A hugely popular celebrity in the early 20th century, Italia Almirante Manzini is rarely remembered today. It seems all the more fitting, then, that Pordenone Silent Film should dedicate a retrospective to the actress, which will continue for next year’s edition. Almirante Manzini’s film career began in the 1910s and reached its culmination with her role as Sofonisba in Cabiria, the Italian hit loved by audiences worldwide. Before film, she had worked in theatre, the ideal place to develop and explore great character work. She was an actress first and diva second, although she certainly wasn’t second to any of her contemporaries in terms of charm and allure. Alongside remarkable versatility in her many different film roles, Italia Almirante Manzini also showed excellent judgement in her choice of scripts and directors, working with the finest names of her time, including Roberto Roberti, Gennaro Righelli, Augusto Genina and Giovanni Pastrone, and of course her cousin Mario Almirante, who she worked with on many films. These include Zingari (Roma), which will be screened on Monday, October 6 at 9 p.m. at Teatro Verdi, with live musical accompaniment by Günter Buchwald, Elizabeth-Jane Baldry, and Frank Bockius.

Produced by Turin’s Fert Studios, the film is a melodrama telling a tale of love between the daughter of a Roma king and the head of a rival clan. The king stands in the way of their love, together with another ambitious and violent suitor. The film was well received by domestic and international audiences. Critics noted the accuracy of the costumes, sets and cinematography of Ubaldo Arata, who later made film history working on Roma città aperta (Rome, Open City). Naturally, the greatest praise went to the star: “vibrant, sincere, feline when needed, Italia Almirante Manzini is the perfect Roma girl”. Another wrote: “credit for the triumph of Zingari is due to her, in particular, as she distances herself ever further from the ‘art’ (if one can call it that) of certain divas, and marvellously moves toward reality and life itself”. In 1927, Italia Almirante Manzini left the world of cinema to dedicate her efforts to the theatre, reappearing just once in a sound film, L’ultimo dei Bergerac [The Last of the Bergeracs], in 1934. Having moved to Brazil, she died of an illness in 1941, and not from a poisonous insect bite, as is often still written.

Picking through other curiosities on the programme for Monday, 6th October, we find the first and only Shakespearean adaptation by David W. Griffith (Biograph Studios): The Taming of the Shrew (1908) starring Florence Lawrence, “The Biograph Girl”, in the lead role. Lawrence was the first ever actress to be included in film credits. Previously the actors’ names would not appear, due to producers’ fear that greater popularity may lead them to demand higher fees. Canadian-American, and a skilled equestrian, Florence Lawrence featured in more than 270 films over her relatively short career, 60 of these with D. W. Griffith.

The 1911–1913 series by Louis Feuillade, “La Vie telle qu’elle est” (Life as It Is) — presented in the morning programme (10.00 a.m.) with the four shorts Les Vipères, Le Nain, Le Coeur et l’argent, and Erreur tragique, as part of the Canon Revisited section — marks a shift in Gaumont’s work from expensive historic dramas to intimate, modern films with fewer actors. Unfortunately, the project did not enjoy the success hoped for and Feuillade’s transition to realism died in its infancy. Things went very differently for the series that follows, starring the character Fantômas.

Based on a powerful and violent novel by Norman Springer, described by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as “one of the best sea tales I’ve read”, The Blood Ship (1927) was directed by George B. Seitz, who specialised in adventure films. Starring Hobart Bosworth, a pioneer of silent film, it proved a great success for Columbia Pictures and was celebrated by critics. A further point of interest for today’s audience is the appearance, in the role of “The Negro”, of Edgar “Blue” Washington, an African American baseball champion and Hollywood actor since the 1910s. In a period marked by systemic racism, credit must be given to screenwriter Fred Myton for giving Washington a different role from that in the novel, where he was portrayed with the most derogatory racial slurs (the term “negro” was not considered offensive at the time of the film’s release). In the screen adaptation, he is a solid companion, capable of heroic acts and humour, and the character gives the actor an opportunity to show off his expressive talent. Other actors include Richard Arlen, who went on to a long career in the era of sound, and Jacqueline Logan.

The Blood Ship will close Monday morning’s programme at Teatro Verdi, following on from Father Was a Loafer (1915), at 11.30 a.m., providing another taste of Chaplin-mania curated by Steve Massa and Ulich Rüdel. This short introduces Chaplin’s no-good double, Billie Ritchie, dressed in a very similar way to the Little Tramp, including his bamboo cane, but parading stiff and cocky gestures entirely lacking the delicate touch of Chaplin’s character. Ritchie represented the negative counterpart of the Little Tramp for three years, from 1914 to 1917, the years of his partnership with Henry Lehrman and the L-KO Motion Picture Company. Previously Mack Sennett’s right-hand man, Lehrman was Chaplin’s first director, but the relationship was strained and didn’t last long. Lehrman later took credit for the character of the Little Tramp, claiming to have taught Chaplin how to act for the camera.

In the day’s second appointment with the world of Chaplin, at 2.30 p.m., six comic shorts will explore personalities that had a major influence on him, with plenty of laughs along the way. These include Max Linder, of course, but also less obvious figures such as music-hall performers Sam Poluski and Billie Reeves, the latter a former star of Karno, where Chaplin himself trained.

The online programme continues on Monday 6 October with Maurice Tourneur‘s The White Heather (1919), in a new restoration by San Francisco Film Preserve. The plot (a bankrupt man’s attempt to repudiate his wife in order to marry a rich woman) culminates in a spectacular underwater scene. The film is accompanied on the piano by Stephen Horne. The screening will begin at 9 p.m. and will be available for 48 hours on: https://www.mymovies.it/ondemand/giornate-cinema-muto/

The Pordenone Silent Film Festival / Le Giornate del Cinema Muto is made possible thanks to the support of the Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Ministry of Culture – Direzione Generale Cinema, the city of Pordenone, the Pordenone-Udine Chamber of Commerce, the Fondazione Friuli and with the participation of BCC Pordenonese e Monsile.