Eleonora Duse (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), a legendary figure of Italian theater with a rebellious, proud, and strikingly modern personality, who lived between 1858 and 1924, is portrayed through the eyes of her daughter during the final season of her life. Her career is now behi...
In 2011, the Pordenone Silent Film Festival presented the restored copy of Cenere (1917), the only film in which Eleonora Duse appeared. Restored by the Cineteca del Friuli in collaboration with the George Eastman House and the Cineteca Sarda, the recovery of the original tints brought the work back to life, revealing the full greatness of the legendary stage actress. The film, based on the 1903 novel of the same name by Nobel Prize winner Grazia Deledda, was strongly desired by Duse herself, who chose the young actor-director Febo Mari as collaborator. Some sources report that producer Arturo Ambrosio, head of the Società Anonima Ambrosio of Turin, also placed his son in the director’s chair, alongside Mari.
The story centers on a mother who has a child with a married man and sacrifices herself to secure a better future for him. The static framing, the refusal of close-ups, and the preference for suggestion over explicit message are the stylistic traits Duse wished to give this cinematic work, which was not well received by audiences. Nevertheless, it remains an extraordinary historical document, showing Duse in action with all her charisma and with a style of acting more restrained and less reliant on facial pantomime than that of her contemporary screen divas. For budgetary reasons, the film was shot in Piedmont, with exteriors meant to evoke Sardinia filmed in the Lanzo Valleys.
