L'ombra (1923) (2023 digital restoration based on a 2006 photochemical restoration / Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin & Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique)

Mario Almirante: L'ombra (IT 1923).

Mario Almirante: L'ombra (IT 1923). "Berta: Non guardate Voi padrino! Sono cose che non vi interessano." Don't look, Godfather! These matters so not concern you. Alberto Collo, Italia Almirante Manzini, Vittorio Pieri. Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze. Photo: Alba Film. Photo: Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Torino - Fototeca .

Mario Almirante: L'ombra (IT 1923). Paralyzed. "Berta: Gerardo io non sono più che un ombra nella tua vita... ". I am no more than a shadow in your life. Alberto Collo, Italia Almirante Manzini. Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze. Photo: Cinematek / Cinémethèque royale de Belgique, Bruxelles.

Mario Almirante: L'ombra (IT 1923). "La guarigione improvvisa. Berta: Dottore! Mi sembra di essere alta... alta... Ho il capogiro! Ho paura!". The sudden recovery. Domenico Marventi, Italia Almirante Manzini.Ed. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze. Photo: Cinematek / Cinémethèque royale de Belgique, Bruxelles.

L’Ombre / De Schaduw / [The Shadow].

    IT 1923 prod: Alba Film, Torino. dir: Mario Almirante. scen: Mario Almirante, from the play by Dario Niccodemi (Milano, Teatro Alessandro Manzoni, 11.3.1915). photog: Ubaldo Arata. 

    Cast: Italia Almirante Manzini (Berta Trégner), Liliana Ardea (Elena Preville), Oreste Bilancia, Alberto Collo (Gerardo Trégner), Rita D’Harcourt (the nurse), André Habay (Alberto Davis), Domenico Marventi (the doctor), Vittorio Pieri (Michele, Berta’s godfather). 

    Censor date: 31.7.1923 (18494). rel: 12.1923 (Bari). copy: DCP, 90'02", col. (from 35 mm, 1844 m, orig. l. 1955 m., 18 fps, tinted & toned); titles: FRA, NLD. source: Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Torino.

    Not released in Finland.

    44th Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM), Pordenone: Early Cinema.

    Grand piano: José Maria Serralde Ruiz.

    Viewed at Teatro Verdi; e-subtitles in English, 11 Oct 2025

Marco Grifo (GCM 2025): "Probably made concurrently with La piccola parrocchia, L’ombra [The Shadow] is in a way its counterpart, sharing not only cast members but the theme of adultery, though Almirante Manzini now shifts from playing the unfaithful wife to a cheated spouse. In both films, the protagonists’ journeys to forgiveness provide an opportunity for the actress to further demonstrate how versatile and convincing she was, with a talent honed by the experience she had gained in the studio and on stage. Indeed, alongside her film career, Almirante Manzini never abandoned her career as a stage actress, continuing to tread the boards – to which, as she recalled in the 1921 interview in Il Romanzo Film (mentioned in the note for Zingari), she always remained attached, “torn between the fascination I experienced in animating my sculptural creations and the nostalgic passion of endowing them with life through the harmony and vigour of the spoken word”."

  

"In an interview with Il Piccolo della Sera, reprinted in La Rivista Cinematografica (10-25.5.1924), the actress claimed that of all her screen creations L’ombra was her personal favourite. She plays Berta, the wife of Gerardo Trégner, a painter. They lead a peaceful life until she is paralyzed by sudden illness. Forced into immobility, she finds solace in her husband’s love and in the affection of her godfather Michele and best friend Elena. Years later, having unexpectedly and almost miraculously regained the ability to move, she discovers that Gerardo has secretly established a separate family with Elena, and that the couple even have a child. Shattered, she rushes to church to beg the Almighty to restore her infirmity, state of ignorance, and solitude. Meanwhile, Michele realizes that Elena has resumed her relationship with her ex-husband Alberto, and informs Berta, who then orders Elena to leave Gerardo and entrust her with the child, as Elena has proved to be an unworthy mother. Remorseful for his betrayal, Gerardo is forgiven by Berta, who decides to adopt and lovingly care for the illegitimate little boy. Mario Almirante’s script was based on the play by the noted playwright Dario Niccodemi, a close collaborator (and lover) of Réjane."

"Robert Verhulst’s review from Belgium (in French) in La Rivista Cinematografica (10.2.1924) stated: “The notices mention the statuesque I. Almirante, but in fact we can admire all her Italian gracefulness. Her consummate art brings many beautiful scenes to life, among others the final meeting in the studio, the healing, and the reconciliation.” The opinion was echoed in the same pages by Ro-Ma, writing from Fiume: “Alba Film’s masterpiece, L’ombra, was greeted with sincere admiration by countless sharp-eyed viewers. [...] It can be said that in addition to the acting, this magnificent superfilm has all the other factors necessary for a splendid success. An exquisite taste in staging, especially in the interiors, is clearly revealed by crystal-clear photography, perfect in its softness of half-tones, effectiveness, and correct exposure.” Almirante Manzini’s popularity in Belgium is noteworthy, as is testified by the number of her films released there. La Nation Belge (7.12.1923) lauded her performance in L’ombra, declaring (in French): “Her acting, heartfelt and unexaggerated, is internationally popular, and films like La Grande Passion (La Grande Passione) and La Petite Paroisse (La piccola parrocchia) have established her reputation in Belgium once and for all. In Dario Nicodémi’s L’Ombre, she has once again found a role worthy of her beautiful talent. … A humane, moving work, and a truly fine technical achievement, for which one hardly needs prophetic skills to predict an even greater success than her La Petite Paroisse.”"

  

"Awarded the Grand Gold Medal First Prize by the jury of the First International Exhibition of Photography, Optics, and Cinematography in Turin in August 1923, L’ombra had its national premiere at the Cinema Umberto in Bari in the first half of December of the same year. Like earlier productions starring Almirante Manzini, it was acclaimed almost everywhere: in Venice and Florence, and from Antwerp to Zagreb, critics chronicled its widespread popularity. The star’s name alone was now a draw for audiences, who packed theatres for every screening. The story was remade in 1954, directed by Giorgio Bianchi and starring Marta Toren."

                           

"L’ombra was restored by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin and the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique from a duplicate negative printed in 2006 by the Cinematek. Toning and tinting were reconstructed from an original nitrate print held by the Cinematek. The 4K restoration was carried out in the Museo Nazionale del Cinema’s laboratory in 2022-2023." – Marco Grifo

Essential reading: "One Hundred Years Ago: L'ombra (1923)" in European Film Star Postcards, 25 June 2023.

AA: L'ombra, the Italia Almirante Manzini vehicle directed by her husband Mario Almirante, made a huge impression on all who saw it. Paul Cuff in his indispensable The Realm of Silence blog even rated it the best movie he had seen so far in the online edition of Pordenone 2025 (read Pordenone from afar 2025, Day 6).

I was impressed, as well, but struggled to find the vocabulary to convey it.

"The star's name alone was now a draw for audiences, who packed theatres for every screening", writes Marco Grifo in his program note copied above. He also quotes Almirante Manzini's own expression of "sculptural creations" and the terminology of her avid Belgian admirers such as "statuesque", "Italian gracefulness", "consummate art", "exquisite taste" and "heartfelt and unexaggerated" acting.

Seeing L'ombra for the first time, I rate it among the greatest Italian diva vehicles I have seen, in the league of Lyda Borelli's Ma l'amor mio non muore (IT 1913), Francesca Bertini's Assunta Spina (IT 1915), Pina Menichelli's Il fuoco (IT 1915), Eleonora Duse's Cenere (IT 1916) and Nietta Mordeglia and Helena Makowska's Il fauno (IT 1917).

The diva performance was a unique and versatile art of pantomime, based on the extraordinary charisma of the prima donna, drawing on traditions of the theatre, opera and ballet stage. It is an engrossing, wordless art.

In L'ombra, Italia Almirante Manzini is at times like la sonnambula, a sleepwalker in whose presence dream and reality lose their boundaries.

I get stuck by the term "melodrama", that unwieldy expression that covers so much ground that it can turn meaningless. There was the solid commercial "mellerdremmer" business of the 19th century popular stage, fodder for pastiche and parody in 20th century comedy and animation, and an occasional superb tribute such as Griffith's Way Down East.

There is the approach of "Hollywood as melodrama" to quote the memorable title of a retrospective at the NFT / British Film Institute. In a similar vein, Hitchcock noted that "melodrama is the only thing I can do".

Melodrama flourishes more than ever in U.S. American daytime soaps, Latin American telenovelas and Egyptian musalsal. 

The drama of classical antiquity took place in a noble universe driven by divine intervention. The tragedies of Shakespeare of the Elizabethan Era and Corneille and Racine of le Grand Siècle happened in royal circumstances, in a world of aristocracy and absolute monarchy. After the revolutions, contemporary drama was staged among the bourgeoisie. Ibsen created drama without melodrama. But the demand for electrifying stage experiences was high. Drama descended from divine and royal spheres: from heaven to earth, from the court to a bourgeois home. Melodrama was a means of heightening and elevating ordinary conflicts and emotions to a boiling point, explosive heights, transcendence and excess.

Its artistically most persuasive forms were the grand opera and silent diva films.

L'ombra is set in a haunting private sphere. It is a dream play of domesticity. The characters are born to wealth and can indulge in their artistic, sportive and emotional passions. Gerardo is a painter, Berta a tennis player. But Gerardo fails in painting Berta's portrait. It does not represent her soul. When Berta's best friend Elena marries Alberto although she does not love him, Berta is paralyzed. After many years, Berta recovers, only to find out that Gerardo and Elena lead a double life and have a son together. But Elena keeps also seeing Alberto, and Berta and Gerardo decide to stay together - with the son.

Mario Almirante's visual touch is assured and engaging, and his mise-en-scène compelling. David Bordwell paid attention to the mirror motif. When Berta is paralyzed, she orders the mirror removed so that she cannot see herself. When she starts to heal, her hand appears in the mirror.

The shadow, the painting and the mirror are the major motifs.

I missed the 2023 Bologna premiere of this centenary DCP of L'ombra but was happy to catch it in Pordenone. I enjoy the refined restoration and its subtle toning and tinting solutions.