Lampada della nonna, La Grandmother's Lamp / Nun's Lamp / Memories of Long Ago(1913) Director: Luigi Maggi –
Director of photography: Giovanni Vitrotti –
Production: Società Anonima Ambrosio, Torino –
Original lenght: 876m –
Intertitles: German –
Censorship certificate: n. 289 1.12.1913 –
Cast: Fernanda Negri-Pouget (la nonna – la ragazza/Grandmother – Girl), Eugenia Tettoni Fiorio (la giovane madre/Young Mother), Anna Crosetti (il bambino più grande/Oldest boy) Maria Bay (la bambina più piccola/Oldest girl), Umberto Scalpellini (lo zio curato/Parish priest), Luigi Chiesa (il tenente Carlo/Carlo, the lieutenant), Luciano Manara (Zufolo), Mario Voller Buzzi (un ufficiale dei Bersaglieri/Bersaglieri Officier), Annetta Ripamonti (la perpetua del curato/Priest's housekeeper), Oreste Grandi (un ufficiale austriaco/Austrian officier)
The film:
The grandchildren want to organize a surprise party to the grandmother substituting the old petrol lamp with a modern electric one. The change of the lamp though is not appreciated. The film is a long flashback that explains why: It’s about the patriotic love story between the grandmother when she was a young woman and the handsome Italian officer of the War of the Risorgimento, her future husband. In the country occupied by the Austrians, the young patriotic woman and the wounded officer will give the attack signal to the Italian troops lighting the petrol lamp the grandmother keeps with great care on the bell tower of the village.
The film is an incisive variation of the theme of the Risorgimento, which was a trendy topic of the moment. Maggi, recalling the plot of the film Nozze d’oro (1911)*, extends the length, multiplies the characters and inserts some parentheses of comedy, played above all by the actor Lucio Manara in the role of Zufolo, who steals the scene to the protagonist in many occasions.
La lampada della nonnawas restored in 2018 by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino from a tinted nitrate copy with German intertitles, preserved at BFI- National Archive and belonging to the Joye collection. Restoration works were carried out at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna in 2018.
