The War and the Dream of Momi
About The War and the Dream of Momi
Momi (Stellina Toschi, a girl playing the boy) lives with his mother (Valentina Frascaroli) and grandfather (Enrico Gemelli) while his father (Alberto Nepoti), an Italian officer, writes from the mountains on the Austrian border. A letter tells of Berto (Luigi Petrungaro), a highland boy who ran to warn Italian troops when Austrians attacked his mother (Gina Marangoni). Momi falls asleep clutching his toy soldiers, Trick and Track. The toys fight with guns, gas, and aircraft until a bayonet jab turns out to be a rose thorn, and he wakes still waiting for his father.
Cast & crew
More about The War and the Dream of Momi
Giovanni Pastrone supplied the story. Segundo de Chomón designed the sets and filmed the live action, the tricks, and the stop-motion. Itala Film produced it. The original length was 833 meters. The restored print is 762 meters, 41 minutes at 16 frames per second.
Themes
Look
Segundo de Chomón animated Trick and Track and their armies in stop-motion, one frame at a time, on a miniature field of trenches. On the live-action assault of the farm he superimposed flames and smoke.
Technique
The dream half of the film is stop-motion of puppets, cut against live action of the family and of Berto's farm. The 1991 restoration printed the color as Desmetcolor.
Preservation
The Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin restored the film in 1991 from prints kept at the Cineteca Italiana in Milan and at the Turin museum, in memory of Maria Adriana Prolo. The restored picture is 762 meters, in Desmetcolor, with Italian titles. It was reprinted in 1998 at L'Immagine Ritrovata.
Notes
- The Italian title is La guerra e il sogno di Momi. It is also billed as La guerra ed il sogno di Momi.
- Italian accounts note an earlier film with the same idea, Il sogno del bimbo d'Italia (1915), directed by Riccardo Cassano, in which a child dreams his toy soldiers into a battle while his father is at the front.
- In the toy battle a soda siphon puts out fires after an air raid, and a bellows sucks up the gas.
Scenes
- The grandfather reads the father's letter on Berto, who ran to warn the Italian troops.
- Trick and Track lead puppet armies through gas and an air raid.
- A bayonet prod on the sleeping boy is a rose thorn.
Influenced by
- Il sogno del bimbo d'Italia (1915)
