''Cenere'' is a

1916 Events Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 – The British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that had been stored and cooled. * ...

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

directed by and starring Febo Mari. It is adapted from the 1904 novel by the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...

-winning

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label= Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, af ...

n writer

Grazia Deledda Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda (; 27 September 1871 – 15 August 1936), also known in Sardinian language as Gràssia or Gràtzia Deledda (), was an Italian writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926 "for her idealistically ...

. It is notable as the only film performance by the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

star

Eleonora Duse Eleonora Giulia Amalia Duse ( , ; 3 October 185821 April 1924), often known simply as Duse, was an Italian actress, rated by many as the greatest of her time. She performed in many countries, notably in the plays of Gabriele d'Annunzio and Hen ...

.“Film Threat’s Top 10 One-Hit Wonders,” Film Threat, February 8, 2005.
Quote: "Indeed it was, as Duse would never venture before the cameras again, leaving "Cenere" as her only film record."

Plot

Rosalia Derios is an unmarried woman in a small Sardinian village whose lover abandons her before the birth of their son, whom she names Anania. Realizing that she will not be able to raise the child properly, she gives full custody of Anania to her former lover. However, she entrusts the boy with a sacred amulet before she leaves. Anania grows to adulthood and retains possession of the amulet, but he is haunted by his mother’s absence and tries to locate her. He pushes aside his career prospects and cancels his plans for marriage in order to pursue his search for Rosalia. Anania's search proves successful and he locates his mother but Rosalia cannot take the shock of being reunited with her adult son and kills herself.

Production

When Eleonora Duse was approached in 1916 to appear in a film adaptation of ''Cenere'', she had been absent from performing on stage for seven years. Duse expressed deep respect for the source material and its potential as a film. She later explained her return to acting in this production by stating: “I have been persuaded to create the character of Rosalia Derios, from the novel by Grazia Deledda, because it seemed to me that in the sorrowful figure of the mother, all sacrifice for her son, a figure moving in an austere and solemn landscape, would assume the total and clear plastic and spiritual significance that the silent theater must force itself to realize.” “Grazia Deledda” by Martha King, Google Books
/ref> Duse co-wrote the screenplay for ''Cenere'' with Febo Mari, her director and co-star. The film was shot over a four-month period on locations across Sardinia. Duse initially had hopes for ''Cenere'' to open a new career in film acting. But upon seeing the finished film, she was disappointed in both the production and her performance. "I made the same mistake that nearly everyone has made," she said after viewing herself on screen. "But something quite different is needed. I am too old for it. Isn't it a pity?" Duse later wrote to the French singer

Yvette Guilbert Yvette Guilbert (; born Emma Laure Esther Guilbert, 20 January 1865 – 3 February 1944) was a French cabaret singer and actress of the ''Belle Époque''. Biography Born in Paris into a poor family as Emma Laure Esther Guilbert, Guilbert be ...

with the request not to see “that stupid thing, because you’ll find nothing, or almost nothing, of me in that film.”

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0006494 1916 films Italian black-and-white films Italian silent short films Films shot in Sardinia Films based on works by Grazia Deledda