Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2006 Sommario / Contents

Six-year-old Millicent [Mary, on this Dutch print] is kidnapped, and loses her
memory after an accident. The once aristocratic girl grows up to be a
burglar in the hands of her kidnappers. Her biggest passion is dancing, and
she is engaged by a cabaret owner to perform in his nightclub. In the
meantime, Millicent’s desperate parents cannot find her. Her mother, who
neglected her as a child, repents, and makes up for being a careless mother
by devoting herself to charity work with orphan girls, unaware that her own
daughter is facing the dangers she warns others about.
This film exploits Minter’s ambiguous physical appearance; although
actually only 14 years old at the time, she is convincingly portrayed both as
a child and a sexually attractive young woman. In her real-life career,
however, her purported sexual relations with elderly directors and producers
worked against her, since this was in direct contrast with her screen persona.
Today it is difficult to see her films, as many of them are considered lost, or
exist only in fragments. – ELIF RONGEN-KAYNAKÇI
THE INNOCENCE OF LIZETTE (Liesjes onschuld)
(American Film Manufacturing Co., US 1916)
Regia/dir: James Kirkwood; scen: Arthur Henry Gooden; sogg./st: Bessie
Boniel; cast:* Mary Miles Minter (Lizette [Liesje]), Eugene Forde (Paul),
Harvey Clark (Henry Fauer [Henry Ford]), Eugenia Forde (Granny
Page [Moeder Nelton?]), Ashton Dearholt (Daniel Nye [Daniel
Clarck]); 35mm, 1273 m., 60’ (18 fps), imbibito e virato/tinted and
toned, Nederlands Filmmuseum. Restaurato nel 2004 con il metodo
Desemet. / Restored in 2004 using the Desmet method.
Didascalie in olandese / Dutch intertitles.
Lizette è un’orfana adottata da un ricco uomo d’affari. Nonostante
l’aspetto da adulta, è ancora innocente, senza alcuna idea di come
nascano i bambini. Dopo aver trascorso un periodo lontano da casa,
si trova un bambino lasciato sulla soglia e dice a tutti che è suo,
provocando grande stupore e disappunto tra la gente di mondo del
suo nuovo ambiente… Il film è totalmente costruito sull’attricebambina
Mary Miles Minter (1902-1984), una beniamina del pubblico
degli anni ’10, divenuta negli anni ’20 uno dei simboli della decadenza
hollywoodiana per via del suo coinvolgimento nello scandalo Taylor.
Dopo quest’infelice episodio, la sua carriera di attrice ebbe termine,
ed i suoi oltre 50 film furono dimenticati. – ELIF RONGEN-KAYNAKÇI
Lizette is an orphan girl who is adopted by a wealthy businessman. Despite
her grown-up looks, she is very innocent, and has no idea how babies are
born. After some time away from home, she finds a baby left on the
doorstep, and tells everyone that it is her child, causing great amazement
and disappointment to the society people in her new surroundings….
The film is completely built around child-actress Mary Miles Minter (1902-
1984), whose combination of near-adult beauty and childish charm made
her a great favourite with audiences during the 1910s. Despite her film
roles as innocent girls, Minter became known as one of the symbols of
Hollywood decadence in the 1920s, mainly because of her involvement in
the William Desmond Taylor murder scandal. After this unfortunate event
her acting career ended, and her more than 50 films were completely
forgotten in the years that followed. – ELIF RONGEN-KAYNAKÇI
130
OLIVE THOMAS
OUT YONDER (De Vuurtoren in den Storm) (Il faro nella
tempesta) (Selznick Pictures Corp., US 1919)
Regia/dir: Ralph Ince; scen: Edward J. Montague, dalla pièce/based on the
play The Girl from Out Yonder (1914), di/by Pauline Phelps & Marion
Short; f./ph: Harold Sintzenich; cast: Olive Thomas (Flotsam), Huntley
Gordon (Edward Elmer), John Smiley (Amos Bart), Cyril Chadwick
(Reggie Hughes), Edward Ellis (Joey Clark); 35mm, 1166 m., 56’ (18
fps), imbibito e virato / tinted and toned, Nederlands Filmmuseum.
Restaurato nel 2005 con il metodo Desemet. / Restored in 2005 using
the Desmet method.
Didascalie in olandese / Dutch intertitles.
Flotsam, la figlia del guardiano del faro di una remota isola della Nuova
Inghilterra, si innamora di Edward, un ricco scapolo in vacanza. Lui
contraccambia, ma la loro storia d’amore prende una piega inaspettata
quando si scopre che il padre di lei è in qualche modo implicato
nell’assassinio del padre di lui. Il delitto avvenuto anni addietro era
rimasto senza colpevoli. Flotsam, disperata, ma convinta che il padre
sia ingiustamente accusato, è decisa a riabilitarne il nome…
In questo thriller romantico, Olive Thomas (1894-1920), nota
“maschietta” e ballerina delle Ziegfeld Follies, interpreta, a sorpresa,
un’innocente, vivace ragazza. Nonostante la fama raggiunta negli anni
’10, l’attrice, morta prematuramente nel 1920, venne dimenticata
per decenni ed i suoi film uscirono dal circuito fino a sparire del
tutto. Out Yonder, una delle prime produzioni Selznick, è stata per
anni considerata perduta, finché una copia di distribuzione olandese
splendidamente imbibita e virata non è riapparsa all’improvviso in un
lascito fatto al Nederlands Filmmuseum nel 2003. La versione
restaurata è stata presentata per la prima volta in pubblico nella
primavera del 2005 durante la Biennale del Nederlands
Filmmuseum. – ELIF RONGEN-KAYNAKÇI
Flotsam is the daughter of a lighthouse keeper on a remote island in
New England. She falls in love with Edward, a rich bachelor on a sailing
holiday. He returns her love, but their romance takes an unexpected turn
when it turns out that Flotsam’s father is somehow involved with the
unresolved death of Edward’s father years before. Flotsam, devastated, is
determined to clear her father’s name of what she believes are unjust
accusations…
Olive Thomas (1894-1920), better known as a notorious flapper and
Ziegfeld Follies star, is surprisingly cast as a free-spirited, innocent
young girl in this romantic thriller. Despite her fame in the 1910s,
Thomas was forgotten for decades after her untimely death in 1920, and
her films dropped out of circulation and eventually disappeared
altogether. This early Selznick production was considered lost for many
years, until a beautifully tinted and toned Dutch release print suddenly
appeared among a donation given to the Nederlands Filmmuseum in
2003. The restored film was presented to audiences during the
Nederlands Filmmuseum’s Biennale in the spring of 2005.
ELIF RONGEN-KAYNAKÇI