Silvio Pellico
About Silvio Pellico
In Austrian-ruled Lombardy-Veneto in 1820, the Carbonari Silvio Pellico and Pietro Maroncelli are arrested and taken to Santa Margherita prison in Milan, then to the Piombi in Venice. After the 1822 trial they are sent to the Spielberg at Brno. In 1830 Pellico is released and goes home. The film adds Vezio Ricciardi, a character whose mother was raped by an Austrian soldier.
Cast & crew
More about Silvio Pellico
Livio Pavanelli directed. Augusto Jandolo wrote the screenplay from Pellico’s Le mie prigioni. Luigi Dell’Otti was the cameraman. Italian Wikipedia gives 1,549 meters, 54 minutes, black and white, 1.33:1. The film was shown in October 1915, after Italy entered the war. An alternate title is Silvio Pellico, il martire dello Spielberg.
Themes
Background
Alba Film put the picture out in October 1915, months after Italy joined the war against Austria-Hungary. The enemy officer is written as a rapist, a stock figure of that year’s propaganda.
Look
Luigi Dell’Otti photographed the Alba Film production.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A restoration was made from a nitrate print that Livio Fantina gave to the Cineteca del Friuli.
Notes
- Raffaello Mariani plays Pellico. Gioacchino Grassi plays Maroncelli.
- Evelina Paoli plays Maria Ricciardi. Elisa Grassi Nicola plays Zanze. Ugo Bazzini plays Vezio Ricciardi. Achille Vitti plays von Bluk.
- The death sentence of February 1822, in the historical record the film uses, was commuted, and Pellico served at the Spielberg.
- Italian Wikipedia compares the invented rape plot to the wartime propaganda of Mariute (1918).
Scenes
- Pellico and Maroncelli are taken from Santa Margherita in Milan to the Piombi in Venice, then to the Spielberg at Brno.
Influenced by
- Silvio Pellico’s Le mie prigioni
