Signora dalle camelie, La
(1915) Director: Gustavo Serena –
Director of photography: Alberto G. Carta –
Production: Caesar Film, Roma –
Original lenght: 1800 m –
Lenght: 1075 m –
Intertitles: Italian –
Censorship certificate: 10288, 19/8/1915 –
Première: 19/08/1915 –
Cast: Francesca Bertini (Margherita Gauthier), Gustavo Serena (Armando Duval), Olaga Benetti (Madame Duvernoy), Carlo Benetti, Camillo De Riso, Antonio Cruicchi (Duval padre/father), Tina Ceccacci
Il film:
"Testing themselves in the studio with the role of Margherita Gauthier has always been the dream of all the valued Italian dramatic actresses, because her odyssey allows a lot of space for all the various expressions of one’s own talent, and passing this trial has always meant one of the most beautiful art achievement. […]. Now is the time, in the movie theater, for one of our top actresses, Francesca Bertini."
[La Vita Cinematografica, Torino, 1915]
The film restoration:
The restoration of La signora dale camelie was promoted by the Associazione Philip Morris Progetto Cinema in collaboration with the Museo Nazionale del Cinema di Torino, the Filmoteca Española of Madrid and the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, from a 874-meter-long 35mm print conserved at the National Cinema Museum that comes from the archives of the Filmoteca Española and a 16mm print in very poor condition from the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, both with Spanish intertitles. Despite the mediocre quality of the material, the decision was made to collate the prints, integrating the 35mm print with sequences from the 16mm print. Comparison made it possible to reintegrate the films and make the more obscure narrative passages understandable. The Italian intertitles were reconstructed using the original 1915 font and backgrounds. The laboratory work was particularly complex and involved making the images more steady, correcting the illumination when the print was too dark, and equalizing the print quality of the two copies.
The restoration was carried out in 1992 at the Image Creations laboratory in Amsterdam and the Bruno Favo laboratory in Torino.
