Maciste alpino Maciste as Aplino Soldier(1916) Director: Luigi Maggi, Luigi Romano Borgnetto –
Director of photography: Giovanni Tomatis, Carlo Franzoni, Augusto Battagliotti –
Production: Itala Film, Torino –
Original lenght: 2084 m –
Lenght: 1944m –
Intertitles: Italian –
Censorship certificate: 122240, 27/11/1916 –
Première: 06/12/1916 –
Cast: Bartolomeo Pagano (Maciste), Fido Schirru (Fritz Pluffer), Enrico Gemelli (Conte di/Count of Pratolungo), Marussia Allesti (Giulietta, Contessina di/Daughter of Pratolungo), Sig. Riccioni (ufficiale degli alpini), Riccardo Vitaliani (ufficiale austriaco/Austrian official), Evangelina Vitaliani, Felice Minotti.
The film:
In 1916 Italy is at war and Maciste can’t stand and watch. The gentle giant enlists in the Alpini regiment, ready to fight off the Austrians out of his fatherland kicking them in the bum. The spectacular mountain shoots, when the troops are climbing the top covered with snow, were probably taken by Giovanni Pastrone.
The film restoration:
The digital restoration of Maciste as “Alpino” Soldier (Itala Film, 1916) was carried out by the Biennale di Venezia in collaboration with the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino, from the original camera negative and a negative positive nitrate, both held by the Museum, and two nitrate prints held by Fondazione Cineteca Italiana of Milano and by the British Film Institute of London. The original elements were scanned at a 4K resolution.
Intertiles reconstruction were based on production documentation, the Museum copy intertitles and the Itala Film templates from the same period.
The reproduction of original tinting and toning was based on the the Milano copy, notes written on the negative, and post-production notes preserved in Torino. The restored print, complete with shots missing from alla available copies, measures 1944 metres as opposed to the 2084 metrs as recorded on the original censorship certificate n.12240, dated 21.11.1916 and before further censor’s cuts.
The restoration was carried out in 2014 at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna.
