Il Cinema Ritrovato: From Vault to Screen
Introduced by Guy Borlée
Francesca Bertini, one of Italy’s legendary movie divas, stars in the hauntingly beautiful Assunta Spina, adapted from the Italian verismo play by Neapolitan writer Salvatore di Giacomo and filmed around the Bay of Naples and in the city’s robust and gritty quarters. Bertini, playing a laundress engaged in elemental struggles with the men in her life, merges an operatic style with the film’s open-air tableaux. (Gustavo Serena, 1915, 35mm, 65 minutes) Restored by L’Immagine Ritrovata.
The stunning Lyda Borelli plays Countess Alba d’Oltrevita in Nino Oxilia’s masterpiece Rapsodia Satanica, a delicately hand-tinted expression of the diva dolorosa school of Italian silent cinema, with “pictorial quotations ranging from Symbolism to the Pre-Raphaelites, and spectacular architectural allusions to art nouveau” — Giovanni Lasi. (Nino Oxilia, 1917, 35mm, 45 minutes)
Programs are free of charge, but seating is on a first-come, first-seated basis. Films are screened in original formats. Doors open approximately 30 minutes before each show. Programs are subject to change.
For more information, e-mail film-department@nga.gov, or call (202) 842-6799.
ADDRESS
National Gallery of Art: East Building Auditorium
6th Street & Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20001