La disfida di Barletta/ Ettore Fieramosca (1915)
Italian postcard. Pasquali Film. In 1915 the Turinese company Pasquali Film made an adaptation of the classic, nationalistic novel Ettore Fieramosca (1833) by Massimo D'Azeglio, directed by Umberto Paradisi and with scenography by Domenico Gaido, according to Vittorio Martinelli, while IMDB claims Gaido was co-director with Paradisi. Acclaimed actors Gustavo Serena and Domenico Gambino had supporting parts in the film, while Giovanni Cimara played the title role.
Caption: During the banquet given in her honour, Elvira Consalvo cannot take her eyes from Ettore Fieramosca.
In 1503 the French army is walking towards Rome. Ettore Fieramosca (Giovanni Cimara), engaged to Ginevra di Monreale (Laura Darville), is sent to Bari to organize the resistence. But the invaders proceed and they capture the castle of Monreale. The old count of Monreale offers his daughter in mariage to Grajano d'Asti (Nello Carotenuto), a renegade who commands the French troops, if he frees them from the foreign soldiers. Among Grajano's friends is Valentino Borgia, who becomes hot for Ginevra and gives her a potion which creates an apparent death. Yet when Ettore returns from Bari and hears from her death, he gives her a farewell kiss... and awakens her. The two of them flee, so when Borgia opens the coffin, it is empty. The French now move to Barletta, ruled by Ettore. During a seize fire, a French captain, prisoner of war of the Italians, insults the honour of the fighting Italians. Ettore then proposes a challenge of 13 Italians against 13 French and their allies. During the fight the Italians win and Grajano dies. Borgia makes Ginevra believe Ettore has another love, so she has a heart attack. When Ettore returns to her, he finds her died by grief. He then saddles his horse, storms towards a rock and ends up in sea.
While produced in 1915, Ettore Fieramosca was released late, e.g. in 1917 in Turin, where critics claimed this film would have been lauded before the war (the First World War), but now looked old style, for instance in its performances, despite the tasteful sets and shots on location. Martinelli suspects this reputation of outdatedness may have been enforced by the insertion of fragments from an earlier version of Ettore Fieramosca, filmed by Pasquali in 1909 and now a lost film. In 1938 Alessandro Blasetti made a sound version.
Source: IMDB; Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano, 1915, I.
La disfida di Barletta/ Ettore Fieramosca (1915)
Italian postcard. Pasquali Film. In 1915 the Turinese company Pasquali Film made an adaptation of the classic, nationalistic novel Ettore Fieramosca (1833) by Massimo D'Azeglio, directed by Umberto Paradisi and with scenography by Domenico Gaido, according to Vittorio Martinelli, while IMDB claims Gaido was co-director with Paradisi. Acclaimed actors Gustavo Serena and Domenico Gambino had supporting parts in the film, while Giovanni Cimara played the title role.
Caption: During the banquet given in her honour, Elvira Consalvo cannot take her eyes from Ettore Fieramosca.
In 1503 the French army is walking towards Rome. Ettore Fieramosca (Giovanni Cimara), engaged to Ginevra di Monreale (Laura Darville), is sent to Bari to organize the resistence. But the invaders proceed and they capture the castle of Monreale. The old count of Monreale offers his daughter in mariage to Grajano d'Asti (Nello Carotenuto), a renegade who commands the French troops, if he frees them from the foreign soldiers. Among Grajano's friends is Valentino Borgia, who becomes hot for Ginevra and gives her a potion which creates an apparent death. Yet when Ettore returns from Bari and hears from her death, he gives her a farewell kiss... and awakens her. The two of them flee, so when Borgia opens the coffin, it is empty. The French now move to Barletta, ruled by Ettore. During a seize fire, a French captain, prisoner of war of the Italians, insults the honour of the fighting Italians. Ettore then proposes a challenge of 13 Italians against 13 French and their allies. During the fight the Italians win and Grajano dies. Borgia makes Ginevra believe Ettore has another love, so she has a heart attack. When Ettore returns to her, he finds her died by grief. He then saddles his horse, storms towards a rock and ends up in sea.
While produced in 1915, Ettore Fieramosca was released late, e.g. in 1917 in Turin, where critics claimed this film would have been lauded before the war (the First World War), but now looked old style, for instance in its performances, despite the tasteful sets and shots on location. Martinelli suspects this reputation of outdatedness may have been enforced by the insertion of fragments from an earlier version of Ettore Fieramosca, filmed by Pasquali in 1909 and now a lost film. In 1938 Alessandro Blasetti made a sound version.
Source: IMDB; Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano, 1915, I.