ALSO IN TODAY’S PROGRAM, JACQUES DE BARONCELLI’S
PÊCHEUR D’ISLANDE, FROM THE NOVEL BY PIERRE LOTI

The most highly anticipated event of Tuesday, October 10th at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival is the world premiere of the rediscovered Brazilian documentary Amazonas, maior rio do mundo  by the Portuguese director Silvino Santos, screening at 2.30 PM in the Teatro Verdi. This is the first feature-length documentary shot in the Amazon, completed in 1918 and believed lost for decades until its fortuitous rediscovery in Prague’s Národní filmový archiv.

In the evening we head to Brittany, seen earlier this week in La Divine Croisière, the festival’s opening film this year. Tonight is Pêcheur d’Islande (FR 1924), at 9 PM, based on the celebrated novel by Pierre Loti, who’s being rememberd at the festival on the 100^th year of his death. The director Jacques de Baroncelli was a prolific filmmaker who counted among his pupils René Clair. The male lead is played by Charles Vanel, an actor with an extraordinarily long career who also frequently worked in Italy; among the titles he’s remembered for here is Francesco Rosi’s 1981 film Tre Fratelli, made when Vanel was nearly 90 years old.  The female star of Pêcheur d’Islande èis Sandra Milowanoff, former ballerina in Pavlova’s troupe who came to France following the Russian Revolution and established herself as a major star of the silent era in France. Baroncelli sensitively rendered the novel’s tragic love story with memorable sequences and an impeccable cast: in particular, the press of the time emphasized the beauty of the scenes illustrating life in the streets of the village and the marina and praised the director’s skill in blending the presence of professional actors alongside “real people.”

Also on today’s program is René Leprince‘s Titi I^er, roi des gosses (1926), screening 10 AM in the Ruritania section. Originally released in 4 episodes, the only surviving print coms from a condensed Italian distribution print which however retains all its charms. Set in the mythical country of Bothnie, the film is also rare in that some scenes were actually shot in central Europe, Budapest.

The daredevil German director and actor Harry Piel returns in Rivalen (1923) at 3.45 PM, in which Piel confirms his knack for reckless adventures and thrilling sensations. Other points of interest today include a twenty-minute film of the Genoa Cricket and Football Club’s tour of Argentina and Uruguay in 1923. Next, two travel films from the Hans Berge Collection of the Norwegian National Library, including Se London! (FR 1927) by French-Tunisian Jacques Haïk, one of the most active French film producers and importers between the two world wars, who takes us on a tour of the main tourist attractions of the British capital. The most interesting part of the film shows the Jewish neighborhood of Whitechapel with images of a newsagent displaying headlines in English and Yiddish.

At 10:15 p.m., l’Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia presents 9 ½, a collage of travelogues, family moments and experiments made by filmmakers from all over the world, from Japan to New Zealand, Brazil to Chile, Congo to Canada, spanning from 1923 to the 1960s. The compilation is a tribute to the Pathé Baby, created in France in 1922, the first home movie format that gave everyone the chance to become an author and director. The accompanying music is composed and performed by students of the G.B. Martini Conservatory of Bologna.