Tigre reale
(1916) Director: Giovanni Pastrone –
Director of photography: Giovanni Tomatis, Segundo de Chomón –
Production: Itala Film, Torino –
Original lenght: 1742 m –
Lenght: 1600 m –
Intertitles: Italian –
Censorship certificate: 11662, 20/6/1916 –
Première: 09/11/1916 –
Cast: Pina Menichelli (la contessa/Countess Natka), Alberto Nipoti (Giorgio la Ferita), Febo Mari (Dolsi), Valentina Frascaroli (Erminia), Gabriel Moreau (Conte di/Count De Rancy), Ernesto Vaser, Enrico Gemelli
The film:
Tigre reale, directed by Pastrone right after the release of Il fuoco, is an epic poem about the strength of love and the power of destruction of the memory, the “femme fatale” and the guilt obsession. The tragic past of the Russian countess Natka weighs on the opposed love story between her and the young diplomatic Giorgio La Ferlita. Unreachable “dannunziani” characters motivated by burning passions act in a rarefied artificial aristocracy.
The diva offers here, on this luxurious stage, an interpretation symbol of the excessive and artificial acting, characteristic of a part of the Italian silent cinema.
The film restoration (1993) and the digital process (2018):
The restoration of Tigre Reale (Giovanni Pastrone, Itala Film, 1916) was carried out by Museo Nazionale del Cinema of Turin in 1993 strating from a tintedand toned nitrate print, donated by Giovanni Pastrone to Maria Adriana Prolo in 1959.
The incomplete nitrate copy was integrated with a dupe negative, also preserved by the Museum. The colours were defined tank to the indications found in Itala Film production documents and to coulour samples. The reconstruction of the Italian intertitles was based on documentation and on the original intertitles plates preserved by the Museum.
The restoration was carried out by l’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory in 1993.
The documents preserved in the Museo Nazionale del Cinema archives alloed it to be ascertained that this surviving restored version of the film, witch is still the only known one,is not the original version but one produced at th etime for British distribution, with a completely different ending.
The 4 K digitazation of the resotred version was carried out by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema of Turin at L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory in Bologna in 2018.
The musical accompaniment was composed and performer by Maestro Stefano Maccagno.
