Eleonora Duse and Cenere (Ashes): Centennial Essays

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The silent film Cenere (Ashes) is the only cinematic
expression
of Eleonora Duse (1858-1924), the greatest of all Italian actresses. Taken from the homonymous novel by Grazia Deledda (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926), it offers us the highest proof of Duse’s silence and of her spiritual meditation as an artist: on the screen she remembered all the
mother-roles
that she had created for the theatre, and used them to create a new performance for a new medium.

The genesis, the development and the difficulties involved in the making of Cenere, are evident in the essays of this collection. Duse’s perfectionism was too advanced for the rules of the Italian movie industry of the 1910s: now we render historical justice to the many facets of her work, and not only as an actress, illustrating her broader opinion of the silent movie industry as it developed in war-time Italy.

The publication of the current collection marks the 100th anniversary of the making of Cenere, and brings together, for the first time in English, a broad survey of scholarship surrounding Duse’s only film performance seen within the creative, political and historical context of its time.