Francesca Bertini was Italy's first film star and one of the great actresses of the silent era. This was made evident in the film series "Passion and Defiance: Silent Divas of the Italian Cinema", shown in 2000 in New York. Bertini has been described as a combination of Sophia Loren and Maria Callas, because of her beauty and stunning presence. Mingozzi's delightful documentary portrait of Bertini in her nineties shows her to be as feisty as she was in her prime. She recounts for us her life story in an interview intercut mostly with scenes from her surviving films, especially the legendary 1915 ASSUNTA SPINA. This is a portrait of remarkable and unforgettable actress and woman. Bernardo Bertolucci used her for a small role in his NOVECENTO (1900) where she plays Burt Lancaster's nun-sister.
2 Reviews
just seen an extract on CAS - Classic arts showcase today.
tercasa12 September 2006
she certainly was and still had a strong temper.
i totally ignored such diva. always interesting to discover "forgotten" (for our generations) stars, in the sky or from the screen, and there are many still shining even if sometimes in some shadow of the passing time.
hopefully CAS will show other Divas, or Divo's.. later on ... even if she acted in silent movies and so wasn't exactly an opera diva...
at 91 years old Francesca was still "working good" in front of the cameras.
so the last scene of the extract reproducing the Puccini's opera Tosca end, she originally filmed in 1915 i think, was a kind of sublime show of the eternity still available on some old acetates.
It remembered also the same location for filming the same opera, with Placido Domingo.
i totally ignored such diva. always interesting to discover "forgotten" (for our generations) stars, in the sky or from the screen, and there are many still shining even if sometimes in some shadow of the passing time.
hopefully CAS will show other Divas, or Divo's.. later on ... even if she acted in silent movies and so wasn't exactly an opera diva...
at 91 years old Francesca was still "working good" in front of the cameras.
so the last scene of the extract reproducing the Puccini's opera Tosca end, she originally filmed in 1915 i think, was a kind of sublime show of the eternity still available on some old acetates.
It remembered also the same location for filming the same opera, with Placido Domingo.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
