Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2005 Sommario / Contents

At the turn of the 19th and 20th century Georges Ohnet, a prolific writer
of feuilletons, was one of the most highly regarded authors of the more
popular strata of literature: his novels, written in a style that was simple
and elementary, recounted romantic and passionate events, strongly
linking them to a reality in rapid change, like the phenomenon of the
progressive decadence of the aristocracy and the ever more irresistible
rise of the industrial bourgeoisie.
Published in 1882, Le maître des forges enjoyed immediate popularity,
making it the author’s major success; two years later Ohnet himself
adapted it for the theatre.The definitive consecration of the subject came,
however, thanks to the cinema: between Travers Vale’s 1914 American
version, The Iron Master, and Anton Giulio Majano’s Il padrone delle
ferriere, in 1958, there were at least five film adaptations, exploiting the
novel’s simple and linear dramatic construction of the contrast between
two social classes and the vicissitudes which at the end bring them to a
reconciliation.
Itala Film and Eugenio Perego also saw the potential for success in Il
padrone delle ferriere, which, along with the advantage of a book
known and loved by the public, could rely on Pina Menichelli as its
element of major commercial appeal. Perego, who began his cinema
career as a writer and occasional actor before emerging as a director at
Milano Films in 1915, had just directed the diva in Il giardino incantato
(The Enchanted Garden; 1918), produced by Rinascimento Films but
distributed by Itala . Itala Film’s investment in launching Il padrone delle
ferriere was notable: the publicity campaign in cinema journals began a
good year before the release of the film, quickly creating a spasmodic
anticipation as much among appreciative readers of the original book as
among those who needed only to read the name “Menichelli” to pack the
theatres. On the other hand, as Tito Alacci noted in 1919 in Le nostre
attrici cinematografiche studiate sullo schermo (Our Cinematograph
Actresses Studied on the Screen), they went to see Menichelli’s films not
to experience a drama or a comedy, but “to feel their senses delighted
by her provocative poses, to intoxicate the eyes and the spirit of ... sinful
visions”. And if contemporary critics of the film principally admired
Amleto Novelli for the sobriety and measured elegance with which he
created the character of the iron-master Filippo Derblay, the public – as
La Vita Cinematografica noted in its issue of 15 February 1920 –
“attracted by the fateful name of the famous drama, has not looked for
subtlety.They have seen on the screen the scenes of the stage and the
book, and are moved; have admired the fascination of La Menichelli; and
in this way, the film has discreetly passed into conversation and
reputation as perfection!”
Although the film was greeted with notable public success, the reaction
of the critics to Il padrone delle ferriere was not unanimous. Leaving
aside the most enthusiastic opinions, which extolled the acting capacity
and the sensuality of the diva of Il fuoco and Tigre reale, the positive
reviews underline the homogeneity and organic structure of the film as a
whole: the appreciated virtues are the sober work of adaptation and
mise-en-scène, and acting always calibrated on the typology of the
characters interpreted.The work of cinematographer Antonio Cufaro was
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also particularly praised, “for its perfect technique and an exceptional
sense of art”.
The simplicity of the plot, often perceived as a positive value, was the first
aspect emphasized by contemporary critics.The view of the Turin journal
La Vita Cinematografica (22 September 1919) was substantially
negative: although it stresses that “among dramatic and popular
literature, Georges Ohnet’s Il padrone delle ferriere is one of the least
unrewarding and most popular works”, it notes that the adaptation by
Giuseppe Maria Viti is “too schematic and scanty, lacking in episodes and
details, and on the other hand abounding with intertitles”.
The second point on which negative criticism focused was the acting.The
most common charge against the actors is that they create empty figures,
who do not correspond in fundamental character and shading to those of
the novel, in themselves already very schematic and marked by
elementary psychology. Even the protagonist diva was not spared by the
critics. Again, La Vita Cinematografica: “the film has nothing
extraordinary, if we take from it the performance of Pina Menichelli, which
is then a worse commonplace.” In this sense, even Il padrone delle
ferriere – at first sight – might appear a “commonplace”.The story offers
few original notions; the characters lack complexity, and are defined
simply in their most manifest emotive traits; and the socially critical
elements, with the opposition of an industrious and enlightened
bourgeoisie and a feudal aristocracy now without scruples and morality,
are purely a pretext to create a dramatic contrast which motivates events
which are in reality without tension.
Yet behind its relative simplicity, Perego’s film is in reality an important
work, for at least two reasons.The first, of a structural nature, concerns
the attempt at mise-en-scène of a dramatic model capable of
abandoning action and events, and concentrating uniquely on the
characters.The second, directly influenced by the first, relates to the coexistence
of different and divergent styles of acting.Thus the slight plot,
which is so often criticized, becomes a point of departure for the creation
of a film which is less about characters than actors.What really counts
is the magnetic presence of Menichelli, guarantee of a diffuse eroticism,
and intensely tied to the proud and disdainful character of Clara de
Beaulieu; and, in opposition, the “underplayed” acting of Novelli, able to
redress every excess of his partner, exploiting to the full the apparently
irreconcilable contrast between the two antagonists. – FABIO PEZZETTI
The Restoration
The restoration of Il padrone delle ferriere has been undertaken by the
Museo Nazionale del Cinema of Turin and the Cineteca del Comune di
Bologna, from two nitrate prints, conserved at the Cineteca del Comune
di Bologna and at Lobster Films, plus a fragment held by the
Filmmuseum of Amsterdam. The missing Italian intertitles have been
reconstructed from production documents relating to the film preserved
at the Museo Nazionale del Cinema.The restoration was carried out in
the Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna in 2005. – DAVIDE POZZI