and, particularly, Pina Menichelli. Serventi acted opposite Menichelli in two films directed by Augusto Genina (La parola che uccide, 1914; Il mistero del castello di Monroe, 1914), and later five by Eugenio Perego (Il giardino incantato, 1919; Il padrone delle ferriere, 1919; Noris, 1919; La disfatta degli Erinni, 1919; La storia di una donna, 1920), and one by Amleto Palermi (the Octave Feuillet adaptation Il romanzo di un giovane povero, 1920). In 1914-1915 Genina directed Serventi in eight films and two more in the twenties. Other directors of Serventi were e.g. Baldassarre Negroni (1914-1915), Ugo Falena (1916-1917) and Eugenio Perego (191-1920). Occasionally, Serventi tried his luck with film direction: Le mogli e le arance (1917), co-directed with Lucio D’Ambra, and Suprema bellezza (1921). In both films he also played the male lead.
Because of the crisis in the Italian film industry, Serventi emigrated to Germany in 1922. Here he met the same public acclaim, appearing in several films, opposite female stars emigrated to Berlin like him, such as Lucy Doraine, Maria Jacobini and Diana Karenne. His first German film was Sterbende Völker (Robert Reinert 1922), which all-star cast included Fritz Kortner, Helena Makowska, Aud Egede Nissen, Otto Gebühr, Gustavo Serena and Paul Wegener. In Germany he often played aristocrats, as in Bohème - Künstlerliebe (Gennaro Righelli, 1923), Der Geldteufel (Heinz Goldberg, 1923), Finale der Liebe (Felix Basch, 1925), and Die Ausgestoßenen (Martin Berger, 1927). Serventi also acted in Czechoslovakia (Muz bez srdce/ The Man Without a Heart, 1923; Vyznavaci slunce/ The Sun Disciples, 1926; Erotikon, 1929) and in Austria (Lebende Ware, 1929). Yet, Serventi was also called back to Italy to act in films such as Voglio tradire mio marito (Mario Camerini 1925) with Linda Pini and Alberto Collo, Il gigante delle Dolomiti (Guido Brignone, 1927) with Bartolomeo Pagano, and Il cantastorie di Venezia (Atto Retti-Marsani, 1929).
When sound cinema set in, Serventi’s career started to fade way. His last true film part was in Berge in Flammen (Mountains in Flames, Luis Trenker/ Karl Hartl, 1931) with Trenker and Lissi Arna. In the same year Serventi settled in Kitzbühel, Austria, and remained there for many years. Only at a very high age he returned to Italy. Luigi Serventi died in Rome, on 18 August 1976.
Sources: IMDB, German Wikipedia.
Luigi Serventi
Italian postcard. Ed. Vettori, Bologna.
Luigi Serventi, aka Gigi Serventi (1885-1976), was a male star of Italian silent cinema, often casted with Italian divas such as Pina Menichelli. After his Italian career he continued in Germany and Czechoslovakia in the 1920s.
Luigi Serventi, born in Rome on 31 July 1885, came from a Roman bourgeois family. He started his stage acting career in 1911, entering the theatre company of Vittoria Lepanto, and afterwards moving over to those of Ermete Novelli and Ettore Berti. In 1914 he abandoned the stage to fully dedicate himself to film acting, first as extra at the Latium Film company. Afterwards he moved to other production companies, such as Pasquali, Cines, Milano, Itala, etc. He was the male lead in successful films such as Il vetturale del Moncenisio (Leopoldo Carlucci, 1916) with Lina Millefleurs, Il Re, le Torri e gli Alfieri (Ivo Illuminati, 1917), a rare, lost futurist film with Giorgina Dentice di Frasso, Il padrone delle ferriere (Eugenio Perego, 1919) with Amleto Novelli and Pina Menichelli, and Il romanzo di un giovane povero (1920) with again Menichelli.
Serventi confirmed himself as one the male stars of Italian cinema in the silent era. He specialized in romantic roles, and often he acted together with Italian female stars such as Mercedes Brignone (Vizio atavico, 1914; La dote del burattinaio, 1914; Lo spettro bianco a Saint Moritz, 1914; Mezzanotte, 1915), Hesperia (Per la felicità degli altri, 1914; Dopo il veglione, 1914), Bianca Virginia Camagni (Non è tutto oro, 1914; La fioraia di Como, 1915; La gelosia, 1915; La crociata degli innocenti, 1917), Gemma Stagno Belllincioni (Cavalleria rusticana, 1916), Leda Gys (La Bohème, 1918), and, particularly, Pina Menichelli. Serventi acted opposite Menichelli in two films directed by Augusto Genina (La parola che uccide, 1914; Il mistero del castello di Monroe, 1914), and later five by Eugenio Perego (Il giardino incantato, 1919; Il padrone delle ferriere, 1919; Noris, 1919; La disfatta degli Erinni, 1919; La storia di una donna, 1920), and one by Amleto Palermi (the Octave Feuillet adaptation Il romanzo di un giovane povero, 1920). In 1914-1915 Genina directed Serventi in eight films and two more in the twenties. Other directors of Serventi were e.g. Baldassarre Negroni (1914-1915), Ugo Falena (1916-1917) and Eugenio Perego (191-1920). Occasionally, Serventi tried his luck with film direction: Le mogli e le arance (1917), co-directed with Lucio D’Ambra, and Suprema bellezza (1921). In both films he also played the male lead.
Because of the crisis in the Italian film industry, Serventi emigrated to Germany in 1922. Here he met the same public acclaim, appearing in several films, opposite female stars emigrated to Berlin like him, such as Lucy Doraine, Maria Jacobini and Diana Karenne. His first German film was Sterbende Völker (Robert Reinert 1922), which all-star cast included Fritz Kortner, Helena Makowska, Aud Egede Nissen, Otto Gebühr, Gustavo Serena and Paul Wegener. In Germany he often played aristocrats, as in Bohème - Künstlerliebe (Gennaro Righelli, 1923), Der Geldteufel (Heinz Goldberg, 1923), Finale der Liebe (Felix Basch, 1925), and Die Ausgestoßenen (Martin Berger, 1927). Serventi also acted in Czechoslovakia (Muz bez srdce/ The Man Without a Heart, 1923; Vyznavaci slunce/ The Sun Disciples, 1926; Erotikon, 1929) and in Austria (Lebende Ware, 1929). Yet, Serventi was also called back to Italy to act in films such as Voglio tradire mio marito (Mario Camerini 1925) with Linda Pini and Alberto Collo, Il gigante delle Dolomiti (Guido Brignone, 1927) with Bartolomeo Pagano, and Il cantastorie di Venezia (Atto Retti-Marsani, 1929).
When sound cinema set in, Serventi’s career started to fade way. His last true film part was in Berge in Flammen (Mountains in Flames, Luis Trenker/ Karl Hartl, 1931) with Trenker and Lissi Arna. In the same year Serventi settled in Kitzbühel, Austria, and remained there for many years. Only at a very high age he returned to Italy. Luigi Serventi died in Rome, on 18 August 1976.
Sources: IMDB, German Wikipedia.