I promessi sposi (1922)

One of the main events of the 37th edition of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto is today's presentation of I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922) at the Teatro Verdi. The Nuova orchestra da camera Ferruccio Busoni performs the score by Valter Sivilotti. The film is based on Alessandro Manzoni's historical novel I promessi sposi (The Betrothed), first published in 1817. It is one of the most famous and widely read novels of the Italian language and was adapted many times for the cinema in Italy. I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922) was the fifth silent film version, and stars Emilia Vidali as Lucia, Domenico Serra as her beloved Renzo and Mario Parpagnoli as the evil don Rodrigo.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 181. Photo: U.C.I. Emilia Vidali in I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922).


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Emilia Vidali in I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922).

A love story jeapordised

I promessi sposi is set in northern Italy in 1628, during the oppressive years of direct Spanish rule. The two betrothed are Renzo Tramaglino and Lucia Mondella. Their love story is jeopardised by Don Rodrigo, the lord of the domain, who is infatuated with Lucia. His 'bravi' menace the local priest Don Abbondio to refuse Renzo and Luciana to marry, with some legal excuse.

On behalf of the couple, the monk Father Cristoforo visits Don Rodrigo to mediate in the affair but is brutally kicked out. When Rodrigo plots to assault the young couple, they flee over Lake Como. Lucia hides in a convent where, however, the scheming nun of Monza plots with Don Rodrigo.

Renzo searches for Lucia and while in Milan visits the fraudulent lawyer doctor Azzeccagarbugli to get his papers right. The police try to arrest him but he manages to flee again. Meanwhile Father Cristoforo is banned from the convent and the village on instigation of don Rodrigo.

A robber baron called l'Innominato or 'the unnamed' is sent by Don Rodrigo to abduct the girl and give her once and for all to Don Rodrigo. Yet, in a startling change of heart, inspired by a visit of Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, the Innominato undergoes a religious conversion and does the right thing by liberating Lucia.

This starts the downfall of the culprits. The Great Plague of Milan (1630) breaks out, imported by German mercenaries during the Thirty Years War. In Milan Renzo meets again Don Cristoforo who helps the dying masses and discovers Don Rodrigo is one of the victims. Renzo forgives him, Rodrigo dies, the Plague stops.

Father Cristoforo frees Lucia also from her vow of chastity she had made in the hope of being relinquished from the clutches of the Innominato. Renzo and Lucia return to their village, where they can finally marry, blessed by don Abbondio, who has bettered his life.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Don Abbondio (Umberto Scalpellini) is afraid Don Rodrigo's bravi may kill him, so he prevents the mariage between Renzo and Lucia. Right of the men stands Perpetua (Olga Capri), don Abbondio's maid. Caption: Do you want me dead?


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Domenico Serra as Renzo and Emilia Vidali as Lucia, here also Umberto Scalpellini as don Abbondio. Caption: Curate, in presence of these two witnesses, this is my wife...


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Domenico Serra as Renzo, Emilia Vidali as Lucia, and Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese, Lucia's mother. Caption: Rascal! Damned one! Murderer!, Renzo shouted.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Enzo Biliotti as Father Cristoforo. Caption: Father Cristoforo left his convent in Pescarenico, to ascend to the little house.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Domenico Serra as Renzo and Emilia Vidali as Lucia, on this card also with Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese and Enzo Biliotti as Father Cristoforo. Caption: Father, what do you say of such a rascal?


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Emilia Vidali, here with Ida Carloni Talli as her mother Agnese.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922), starring Domenico Serra, Emilia Vidali and with Enzo Biliotti as father Cristoforo and Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese, Luciana's mother. Caption: Listen, my dear children, father Cristoforo said, today I will visit that man.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Here we see father Cristoforo (Enzo Biliotti). Caption: The warden shows him to be obedient. It is a fierce blow to the poor monk.

Grand spectacle and richness of details

Italian filmmakers have many times adapted Alessandro Manzoni's novel I promessi sposi. The first film version was already made in 1908 by the company Comerio. In 1911 followed another short silent film adaptation by Film d'Arte Italiana.

In 1913, even two silent versions were directed by Eleuterio Rodolfi and by Eugenio Perego. About Rodolfi's version, which he filmed for the Ambrosio studio, see our blogpost I promessi sposi (1913). For the 1941 sound version, which was made by Mario Camerini, see our blogpost I promessi sposi (1941).

In 1922 former actor turned director Mario Bonnard shot his version of I promessi sposi. Bonnard had been Lyda Borelli's film partner in her sensational debut Ma l'amor mio non muore/Love Everlasting (Mario Caserini, 1913). Since that huge success he had spread his wings in the Italian silent cinema, both as an actor and a director.

Bonnard's film was produced by his own company Bonnard Film but distributed by the trust UCI (Unione Cinematografica Italiana) which company is credited for the photos at the postcards. Sets were by the renowned Italian painter Camillo Innocenti, who had specialised in set design for historical films. Cinematography was by Giuseppe-Paolo Vitrotti, the younger brother of the better known Italian cinematographer Giovanni Vitrotti. He already worked for Ambrosio since 1908 as a camera operator, but became director of cinematography around the time of I promessi sposi.

Star of the film is Italian silent film actress and opera singer Emilia Vidali. As an opera singer, she performed in international opera houses all over the world and was very popular in South America. Her co-star Domenico Serra was an Italian actor who starred in the Italian silent cinema and continued to play in Italian films for well over four decades. At the set of I promessi sposi, Vidali met her future husband Mario Parpagnoli, who played the evil Don Rodrigo. After one more film, Amore e destino (1923), directed by Parpagnoli, she left the Italian screen. Because of the crisis in the Italian cinema, the couple moved to Argentine.

I promessi sposi was censured in November 1922 but the film only had its first night in Rome more than a year after, on 27 December 1923, so just after Christmas. While Italian film critics complained about the lack of fidelity to the concept and the historical details in the novel, they also had to admit that the cinema audiences loved it, and took the deviations and historically incorrect details for granted.

La vita cinematografica wrote that the cinema audience wanted to be emotionally involved by dramatic and comic scenes, grand spectacle, and the richness of details, and got it all. The film was awarded a golden medal at a film festival in Turin in 1923. I promessi sposi remained so popular in the following decade that a sound version of the film was released in 1934.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Lucia (Emilia Vidali) and fra Canziano. Caption: Lucia reappeared with her apron full of nuts (Ch. III).


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo has no clue a police spy is sitting next to him, dealing with the innkeeper to have him arrested. Caption: What shall I do?, the innkeeper asks, looking at that stranger who was not really one to him...


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo at the lying and cheating lawyer Azzeccagarbugli. Caption: To the lawyer we need to set things straight, so that we can mess them up.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo (Domenico Serra) is sent away by the corrupt lawyer Azzeccagarbugli (actor unknown). On the left stands Luciana's mother Agnese (Ida Carloni Talli). Caption: Go, go; you don't know what you are talking about: I don't mess with children...


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Rodolfo Badaloni as L'Innominato kisses the hand of the Cardinal Federico Borromeo (actor unknown). Caption: As soon as the Innominato was introduced, Federico came forward to him.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Lucia's kidnapping by Nibbio, the bravo of the Innominato, with the help of Gertrude, the nun of Monza (Niní Dinelli). Caption: Come, my child, come with me, as I have orders to treat you well and give you courage.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). L'Innominato (Rodolfo Badaloni) and his aid Nibbio (actor unknown), who repents his kidnapping of Lucia. Caption: Compassion! What do you know of compassion? What is compassion? (Ch. XXI).


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). During the Milan plague corpses are collected. Caption: She descended from the threshold of one of those exits and came towards the convoy.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo in the plague ridden Milan. Caption: He did a step back, lifting a knotty stick.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Caption: "Let me kill that infamous traitor!" Milan is in the grip of the plague. After Don Rodrigo (Mario Parpagnoli) has confessed his aid Griso (Raimondo Van Riel) he is ill, the latter betrays him, He calls for the 'monatti' who will carry his master away to the 'Lazzaretto' and robs the wealth of Don Rodrigo. He won't enjoy his riches for long, as he too will be struck by the plague.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Renzo (Domenico Serra) and padre Cristoforo (Enzo Biliotti) in plague ridden Milan. Caption: You ask for a living person at a lazaret!...


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: U.C.I. Publicity still for I promessi sposi/The Bethrothed (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Caption: If you want me to marry you, I'm here. The scene depicts the final scene of the story with Ida Carloni Talli (Agnese), Domenico Serra (Renzo), Emilia Vidali (Lucia) and Umberto Scalpellini (Don Abbondio).

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano, 1921-1922), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Emilia Vidali

Emilia Vidali was an actress in the Italian silent cinema. Her best known role is Lucia in the silent version of I promessi sposi (1922). She was also an extremely popular opera singer in South America, and performed in international opera houses all over the world.


Italian postcard by G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 181. Photo:U.C.I. Emilia Vidali played the female lead of Lucia in Mario Bonnard's adaptation of Alessandro Manzoni's I promessi sposi (1922).


Italian postcard. Photo: U.C.I. Emilia Vidali (Lucia) and Ida Carloni Talli (Agnese) in I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922).


Italian postcard by U.C.I. G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Domenico Serra as Renzo, Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese and Emilia Vidali as Lucia in I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Caption: If you want me to marry you, I'm here. The scene depicts the final scene of the story.

Family Business

Emilia Vidali was the daughter of actor/director Giovanni Enrico Vidali and his wife Lina Gandini. She was also the younger sister of actress Maria Gandini.

Her sister and her father started in 1911 resp. 1912 at the Turin based film company Pasquali and quickly became leading actors there. Gandini and Vidali sr. for instance played in Sui gradini del trono/On the Steps of the Throne (1912) by Pasquali’s main director Ubaldo Mari Del Colle, and Per il babbo/For Daddy (Umberto Paradisi, 1913).

Enrico Vidali expanded his career in 1913 when he started to direct lavish, epic films for Pasquali. His first effort was Jone, o Gi ultimi giorni di Pompei/Jone and the Last days of Pompeii (1913), codirected with Del Colle. It competed with Ambrosio’s version, Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei/The Last Days of Pompeii (Mario Caserini, Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1913).

Immediately hereafter, Vidali made another lavish epic: Spartaco/Spartacus (1913), with strong men Mario Guaita-Ausonia and Luciano Albertini in the leading parts. Vidali went on to make more modest dramas, often with his daughter Maria as one of the leading actresses, such as I promessi sposi/The Betrothed (Enrico Vidali, 1913), which starred Cristina Ruspoli as Lucia and Giovanni Ciusa as Renzo, while Gandini played the Nun of Monza. Again, this film also competed with a homonymous Ambrosio production (1913).

In 1913 Emilia Vidali debuted at Pasquali too. First, she played in films by Del Colle, such as Il principe mendicante/The Beggar Prince (Ubaldo Mari Del Colle, 1913), in which her sister and father co-acted as well. The three played together again in I due sergenti/The Two Sergeants (Eugenio Perego, 1913). The leading actor in these films was Alberto Capozzi.

Vidali senior directed his two daughters and himself in Il principino saltimbanco (Enrico Vidali, 1914), produced for Italian Éclair, and at Cenisio Film in Visione suprema/Supreme vision (Enrico Vidali, 1915), Il mistero della Villa Saint Privat/The mystery of Saint Privat Villa (Enrico Vidali, 1915) and Bandiera bianca/White Flag (Enrico Vidali, 1915).

In 1914/1915 Enrico founded his own company Vidali Film, for which he directed Lo straniero/The Stranger (Enrico Vidali, 1915) with his two daughters and himself. After 1915 Enrico Vidali continued to direct many films featuring himself and his daughter Maria for Vidali Film. They also worked for Italica, Edison and other companies.

Apart from one film in France in the 1920s, Maria Gandini would retire from the film business in 1918. Her father replaced her with an actress called Lydianne. Vidali Film went broke in 1922.


Italian postcard by U.C.I. G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Domenico Serra as Renzo and Emilia Vidali as Lucia in I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Caption: Rascal! Damned one! Murderer!, Renzo shouted.


Italian postcard by U.C.I. G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Domenico Serra as Renzo and Emilia Vidali as Lucia in I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922), on this card also with Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese and Enzo Biliotti as Father Cristoforo. U.C.I. G. Vettori, Bologna. Caption: Father, what do you say of such a rascal?

Broadway

In 1915, Emilia Vidali took a long break from the screen. In 1922 she had an impressive comeback as Lucia in Mario Bonnard’s adaptation of I promessi sposi/The Betrothed (1922). Domenico Serra played Renzo.

Probably it was at the set of this film that she met her future husband Mario Parpagnoli, who played the evil Don Rodrigo. While Italian critics considered the film 'too grey', audiences loved it. I promessi sposi was awarded a golden medal at a film festival in Turin in 1923.

It didn’t mean a full comeback for Emilia Vidali though. After one more film, Amore e destino/Love and Fate (Mario Parpagnoli, 1923), she left the Italian screen again. Vidali and Parpagnoli had married in the meantime.

Because of the crisis in the Italian cinema, the couple fled to Argentine. There they played in the film Galleguita (Julio Irigoyen, 1924). Parpagnoli himself directed Adios Argentina (1930). He made it as a silent film, but later added a soundtrack.

In the meantime Vidali didn’t sit still in Argentine. She made a career as a singer and stage actress. She became extremely popular and toured the world. In 1927 Emilia Vidali performed on Broadway in the two-act musical revue A Night in Spain, first at the 44th Street Theatre and subsequently at the Winter Garden Theatre, in a grand total of 174 performances. Director was Charles Judels.

That same year she performed as a live act at the Gaumont-Palace cinema in Paris, where she was announced as the 'Argentine Raquel Meller'. In 1928 she performed at the theatre Romea in Madrid in a revue called Oh, la revista! Yo queiro ser guapo! And in 1929 she was a live act at the Amsterdam movie palace Theater Tuschinski, where she was again presented as an Argentine performer.


Italian postcard by U.C.I. G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Domenico Serra as Renzo and Emilia Vidali as Lucia in I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Here also with Enzo Biliotti as father Cristoforo and Ida Carloni Talli as Agnese, Luciana's mother. Caption: Listen, my dear children, father Cristoforo said, today I will visit that man.


Italian postcard by U.C.I. G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Domenico Serra as Renzo and Emilia Vidali as Lucia in I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Here also with Umberto Scalpellini as don Abbondio. Caption: Curate, in presence of these two witnesses, this is my wife...

Brazil

In May 1930, Emilia Vidali’s smiling face was on the cover of the Italian theatre magazine Il dramma, announced as a celebrity in Europe, North and South America, and even Australia. The same year she returned to Italy for a tour with La veglia dei lestofanti, the Italian version of the Three Penny Opera by Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill, and directed by Anton Giulio Bragaglia.

She played a small part in La canzone dell’amore/The Song of Love (Gennaro Righelli, 1930), the first Italian sound feature, starring Dria Pola. In July 1934 Vidali was again on the cover of Il dramma. The magazine wrote that she was by now a famous opera singer, stage and film actress, who had performed and had been acclaimed at the Berlin Wintergarten, the 44 Street Theatre in New York, the Princesa theatre in Buenos Aires, and theatres in Chile, Peru, Havana, Spain and Holland.

After a large Summer tour she would return to the cinema in a film which was constructed all around her. Nothing happened, but she did play another small part in the opera film Casta diva (Carmine Gallone, 1935), starring Marta Eggerth. Her final film role was in the comedy Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno/Bertoldo, Bertoldino and Cacasenno (Giorgio Simonelli), 1937.

In the mid-1930s Vidali performed with the Autori Associati all around Italy, singing popular songs like Mariastella, Prigioniera and Quanta neve è caduta. She also recorded songs for La voce del padrone, the Italian version of His Master’s Voice.

Vidali dedicated herself to opera. In 1939 she sang in Margherita da Cortona at the Roman Opera, and in 1940 in L’Amico Fritz in Ancona and in Le donne curiose in Rome. During the war years she sang L’amoroso forfante (1941) at the theatre festival in Bergamo and in Claudio Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (1943) at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome.

In 1943 she also sang in Nina o la pazza per amore, conducted by Tullio Serafin at the Teatro delle Arti in Rome. The war time, was a strenuous time for the Vidali’s. According to the site of Emilia’s son, Aldo Vidali, the family experienced frightful moments. The family was at risk of being arrested and shot.

After the war, they moved to Brazil. Emilia Vidali would again perform there and sang pieces from La Bohème, Il Trovatore and Andrea Chenier in the Teatro Colombo in Sao Paulo in 1952. In 1954 she also directed Madame Butterfly at the Teatro Colombo.

Neither Emilia Vidali's birthdate and birthplace nor the place and the year of her death are known.


Italian postcard by U.C.I. G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Emilia Vidali as Lucia in I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922).


Italian postcard by U.C.I. G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Emilia Vidali as Lucia in I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Caption: Lucia reappeared with her apron full of nuts (Ch. III).


Italian postcard by U.C.I. G. Vettori, Bologna. Photo: Emilia Vidali as Lucia in I promessi sposi (Mario Bonnard, 1922). Lucia's kidnapping by Nibbio, the bravo of the Innominato, with the help of Gertrude, the nun of Monza (Niní Dinelli). Caption: Come, my child, come with me, as I have orders to treat you well and give you courage.

Sources: Aldo Bernardini/Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano), Aldo Vidali (The Luminous Compass - now defunct), Teatro de l900 (now defunct) and IMDb.