Catalogo Giornate del Cinema Muto 2012 - La Cineteca del Friuli

del 1923. Lo sfarzo spettacolare delle scenografie è davvero
impareggiabile, ma non meno notevole è l’impeccabile costruzione
della sceneggiatura, in cui episodi e personaggi si integrano e sviluppano
con armonia perfetta. Pola Negri non avrebbe mai superato le vette
di fascino e vivacità per cui risplende in questo film; Moreno (che,
lo noterà chi riesce a leggere i movimenti delle labbra, parla sempre
in spagnolo) è un interprete da commedia di brillante eleganza;
così come intense e ispirate sono le prove di Menjou, Beery e della
superba Kathlyn Williams. Kathlyn Williams ha grande risalto anche
nel programma dedicato dalle Giornate 2012 alla Selig. All’epoca di
The Spanish Dancer il ruolo di regina le si addiceva particolarmente,
essendo sposata con il direttore generale della Paramount, Charles
Eyton. Agli occhi di un pubblico moderno lascia qualche dubbio
l’interpretazione dell’attore gallese Gareth Hughes (1894-1965) nel
ruolo del misero e angariato apprendista, ma anch’egli alla fine riesce
a sfruttare le opportunità offerte dalla trama.
Dopo aver visto il risultato finale, Kevin Brownlow ha dichiarato:
“La versione tagliata era godibile e spettacolare, ma questo restauro
ci rivela un film di eccezionale qualità, magnificamente illuminato e
messo in scena, interpretato dai maggiori professionisti del tempo,
con didascalie stese da una scrittrice di prim’ordine. L’EYE Film
Instituut Nederland ci ha donato un altro classico di quella che molti
considerano l’era più ricca della storia del cinema.”
ELIF RONGEN-KAYNAKÇI, ROB BYRNE, ANNIKE KROSS
In 1922, Famous Players-Lasky enthusiastically announced in the
trade papers their biggest forthcoming production: The Spanish
Cavalier, based on the play Don César de Bazan by Adolphe d’Ennery
and Philippe Dumanoir and starring Rudolph Valentino. With its
lavish sets and costumes and impressive supporting cast, this new
Valentino vehicle was intended to eclipse everything made that year
in Hollywood. Nita Naldi was cast in the female lead, and in turn Fred
Niblo and Allan Dwan were announced as directors.
Days before he was due to start work on 4 September 1922, Valentino
walked out on the project and the studio, charging Paramount with
breach of contract in terms of advertising and publicity. At the
same time Mary Pickford announced that she would make her own
version of Don César de Bazan, to be directed by Ernst Lubitsch and
titled Rosita. Undeterred, Famous Players had the script rewritten
as The Spanish Dancer, shifting the focus from Don Caesar (as the
character was renamed) to the female lead, Maritana the gypsy dancer,
and assigning the role to the exotic Pola Negri, Lubitsch’s signature
actress. In November 1922 the company brought over the French
actor Charles de Rochefort, whom they renamed Charles de Roche,
for the role of Don Caesar; but by February 1923, the Spanish-born
Antonio Moreno was confirmed in the role. Finally, in May 1923 the
director was named as Herbert Brenon, who had been in Hollywood
only two years and had so far directed ten fairly routine films.
The Spanish Dancer premiered in October 1923 and proved a great
success with audiences. Rosita, released a few weeks earlier, was so
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eclipsed that Pickford would eventually disown the film altogether. In
contrast, Pola Negri’s American career was triumphantly established,
and she went on to make several successful films for Famous Players
and to become one of the biggest Hollywood stars of the time.
For decades after its first triumph, however, the film was known
only in incomplete, abridged, re-edited, or otherwise mutilated
versions, mostly on sub-standard formats and providing little evidence
of the wit, charm, adventure, and romance that had so enchanted
contemporary audiences and reviewers. In 1957 a nitrate print of The
Spanish Dancer arrived at the Nederlands Filmmuseum (now EYE Film
Institute Netherlands) from a private collector in Utrecht. This print
(1630 metres, tinted, silent aperture, and with Dutch title cards) was
copied to internegative and then in 1992 to colour stock “as found”.
The longest version then known to exist, it was screened at the 1996
Giornate del Cinema Muto, but it was all too clear that scenes essential
to the plot were missing. Often the motivation of the characters was
hard to discern and it was unclear if the film was meant to be a serious
reconstruction of historical events at the Spanish Court, or as the
title suggested the story of the gypsy dancer – though she was given
curiously little screen time in this version.
In 2008, however, Kevin Brownlow’s revelation that his 16mm
Kodascope print contained some of the missing scenes ignited plans
to revisit the film. Initial research revealed that ten archives held
prints, though the majority of these were 16mm reissue versions,
often specified as being “condensed” or “shorter”, each running less
than an hour (one such was deposited with the Filmmuseum in 1999).
In fact the only surviving full-frame 35mm nitrate prints were the
Amsterdam copy and a second in Brussels which had originated from
Gosfilmofond in Moscow and was lacking reels 2 and 4 of the original
9. The Amsterdam print had original tints and Dutch intertitles; the
Brussels print was in monochrome, with Russian intertitles.
A major breakthrough was the discovery in 2009 of the original
continuity script at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The closely-typed 53-page script,
from the Paramount Collections, records all the intertitles, as well
as the length and tint of every scene. The film was now revealed as a
beautifully plotted romantic comedy in a historical setting, developed
around a court intrigue. Thanks to the script it was possible to
compare each print to establish what was missing, and also what had
been deliberately edited out, shortened, or put in an alternative order.
While the Paramount script listed 253 titles, the Dutch release version
and the Russian version each contained only 172 titles (a remarkable
coincidence, since the surviving titles in each were different).
Fortuitously the two prints complemented each other wonderfully,
though some short but important scenes were missing. This meant
reverting to 16mm prints. Luckily, the print from Kevin Brownlow’s
Photoplay Productions and another 16mm print, with French titles,
from Lobster Films proved to contain all the missing scenes – even
though the abbreviated 16mm versions invariably lacked subsidiary
plots and characters. For example, none of these versions contained
the scenes involving the painter Velasquez, whom Herbert Brenon was
to recall as a major source of inspiration for his film. Presumably it was
to justify the introduction of the painter that the action was backdated
from the reign of Charles II, as in the original play, to Philip IV.
As we compiled a detailed inventory of all shots in the four print
sources, problems emerged: some shots and sequences had been
rearranged; finding a home for stray shots – particularly close-ups or
reactions – was often challenging; and the two 35mm prints had been
made from different negatives – the Dutch from the American; the
Russian from the foreign export negative, often with different takes
of the same shot.
The Dutch print proved the foundation for the restoration, ultimately
providing 628 from its 783 non-title shots – 42% of the final restored
print. The Russian print could often supply shots and sequences
damaged or missing in the Dutch print, and of its 763 non-title shots 437
were included in the completed restoration, an overall contribution
of 29%. The Photoplay 16mm print provided several key sequences
missing from both 35mm prints and also served as the sole source
of the English-language titles – which were identical with the script.
This print also provided stylistic reference for the 69 titles which had
to be recreated from the script. The Photoplay print provided 88
image shots and all its 184 titles (respectively 6% and 12% of the
restoration). The Lobster 16mm print provided a brief but crucial 17shot
sequence absent from all other sources. The final reconstruction
includes 1,170 image shots out of the 1,228 documented in the script,
and all 253 titles.
Finally, then, after almost 90 years, we have The Spanish Dancer
almost as its first audiences saw it, and can finally understand why it
was the wonder film of 1923. The spectacle of the sets is staggering by
any standards. We can now appreciate a screenplay that is faultlessly
structured, with every character and incident perfectly dovetailed.
Negri was never to be more appealing or brilliant; Moreno (who,
lip-readers will perceive, speaks entirely in Spanish) has an elegant
and dashing comedy style; and the casting of Menjou, Beery, and the
superb Kathlyn Williams is inspired. Kathlyn Williams also figures
largely in this year’s Giornate’s Selig programme: the role of queen
no doubt suited her easily at the time of The Spanish Dancer, since
she was married to Paramount’s General Manager, Charles Eyton. For
modern audiences the most problematic performance is the Welsh
actor Gareth Hughes (1894-1965) as the wilting, bullied apprentice,
but even he finally rises to the opportunities of the plot.
Viewing the finished restoration, Kevin Brownlow declared, “The cutdown
version was enjoyable and spectacular, but now the restoration
reveals an exceptional film, beautifully photographed and mounted,
acted by the top professionals of their day and titled by a first-class
writer. EYE Film Institute Netherlands has given us yet another classic
from what many regard as the richest era in the cinema’s history.”
ELIF RONGEN-KAYNAKÇI, ROB BYRNE, ANNIKE KROSS
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THE UNWANTED (Het Gezicht naar den Vijand / Face to the Foe)
(Napoleon Films, GB 1924)
Regia/dir., scen: Walter Summers; prod: G.B. Samuelson; cast: C.
Aubrey Smith (Col. Carrington), Lilian Hall-Davis (Marianne Dearsley),
Nora Swinburne (Joyce Mannering), Francis Lister (John Dearsley),
Walter Sondes (Kenneth Carrington), Mary Dibley (Genevieve), James
Reardon (soldato/soldier); data uscita/rel: 17.11.1924; 35mm, 1972 m.,
85' (20 fps), col. (imbibito/tinted); fonte copia/print source: EYE Film
Institute Netherlands, Amsterdam.
Didascalie in olandese / Dutch intertitles.
Copia restaurata a colori col metodo Desmet da un duplicato negativo
di conservazione ricavato da una positivo nitrato in copia unica della
collezione delll’istituto cinematografico olandese EYE. / Restoration:
Desmet method colour print from preservation duplicate negative
from a unique nitrate positive in the collection of EYE Film Institute
Netherlands.
The Unwanted è un film dalla struttura alquanto insolita: la vicenda
copre due generazioni e si svolge in più luoghi. La scena iniziale, a
Venezia, ha una funzione essenzialmente decorativa, ma serve anche a
presentare i personaggi del colonnello Carrington e della sua infelice
moglie Genevieve. Quest’ultima, però, scompare presto nel nulla,
mentre noi seguiamo il colonnello sulle Alpi, dove si innamora di una
giovane americana. Vent’anni dopo i due figli – quello legittimo e quello
illegittimo – che il colonnello ha avuto dalle due donne si ritrovano
innamorati della stessa donna e impegnati fianco a fianco sul fronte
occidentale. Il titolo britannico allude pesantemente alla questione
della legittimità, mentre quello olandese si richiama piuttosto al motto
di famiglia dell’illustre clan dei Carrington, “La faccia rivolta verso il
nemico”. Data l’attenzione accordata ai temi del dovere familiare e
nazionale, il titolo olandese potrebbe sembrare più adatto, ma ciò
non toglie che il film sia uno stimolante intreccio di valori sociali
progressisti, evidenti nella positiva raffigurazione della madre nubile e
del figlio illegittimo, e di un patriottismo di vecchio stampo percepibile
nella rappresentazione della Grande Guerra.
Il film proviene dalla scuderia di uno dei più prolifici pionieri del cinema
britannico, George Berthold Samuelson (1888-1947), il quale tra il
1914 e il 1927 realizzò oltre 90 film, di cui è sopravvissuto – a quanto
risulta – poco più del 10 per cento. Tra le sue opere superstiti la più
nota è probabilmente la versione di She di H. Rider Haggard (1925),
realizzata a Berlino con un cast internazionale.
The Unwanted venne girato in gran parte a Worton Hall, la casa di
campagna di Isleworth che Samuelson aveva trasformato in studio
cinematografico nel 1913, ma comprende pure una notevole quantità
di riprese in esterni, caratteristica che lo distingue dalle analoghe
produzioni britanniche degli anni Venti. Samuelson approfittò di un
viaggio d’affari oltre oceano per ingaggiare Nora Swinburne, fresca
reduce dai palcoscenici di New York, e Francis Lister, oltre che per
girare alcune scene (poi rimaste inutilizzate) sul Niagara e in Florida.
R & R