Nozze d'oro After Fifty Years [GB] / The Golden Wedding [US] (1911) Director: Luigi Maggi –
Director of photography: Angelo Scalenghe –
Production: Società Anonima Ambrosio, Torino –
Original lenght: 450 m –
Lenght: 450m –
Intertitles: Italian –
Censorship certificate: n. 6183 del 11/1/1915 –
Availability date: 10/1911
Cast: Alberto A. Capozzi (il nonno / il bersagliere / the grandfather / the bersagliere), Mary Cléo Tarlarini (la nonna / la contadina / the grandmother / the countrywoman), Luigi Maggi (il padre della contadina / the countrywoman’s father), Mario Voller Buzzi (figlio o genero del bersagliere / the son or the bersagliere’s son-in-law), Norina [Norma] Rasero (la nuora o la figlia del bersagliere / the daughter or the bersagliere’s daughter-in-law), Giuseppe Gray (l'ufficiale degli Ulani / the Ulani’s Official), Paolo Azzurri (il capitano dei bersaglieri / the bersaglieri’s chief), Oreste Grandi, Ernesto Vaser
The film:
The old lieutenant of bersaglieri, during his golden wedding, commemorates, together with his relatives an episode of the Risorgimento battle and the victory against the Austrians. On the 30th of May 1859 the soldiers defend a circled farmhouse. The young lieutenant has the task of crossing the enemy lines in order to ask for reinforcement. Chased and wounded, he takes refuge in a farmhouse where a girl and her father (“the water guardian”), after taking care of him, hide him to the Austrian soldiers risking their life. The girl lies to the Austrian official, also when he notices some blood stains on her dress. When the enemy leaves, the lieutenant returns to the battlefield.
After being decorated, he goes back to the farmhouse and proposes marriage to the girl who saved his life. This is how the old man finishes his story to the touched relatives.
The movie, that won the Cinematographic contest during the 1911 Expo and met with the approval of the public and the critics, was censored many times in order to avoid any possible disagreement with Austria.
The film restoration:
The restoration of Nozze d’oro was conducted by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino, La Cinémathèque de Toulouse and the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, from a colored nitrate positive copy 431 meters long with Italian intertitles, conserved at La Cinémathèque de Toulouse in Bois d’Arcy. The dyes were reintegrated after comparing the film with two nitrate positive copies conserved at the British Film Institute in London and at Lobster Films in Paris. The photochemical restoration was conducted in tandem with a digital procedure to stabilize Ambrosio’s original logo. Appreciation also goes to Centre National de la Cinématographie - Archives Françaises du Film in Bois D’Arcy and to the Filmoteca Vaticana for their collaboration in the research.
The restoration was carried out at the laboratory L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna in 2011.
This restoration was part of a project promoted by the the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino to safeguard and valorize the winning films of the Film Competition held on the occasion of Torino’s World Expo in 1911. The film Nozze d’oro received first prize in the category of artistic films.
