Assunta Spina
About Assunta Spina
Assunta Spina, a laundress, is engaged to the Naples butcher Michele Boccadifuoco and refuses Raffaele. Raffaele sends Michele an anonymous letter claiming she consoles herself while he is at work. Michele moves her to a laundry near his shop. On her birthday he takes her to Posillipo and ignores her. She dances with Raffaele. Michele slashes her face and is arrested. At the trial she says he never struck her. The jury does not believe her, and he gets two years. She becomes the mistress of court vice-chancellor Federigo Funelli so that Michele will serve the sentence in Naples instead of farther away. She stops answering Michele's letters. After a year and a half he is released, sees that she loves Funelli, and kills him. Assunta tells the police she committed the murder.
Cast & crew
More about Assunta Spina
Giuseppe Barattolo produced it for Caesar Film. Gustavo Serena and Francesca Bertini are credited with the direction. Serena and Bertini adapted Salvatore Di Giacomo's play, itself taken from his novel and staged in 1909. Alberto G. Carta photographed it. Alfredo Manzi designed the sets. Outside Italy the film is sometimes called Sangue Napolitano.
Themes
Making
Serena later described Bertini taking over the set in Neapolitan dialect: she moved extras, changed the camera angle, and demanded retakes when a scene did not match what she wanted.
Look
Alberto G. Carta photographed the film in Naples, including the open-air feast at Posillipo and the laundry.
Preservation
The Cineteca di Bologna restored the film with the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin. A 1,690-meter version runs 63 minutes. The Bologna restoration has been screened at 67 minutes and issued on DVD since 2015.
Notes
- Bertini plays Assunta. Serena plays Michele. Carlo Benetti plays Federigo Funelli. Luciano Albertini plays Raffaele. Amelia Cipriani plays Peppina. Antonio Cruicchi plays Assunta's father. Alberto Collo plays an officer.
- Italian Wikipedia times a 1,690-meter version at 63 minutes, an extended version at 73, and a short version at 50. A 2025 Cineteca di Bologna screening ran 67 minutes.
- Roberto Roberti made another Assunta Spina in 1930. Mario Mattoli directed a sound version in 1948 with Anna Magnani and Eduardo De Filippo.
- The Cineteca di Bologna and the Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin restored the film. Their edition has been on DVD since 2015 in the Cinemalibero series.
Scenes
- Assunta dances with Raffaele at Posillipo while Michele watches.
- Michele slashes her face.
- She tells the court he never struck her.
- Released from prison, Michele kills Funelli, and Assunta confesses to the police.
Also available
- Internet Archive (FrancescaBertiniGustavoSerenaAssuntaSpina1915YouTube)
- Cineteca di Bologna, Cinemalibero DVD (2015)
