Ignazio Lupi, Floriana and Alberto Collo in Il potere sovrano (1916)
Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Pi, Barcelona, no. 1 of 6. Photo: Tiber Film. Ignazio Lupi, Floriana and Alberto Collo in Il potere sovrano/The Sovereign Power (Baldassarre Negroni, Percy Nash, 1916). The Spanish title on the cards is Poder Soberano.
The plot takes place in a fictive Kingdom. Lotys (Hesperia) is the idol of the people. Therd (Emilio Ghione), a journalist, a man of action, and manager of the paper The Idea, is also beloved by his compatriots. Their ideals unite Lotys and Therd. The King (Ignazio Lupi) lives distanced from his people and has left governing to his ministers. The government threatens Therd with arrest if he doesn't stop his actions. In the Royal Palace the crown prince (Alberto Collo) escapes monotony and etiquette by a secret affair with Gloria Ronsard (Diana d'Amore), The Queen (Floriana) knows about it but fears exposure and disgrace. People suffer from hunger. Lotys decides to write to the King directly. Meanwhile, the Grand Chancellor (Alfonso Cassini), head of the government, raises import taxes and makes an agreement with a banker, Jost (Orlando), to fund military expenses. While the papers back the government, the King receives the letter that his government abuses of his people and leaves them in hunger. He postpones his signature under the new arms law. He secretly visits a manifestation by Lotys and Therd and is impressed by her speech, but when the police arrive, he flees. The King is more and more impressed by Lotys, to the chagrin of Therd, who is secretly in love with her too. When the King hears about the secret deals between the banker and his Grand Chancellor, he is outraged. Lotys manages to obtain documents at the banker that will indicate the minister's corruption. In full uniform and before his whole government The King has the banker arrested. The people hear about the arrest. The King, eager to get closer to his people, decides to open the Palace of Fine Arts. Lotys is in the first row and cries out her love to him when he passes, breaking the decorum, and passing out. That night Therd sees the King leaving Lotys' house, and in a jealous fit he demands Lotys to choose him instead. She refuses, so he shoots her. Her last words to the King are forgiving for Therd, claiming she committed suicide because of the impossible situation. The King spreads her ashes into the sea. (Plot from the back of the cards. NB in the Spanish version Therd is called Thord, and Jost Yost.)
Il potere sovrano was based on the novel Temporal Power by Marie Corelli and scripted by the two directors. Cinematographers were Giorgio Ricci and Antonio Cufaro, sets were by Giulio Lombardozzi. The film got its censorship card on 17 October 1916, but premiered quite later, in Rome on 10 January 1917. The censor forbid to use the English title in Italy, but that title was still often used. Though the press was not in favor, audiences flocked to the cinemas to see the film.
Ignazio Lupi (1867-1942) was an Italian actor who had a prolific career in Italian silent cinema between the early 1910s and the mid-1920s. Not to be confused with the Italo-American gangster Ignazio Lupo. Lupi was a regular cast member of Cines productions in the 1910s, first in many shorts, such as Gaspare (1912), Anna Maria (1912), and Una tragedia al cinematografo (1913). In the latter, he plays a jealous husband who threatens to shoot his infidel wife whom he thinks is in a cinema with a lover. When the manager warns the audience, dozens of adulterous couples secretly leave the cinema by the backdoor, thinking it concerns them. In the Cines epic Quo Vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni 1913) he was Aulus, Lygia's foster father; in Marcantonio e Cleopatra (Guazzoni 1914) he was Ottaviano, and in Cajus Julius Caesar (Guazzoni 1914) he was Pompeo. Other epic productions he was in were Cabiria (Giovani Pastrone 1914) and Christus (Giulio Antamoro 1916). In 1916-1917 Lupi had the peak of his career with respectively 13 and 9 parts in films such as La caccia ai millioni (Baldassarre Negroni 1916), La rosa di Granata (Emilio Ghione 1916) starring Lina Cavalieri, and La cuccagna (Negroni 1917) starring Hesperia and based on Zola's La curée - Lupi played banker Mareuil. Until 1922 Lupi was very active in Italian silent film, as in I figli di nessuno (Ubaldo Maria del Colle 1921), the Pirandello adapation Ma non è una cosa seria (Augusto Camerini 1921) and the thriller La casa sotto la neve (Gennaro Righelli 1922), again with Jacobini. His last role was in La cavalcata ardente (Carmine Gallone 1925), starring Soava Gallone.
Alberto Collo (1883-1955) was an Italian film actor of mostly the silent cinema. In the 1910s and early 1920s, he acted opposite the female stars of his times, such as Francesca Bertini, Hesperia, Maria and Diomira Jacobini, and Italia Almirante Manzini. He also performed in war propaganda, historical films, and strong men films.
Ignazio Lupi, Floriana and Alberto Collo in Il potere sovrano (1916)
Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Pi, Barcelona, no. 1 of 6. Photo: Tiber Film. Ignazio Lupi, Floriana and Alberto Collo in Il potere sovrano/The Sovereign Power (Baldassarre Negroni, Percy Nash, 1916). The Spanish title on the cards is Poder Soberano.
The plot takes place in a fictive Kingdom. Lotys (Hesperia) is the idol of the people. Therd (Emilio Ghione), a journalist, a man of action, and manager of the paper The Idea, is also beloved by his compatriots. Their ideals unite Lotys and Therd. The King (Ignazio Lupi) lives distanced from his people and has left governing to his ministers. The government threatens Therd with arrest if he doesn't stop his actions. In the Royal Palace the crown prince (Alberto Collo) escapes monotony and etiquette by a secret affair with Gloria Ronsard (Diana d'Amore), The Queen (Floriana) knows about it but fears exposure and disgrace. People suffer from hunger. Lotys decides to write to the King directly. Meanwhile, the Grand Chancellor (Alfonso Cassini), head of the government, raises import taxes and makes an agreement with a banker, Jost (Orlando), to fund military expenses. While the papers back the government, the King receives the letter that his government abuses of his people and leaves them in hunger. He postpones his signature under the new arms law. He secretly visits a manifestation by Lotys and Therd and is impressed by her speech, but when the police arrive, he flees. The King is more and more impressed by Lotys, to the chagrin of Therd, who is secretly in love with her too. When the King hears about the secret deals between the banker and his Grand Chancellor, he is outraged. Lotys manages to obtain documents at the banker that will indicate the minister's corruption. In full uniform and before his whole government The King has the banker arrested. The people hear about the arrest. The King, eager to get closer to his people, decides to open the Palace of Fine Arts. Lotys is in the first row and cries out her love to him when he passes, breaking the decorum, and passing out. That night Therd sees the King leaving Lotys' house, and in a jealous fit he demands Lotys to choose him instead. She refuses, so he shoots her. Her last words to the King are forgiving for Therd, claiming she committed suicide because of the impossible situation. The King spreads her ashes into the sea. (Plot from the back of the cards. NB in the Spanish version Therd is called Thord, and Jost Yost.)
Il potere sovrano was based on the novel Temporal Power by Marie Corelli and scripted by the two directors. Cinematographers were Giorgio Ricci and Antonio Cufaro, sets were by Giulio Lombardozzi. The film got its censorship card on 17 October 1916, but premiered quite later, in Rome on 10 January 1917. The censor forbid to use the English title in Italy, but that title was still often used. Though the press was not in favor, audiences flocked to the cinemas to see the film.
Ignazio Lupi (1867-1942) was an Italian actor who had a prolific career in Italian silent cinema between the early 1910s and the mid-1920s. Not to be confused with the Italo-American gangster Ignazio Lupo. Lupi was a regular cast member of Cines productions in the 1910s, first in many shorts, such as Gaspare (1912), Anna Maria (1912), and Una tragedia al cinematografo (1913). In the latter, he plays a jealous husband who threatens to shoot his infidel wife whom he thinks is in a cinema with a lover. When the manager warns the audience, dozens of adulterous couples secretly leave the cinema by the backdoor, thinking it concerns them. In the Cines epic Quo Vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni 1913) he was Aulus, Lygia's foster father; in Marcantonio e Cleopatra (Guazzoni 1914) he was Ottaviano, and in Cajus Julius Caesar (Guazzoni 1914) he was Pompeo. Other epic productions he was in were Cabiria (Giovani Pastrone 1914) and Christus (Giulio Antamoro 1916). In 1916-1917 Lupi had the peak of his career with respectively 13 and 9 parts in films such as La caccia ai millioni (Baldassarre Negroni 1916), La rosa di Granata (Emilio Ghione 1916) starring Lina Cavalieri, and La cuccagna (Negroni 1917) starring Hesperia and based on Zola's La curée - Lupi played banker Mareuil. Until 1922 Lupi was very active in Italian silent film, as in I figli di nessuno (Ubaldo Maria del Colle 1921), the Pirandello adapation Ma non è una cosa seria (Augusto Camerini 1921) and the thriller La casa sotto la neve (Gennaro Righelli 1922), again with Jacobini. His last role was in La cavalcata ardente (Carmine Gallone 1925), starring Soava Gallone.
Alberto Collo (1883-1955) was an Italian film actor of mostly the silent cinema. In the 1910s and early 1920s, he acted opposite the female stars of his times, such as Francesca Bertini, Hesperia, Maria and Diomira Jacobini, and Italia Almirante Manzini. He also performed in war propaganda, historical films, and strong men films.