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Francesca da Rimini
Also known as {Francesca di Rimini}
(1910) United States of America
B&W : Short film
Directed by J. Stuart Blackton
Cast: Florence Turner [Francesca da Rimini], Edwin R. Phillips [the duke], Hector Dean (Hector Dion), William Raymond, [?] Norma Talmadge?
The Vitagraph Company of America production; distributed by The Vitagraph Company of America. / From the play Francesca da Rimini by Gabriele D'Annunzio. / Released 19 November 1910. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / This film was a remake of the original Vitagraph production of the play, Francesca da Rimini (1908), which was also directed by J. Stuart Blackton. The play was previously filmed as Francesca da Rimini (1908), an Italian production. The play was subsequently filmed as Françoise de Remini (1910).
Drama: Historical.
Synopsis: [The Moving Picture World, 26 November 1910, page ?] It is a beautiful story simply and clearly told; it all happened in the thirteenth century. Francesca is the daughter of Guido da Polentia, the Lord of Ravenna, Italy. Lanciotto (the Lame), a hunchback of Rimini, becomes enamored of Francesca, although he has never seen her. Her father secures her consent to marry Lanciotto, who sends his brother Paola, a handsome youth, to bring her to Rimini and arrange the nuptials. Paola arriving at the court of Ravenna, Francesca thinks he is Lanciotto and falls in love with him at first sight, and he with her, but Paola controls his heart’s desire by proving faithful to his brother’s mission. When Francesca meets Lanciotto, she is shocked at his ugliness, and cannot help making comparison with his attractive brother, whom she really loves and, in fact, shows her preference. Lanciotto sees it and knows the reason, but persists in his attentions and intentions, and, by the persuasion of her father, Francesca is married to Lanciotto. Just after the marriage ceremony, before the bride and groom leave the magnificent cathedral with all its grand architecture, a messenger from the guards of the city rushes in and hands Lanciotto, who is captain of the soldiery, a message that he must join his army and be off to war. Ever faithful to the call of duty, Lanciotto takes his sword from the bearer of the message, gives Francesca over to the care of Paola during his absence, and hastily departs. Pepe, the jester of the court, heartily dislikes Lanciotto, and readily sees the true state of affairs and never fails to mock and ridicule his crippled master. He is delighted when he learns that Francesca and Paola love each other, and is constantly on the “qui vive” for evidence of his suspicions. The lovers in the gorgeous gardens of Rimini are wrapped in love’s sweet thoughts and rhapsody. Irresistibly drawn in each other’s embrace, they kiss and stand transfixed. Pepe, spying every movement of the couple, dashes from his place of hiding and hastens to Lanciotto’s camp, running through the wood and glen like a maddened hound. He reaches Lanciotto’s tent and informs him of his wife’s and brother’s unfaithfulness, only to meet the cripple’s wrathful indignation and contempt. The shaft of venom has been sunk deep by Pepe into the heart of Lanciotto, urging him to mount his horse and gallop furiously in the midst of an approaching storm to his palace, there to learn the truth of the jester’s report. As the lightning flashes and the thunder roars, he reaches the portals of his home, throws aside the curtains, and beholds his wife in the embrace of his brother. With terrible denunciations and uncontrolled anger, he draws his dagger and raises it to kill, when a stroke of lightning, attracted by the glistening steel, glances from the dagger and strikes the two lovers dead. The climax is a conception of dramatic art, inspired genius, sustaining to the end what proves the par excellence of the Vitagraph “life portrayals.”
Reviews: [The Nickelodeon, 1 December 1910, page ?] These lavish scenes would gain greatly from better photography. There is a sharpness of contrast between the lights and shadows that strikes hard on the eye, robbing the pictures of half their beauty. Everything looks garish and blotchy. The Vitagraph company seems to be the only producer of any standing that is still content to turn out pictures that are pock-marked with inky shadows. The other producers are cultivating a smoothness and delicacy of finish that allows even the shadows to be luminous, and yet with no sacrifice of detail or definition. These softly radiant pictures are as superior to the old hard black-and-white style as a photogravure is superior to a chromo. The Vitagraph company had better get in line with Biograph, Edison, Lubin, and the foreign makers. Coming back to Francesca da Rimini, there is, aside from the lavishness of the production, little of merit to be found in it. The actors seemed ill at ease in their fancy clothes and moved in a stilted self-conscious manner. There was an effort to assume statuesque attitudes that ended in mere stiffness. Exception to this criticism may be made in the case of Lanciotto and the clown, who moved with a more natural dignity. The worst offenders were Paolo and Francesca; witness, for instance, the scene of their meeting. Here a duke’s son and a duke’s daughter, reared in the atmosphere of princely courts, stood as awkward and tongue-tied as a couple of kitchen mechanics. Even “love at first sight” can be accomplished gracefully. The storm effects were skillfully managed, but they wrought up a sense of tragic expectancy which the actors could not rise to meet. The end was a pathetic fizzle. Why that lightning bolt was introduced passeth comprehension.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 14 August 2023.
References: Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
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