If One Could See Into the Future
About If One Could See Into the Future
Death, an old man in a black robe (Oreste Grandi), knocks and takes the baby son of a mother played by Mary Cleo Tarlarini. An angel of life shows her the road. Before she can face Death she sells her hair to an old woman. She begs him to give the child back. He leads her to a spring in which the boy, grown (Ercole Vaser), lives loosely and kills himself. She accepts that death rather than the life the spring has shown her.
Cast & crew
More about If One Could See Into the Future
Arrigo Frusta wrote and directed the film for Ambrosio. Arturo Ambrosio produced it. Giovanni Vitrotti photographed it. Maria Bay plays the son as a baby. Paolo Azzurri, Gigetta Morano, Fernanda Negri Pouget, and Norina Rasero are also in the cast. English-language releases used the title If One Could See Into the Future. The Italian title is La madre e la morte.
Themes
Reviews
The Moving Picture World of 19 August 1911 said the scenes in the spring, shown as things that might happen, left the mother glad that her boy was dead.
Look
Giovanni Vitrotti photographed the journey. The future is played under a thin skin of rippling water in the spring, an effect the Moving Picture World of 19 August 1911 singled out.
Notes
- French, German, and Brazilian release titles were La mère et la mort, Die Mutter und der Tod, and A Mãe e a Morte.
- The Moving Picture World reviewed the film on 19 August 1911.
Scenes
- Death in a black robe takes the baby from the house.
- The mother sells her hair to an old woman before she is allowed to go on.
- The boy's later life appears under the moving surface of a spring.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-la-madre-e-la-morte-aka-if-one-could-see-into-the-future)