Directed by Robert Wiene

Ivo Blom is in Italy to attend the 45th edition of 'Le Giornate del Cinema Muto' in Pordenone. One of the programme sections of this silent film festival is 'Weimar Uncensored'. One of the films is Genuine (1920), an expressionist silent film starring Fern Andra. The maker is the Hungarian-Czechoslovak film director and screenwriter Robert Wiene (1873-1938), who became particularly famous for another expressionist film, Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari / The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919), a milestone in film history.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 643/10. Photo: Decla. Fern Andra and Hans Heinrich von Twardowski in Genuine (Robert Wiene, 1920).


Swiss-German-British postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede / News Productions, Stroud, no. 56535. Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne. Conrad Veidt and Lil Dagover in Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari / The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920), produced by Decla Film, Berlin - Bolz und Cie.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 666/1. Photo: Neumann. Henny Porten as Mary in the Biblical film I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 667/4. Photo: Neumann. Asta Nielsen as Mary Magdalen and Henny Porten as the Virgin Mary in the Biblical film I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1005/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Oertel, Berlin. Grigori Chmara in Raskolnikow (Robert Wiene, 1923).

Turning his attention to the new medium of film

Robert Wiene was born in 1873 in Breslau, in the German Province of Silesia (now the city of Wrocław in Poland). He was born into a family of artists. His parents were Pauline Loevy and Karl Wiene, who later became a Royal Saxon Court Actor. His younger brother, Conrad Wiene, also became a theatre actor and film director. From 1894 on, he studied law in Vienna. He then enrolled at Humboldt University in Berlin to continue his studies of law. He developed an interest in the theatre and appeared in minor roles. Wiene practised law in Weimar until 1908, when he moved back to Vienna to manage two small theatres in succession, the Kleines Schauspielhaus and the Neue Wiener Bühne. Wiene turned his attention to the new medium of film. From 1912, he worked in Germany and Austria as a writer and director in the film business. His first involvement with film was writing and (possibly) co-directing Die Waffen der Jugend / The Weapons of Youth (Friedrich Müller, 1913). Another early work as director was the German comedy of mistaken identity, Er rechts – sie links / He on the Right – She on the Left (Robert Wiene, 1914), with Otto Treptow and Manny Ziener. The story was based on the play 'Separate Bedrooms' by Adolf Glinger and Otto Taussig, who also wrote the screenplay.

From 1915, he worked as a writer and dramaturg for Messter Film, where he also directed the comedy Die Konservenbraut / The Canned Bride (Robert Wiene, 1915) with Paul Biensfeldt and Guido Herzfeld. For Messter, he also directed Erna Morena and Emil Jannings in his first leading role in the melodrama Frau Eva / Mrs. Eva (Robert Wiene, 1916). Wiene directed popular star Henny Porten in Die Räuberbraut / The Robber Bride (Robert Wiene, 1916) and in the comedy Die Prinzessin von Neutralien / The Princess of Neutralia (Robert Wiene, 1917). He also wrote the scripts for a series of 18 films starring Porten, including Gräfin Küchenfee / Countess Kitchenmaid (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918), Edelsteine / Precious Stones (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918), Auf Probe gestellt / Put to the Test (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918), Das Geschlecht derer von Ringwall / The Ringwall Family (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918), Agnes Arnau und ihre drei Freier / Agnes Arnau and Her Three Suitors (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918), Die Heimkehr des Odysseus / The Homecoming of Odysseus (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918), Die Dame, der Teufel und die Probiermamsell / The Lady, the Devil and the Model (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918), and Ihr Sport / Her Sport (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).

Robert Wiene is best known as the director of the Expressionist classic Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari / The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919), although the extent of his specific contribution to the film remains a matter of debate to this day. Producer Erich Pommer approached him to adapt the screenplay by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz for Decla-Film. Conrad Veidt plays a sleepwalker who is paraded around as a fairground attraction by the shady Dr Caligari (Werner Krauss) during the day and who commits murders at night. In a parallel narrative, this story is recounted by an inmate of a mental asylum who accuses his director of being none other than Dr Caligari himself. The film became famous for its extraordinary and innovative style, which combined painted and constructed, grotesquely distorted sets with high-contrast lighting and painted light and shadow. It is often cited as a prime example of Expressionist cinema. The sets for the film were designed by Walter Reimann, Hermann Warm and Walter Röhrig. Upon its release in Germany, the film was a huge success before being screened all over the world. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari was the first film to be screened in the United States after the end of the First World War. The film's success helped German cinema achieve international artistic recognition and had a significant impact on its ‘image’.

He continued to collaborate with Carl Mayer and subsequently directed Genuine (Robert Wiene, 1920), also set against an Expressionist backdrop. The film begins with a framing narrative: a painter is obsessed with a painting he has created himself – the portrait of a young woman in exotic dress, the heroine of an ancient legend. His friends are concerned for his sanity and try to persuade him to sell the painting, but he refuses. Whilst reading the story of the woman depicted in a book, he falls asleep. At that moment, the painting comes to life: the young woman, Genuine (Fern Andra), steps out of the frame and leans over the sleeping painter. Genuine is a priestess of an esoteric Eastern sect. Fern Andra's costumes were specially designed for her by painter Cesar Klein. He turned her mysterious priest into one of the most stylised characters of German Expressionism. The film did not do well at the box office. Wiene also wrote the script for F.W. Murnau's drama Satanas (1920), which is now considered lost.

Also remarkable is Robert Wiene’s third expressionist film, Raskolnikow / Raskolnikov (1923), an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' starring Gregori Chmara. According to German Wikipedia, it marked the second high point of Wiene's career. The sets were designed by Andrei Andreyev, who created a labyrinthine and distorted set in the style of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. The actors all came from Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre (MChAT). Chmara also starred as Jesus Christ in I.N.R.I. – Ein Film der Menschlichkeit / I.N.R.I. – A Film of Humanity (Robert Wiene, 1923), in which Wiene adapted the Passion of Christ for the screen, based on a novel by Peter Rosegger. Wiene's last film of the ‘Caligarism’ era was the Horror film Orlac’s Hände / The Hands of Orlac (Robert Wiene, 1924), based on the fantastic novella by Maurice Renard. Conrad Veidt plays a genius pianist who, after an accident, is transplanted with the hands of a murderer and starts to believe that he is also a murderer. Wiene had returned to form with this 1924 opus, but German Wikipedia writes that he would make only rather second-rate films from now on.


German collector card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, no, 29, Group 43. Photo: publicity still for Arme Eva (Robert Wiene, 1914). Caption: Emil Jannings, jung und schön, in seinem ersten Film, Fromont junior, Risler senior. (Emil Jannings, young and handsome, in his first film, Fromont junior, Risler senior. According to other sources, Arme Eva (Robert Wiene, 1914), featuring Erna Morena, was his first film. IMDb mentions two Eva-films, both by Wiene and both starring Morena and Jannings: Arme Eva (1914) and Frau Eva (1916) - a sequel, a remake or just the same film? However, IMDb mentions that the second was based on a play by Alphonse Daudet! And yes, Revolvy confirms: "It was based on the 1874 novel Fromont and Risler by Alphonse Daudet." And at the German Early Film Database and Filmportal.de, there is no mention of Arme Eva, just Frau Eva (1915-1916). At Filmportal.de, this picture illustrates the film page...


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 500/1. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Die Räuberbraut / The Robber Bride (Robert Wiene 1916).


German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 500/8. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Bruno Decarli in Das wandernde Licht / The Wandering Light (Robert Wiene, 1916).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 500/11. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Der Liebesbrief der Königin / The Queen's Love Letter (Robert Wiene, 1916).


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 507/1. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Gräfin Küchenfee / Countess Kitchen Fairy (Robert Wiene, 1918).

A dismissal as undeserved as the extravagant praise

In 1919 Robert Wiene founded with Heinz Hanus the Filmbund (Film Union), a professional association of film directors, which he managed until 1922. It was one of the first organisations of its kind in Europe. In 1924, Wiene returned to Vienna, where he became the artistic director of Pan-Film AG together with the writer Ludwig Nerz. In the late 1920s and 1930s, Wiene directed many light-hearted entertainment films for Pan-Film.

Interesting is Der Rosenkavalier / The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1926), his film adaptation of Richard Strauss’s opera. The film stars a French-German cast including Huguette Duflos, Paul Hartmann and Jaque Catelain. The film was produced in collaboration with the composer and the librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Hofmannsthal considerably changed the storyline for the film version, which included a final scene in the formal gardens behind the Field Marshal's residence, and Strauss' score included music not only from the opera but also sections of his Couperin Suite and a march for the Field Marshal, who appears in this version. For Pan-Film, Wiene also directed the court romance Die Geliebte / The Loved One (1926) with Harry Liedtke, Die Frau auf der Folter / Scandal in Paris (Robert Wiene, 1928) and Die große Abenteuerin / The Amateur Adventure (Robert Wiene, 1928), both starring Lily Damita in the leading role.

His first sound film, Der Andere / The Other (Robert Wiene, 1930) was a remake of Max Mack's film from 1913. It is a variation on the Jekyll & Hyde motif, starring Fritz Kortner in the leading role of attorney Hallers. Four months after the National Socialists’ rise to power, Wiene's latest film, the drama Taifun / Typhoon (Robert Wiene, 1933) starring Liane Haid and Viktor de Kowa, was banned on 3 May 1933. The film was banned for several reasons, particularly what was perceived as the unflattering portrayal of Europeans in contrast to the noble Asian characters. The censors were also concerned that the incompetence of the French justice system would be taken by audiences to mean the German one, undermining their faith in it. Robert Wiene, who was of Jewish descent, was forced to go into exile. A Hungarian film company had been inviting German directors to come to Budapest to make films in simultaneous German/Hungarian versions. In 1934, given his uncertain career prospects under the Nazi regime, he left the Third Reich for Hungary, then Britain and finally France.

In Budapest, he directed the operetta film Eine Nacht in Venedig / One Night in Venice (Robert Wiene, 1934), starring Tino Pattiera. It was made at the Hunnia Studios with three weeks of location shooting in Venice. In common with the practice of multi-language versions at the time, the film was also made in a separate Hungarian language version, Egy éj Velencében, based on the same screenplay. The Hunnia Studios specialised in such co-productions during the era. The two versions were shot simultaneously. The Hungarian version was co-directed by Wiene and Géza von Cziffra and used a separate cast of Hungarian actors. The film appears to have been popular with Austrian and German audiences, although its critical reception was less enthusiastic.

During the next four years, Wiene struggled to raise financing in London and Paris for his projects and did not make a single film. In Paris, he tried to produce a sound remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, together with Jean Cocteau. The attempt failed. Suffering from cancer, he was unable to complete his final film, the French period drama Ultimatum (1938) starring Dita Parlo and Erich von Stroheim. The film's plot is set in 1914 against the backdrop of the July Crisis between the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the beginning of the First World War. It focuses on the relationship between a Serbian officer and his Austrian-born wife and their involvement in espionage between the countries. The film was finished by another exiled director, Wiene's friend Robert Siodmak. Robert Wiene died at the Rémusat Clinic in the 16th arrondissement of Paris on 15 July 1938. He was 65. His grave is located at the Bagneux cemetery in Paris. Only around 20 of the more than 90 films on which Wiene worked still exist today. His surviving output is uneven. After World War II, historians re-evaluated Wiene and dismissed his role in Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari / The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919). IMDb: "[Historians] attributed the brilliance of 'Caligari' to everyone involved except the director - a dismissal as undeserved as the extravagant praise. (...) Wiene's oeuvre exhibits a surprising versatility and quality."


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 666/6. Photo: Neumann. Theodor Becker as the Roman captain in the Biblical film I.N.R.I. / Crown of Thorns (Robert Wiene, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 47/1. Photo: Bruckmann-Verleih / Robert Wiene-Produktion der Pan-Film A.-G., Vienna. Jaque Catelain and Elli Felicie Berger in Der Rosenkavalier / The Knight of the Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 47/2. Photo: Bruckmann-Verleih / Robert Wiene-Produktion der Pan-Film A.-G., Vienna. Huguette Duflos and Jaque Catelain in the Austrian silent film Der Rosenkavalier (Robert Wiene, 1925), adapted from the opera by Richard Strauss with libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.


Former Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Croatian) postcard by Jos. Caklovic, Zagreb, no. 59. Photo: Pan Film, Zagreb. Maria Corda and Alfred Abel in Der Gardeoffizier / The Guardsman (Robert Wiene, 1927), based on the play 'A testör' by Ferenc Molnár. The man kneeling and begging for forgiveness is Abel. The man in the back may be Anton Edthofer, who plays a critic.


French promotion card in the Les Vedettes de l'Ecran series. Erich von Stroheim in Ultimatum (Robert Wiene, Robert Siodmak, 1938).


Italian promotion card for Le Giornate del Cinema Muto / Pordenone Silent Film Festival 45. Photo: Collection La Cinémathèque française. Fern Andra and Hans Heinrich von Twardowski in Genuine (Robert Wiene, 1920).

Sources: Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (German, French and English) and IMDb.

Weimar Uncensored

One of the fascinating sections at the Podenone Silent Film Festival, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2026, is Weimar Uncensored. Very popular in Germany and Austria during the late 1910s and the early 1920s were 'Aufklärungsfilme'. These were educational films on prostitution, venereal diseases, the white slave trade, drugs and homosexuality. The first Aufklärungsfilm was produced during the First World War. Commissioned by the German War Ministry, Richard Oswald made Es werde Licht! / Let There Be Light! in 1917, about sexually transmitted diseases. This film was followed by three more educational productions. Oswald's Anders als die Andern / Different from the Others (1919) was the first film to address and criticise the societal discrimination against homosexuals. After the end of the First World War, in the Weimar Republic was initially no film censorship until 1920. 'Sittenfilme'(voyeuristic films) began to appear alongside the more serious Aufklärungsfilme. These films were produced purely for commercial gain. They advertised themselves with sensational titles like Hyänen der Lust / Hyenas of Lust (1919) and appealed primarily to male viewers who expected explicit scenes and nudity. Often, such films pretended to be 'Aufklärungsfilme'. One example is Tänze des Grauens und Lasters / Dances of Horror and Vice (1923), featuring a boisterous, semi-nude Anita Berber. The wave of Aufklärungsfilme ended before 1925, when the Sittenfilme pushed it out of cinemas.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 220. Photo: A. Binder, Berlin. Richard Oswald (1880-1963) is considered the founder of the so-called 'Aufklärungsfilme' (enlightenment films). With the participation of the sex researcher Magnus Hirschfeld, he devoted himself towards the end of the First World War to taboo subjects and punishable acts in the four-part film cycle Es werde Licht! / Let There Be Light (Richard Oswald, 1916-1918). The films were a protest against Germany's anti-abortion law and also touched on the dangers of syphilis and other venereal diseases. Es werde Licht! is considered the forefather of all sex education films.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3207. Photo: Richard Oswald-Film. Theodor Loos and Eva Speyer in Es werde Licht II / Let There Be Light!, Part II (Richard Oswald, 1918).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3208. Photo: Richard Oswald-Film. Bernd Aldor and Paul Hartmann in the Aufklärungsfilm Es werde Licht! II / Let There Be Light, part II (Richard Oswald, 1918). Part II was shot in 1917 and premiered in Berlin in January 1918. Part II of this four-part film on syphilis raises a moral question: namely, to what extent should the disease be regarded as a human disgrace? The protagonist, a young doctor (Theodor Loos), believes that only people of poor character can fall prey to the disease through reprehensible acts. At a gathering in honour of a venereologist, a heated dispute erupts between the doctor, who applies moral judgments, and a colleague who argues on a more objective basis [Aldor?]. Two events cause the dogmatic young doctor to reflect: his sister (Rita Clermont) marries a man with syphilis who has not yet fully recovered [Hartmann?], and he himself contracts the disease after being kissed by a young woman who also suffers from syphilis. However, the doctor is cured and reevaluates his previous stance.


German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 555/3. Photo: Decla. Charlotte Böcklin (far right) in Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt, I. Das Schicksal der Anne Wolter / The Fate of Anne Wolter (Otto Rippert, 1918). Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt / The Road to Damnation (1918) was a two-part ' Sittenfilm ', an exploitation film about white slavery. Both parts were directed by Rippert, and the second part was called Hyänen der Lust / Hyenas of Lust (1919). They were both box-office hits.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 555/7. Photo: Decla. Charlotte Böcklin in Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt, I. Das Schicksal der Anne Wolter / The Fate of Anne Wolter (Otto Rippert, 1918). Anne Wolter (Charlotte Böcklin) falls into the hands of scheming white slave traders. She is taken to a bordello in Cairo, where she does not survive her tortures. In name, the film was made by the Gesellschaft zur Bekämpfung des Mädchenhandels (Society for the Struggle Against White Slavery) to inform the public about the trafficking of European girls and their impressment into prostitution, often in South America.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 616/2. Photo: Richard-Oswald-Film. Reinhold Schünzel and Ilka Grüning in Die sich verkaufen, part 2 of the series Prostitution (Richard Oswald, 1919).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 529/2. Photo: Richard Oswald-Film. Erna Morena in Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen / The Diary of a Lost Woman (Richard Oswald, 1918). The pharmacist's daughter Thymian Gotteball (Morena) is seduced and made pregnant by Provisor Meinert (Werner Krauss), an employee of her father (Paul Rehkopf). After the birth of her child, she is rejected by her own family and sent to an educational institution. As a result, she is becoming increasingly marginalised. The film was offered to the German censor in July 1918, but despite many cuts, it was forbidden for the remainder of the war. Still, one month before the armistice ended the First World War, in October 1918, the film premiered in Berlin.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 529/4. Photo: Richard Oswald-Film. Erna Morena and Reinhold Schünzel in Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen / The Diary of a Lost Woman (Richard Oswald, 1918), based on the homonymous novel (1905) by Margarete Böhme. Among Oswald's Aufklärungsfilme are Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen / The Diary of a Lost Woman (Richard Oswald, 1918) and the sadomasochistic case study Dida Ibsens Geschichte / Dida Ibsen's Story (Richard Oswald, 1918), starring Oswald's star Anita Berber. In 1929, G.W. Pabst would film another adaptation of Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen / The Diary of a Lost Woman, starring Louise Brooks, while already in 1912 an earlier adaptation by Fritz Bernhardt had taken place.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 279/1. Photo: Becker & Maass. Expressionistic dancer and film actress Anita Berber (1899–1928) challenged many taboos during the Weimar period. With her drug and booze addiction and her bisexual affairs, she epitomised the decadence of 1920s Berlin. Her charcoaled eyes, black lipstick and bright red, bobbed hair featured in her famous portrait by Otto Dix and in silent films by Richard Oswald and Fritz Lang.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 3151. Photo: Richard-Oswald-Produktion. Bernd Aldor as Dorian Gray in Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray (Richard Oswald, 1917), an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. In Victorian England, Lord Henry Wotton observes his friend, artist Basil Hallward, painting the portrait of Dorian Gray, a wealthy young man who is Basil's ultimate muse. The hedonistic Lord Henry thinks that beauty is the only aspect of life worth pursuing, prompting Dorian to wish that his portrait would age instead of himself.


German postcard by Hermann Leiser Verlag, Berlin, no. 3152. Photo: Richard-Oswald-Produktion. Bernd Aldor in Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray / The Picture of Dorian Gray (Richard Oswald, 1917). The novel's representation of homoeroticism is subtle yet present by manifesting itself through interactions between male characters in a way that challenges the strict social norms of Victorian England.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 501/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Curt Meyer, Berlin. Conrad Veidt (1893–1943) was the most highly strung and romantically handsome of the German expressionist actors. He was the star of one of the most high-profile Aufklärungsfilm was Anders als die Andern / Different from the others (Richard Oswald, 1919), with Conrad Veidt and Reinhold Schünzel. The film was intended as a polemic against the then-current laws under Germany's Paragraph 175, which made homosexuality a criminal offence. Anders als die Andern is one of the first sympathetic portrayals of homosexuals in cinema. Censorship laws were enacted in reaction to films like Anders als die Andern, and by October 1920 only doctors and medical researchers could view it. Prints of the film were among the many "decadent" works burned by the Nazis after they came to power in 1933.


Yugoslav postcard by Jos. Caklovic Bromografia, Zagreb, no. 3. Photo: Pan-Film, Zagreb. Ellen Kurty in Mädchen, die man nicht heiratet / Girls You Don't Marry (Géza von Bolváry, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1020/1. Photo: Curt Oertel, Berlin. Asta Nielsen in Die freudlose Gasse / Joyless Street (G.W. Pabst, 1925). In 1929, Dutch painter Pyke Koch painted Nielsen's portrait, using one of Oertel's photos. The painting is now at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

Source: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Augusto Mastripietri

This year, as part of his Museum of Dreamworlds project, EFSP collaborator Ivo Blom and his team present two programmes of shorts at the Giornate del Cinema Muto. They show unique prints from the BFI National Archive of early films set either in Ancient Rome and Pompeii, or in Ancient Greece or in Greek mythology. The programme on Roman Antiquity includes the brand new restoration of Bruto / Brutus (1911), one of Enrico Guazzoni's earliest Antiquity films, restored with support from the Film Foundation. In addition to Amleto Novelli (Mark Antony), Gastone Monaldi (Brutus) and Emilio Ghione (Cassius), the versatile Augusto Mastripietri plays Julius Caesar in this free adaptation of Shakespeare's play. As we have done previous posts on Novelli, Monaldi and Ghione, it is now time for Augusto Mastripietri (1846-1930), a 'leading character actor' at the Cines studio almost since its inception. He did over sixty films and is best known as the opportunistic and slandering Chilo in Enrico Guazzoni's Quo vadis? (1913). But he did so much more...


Portrait of Augusto Mastripietri in the Italian journal La vita cinematografica, no. 18, 30 September 1913, p. 19.


Italian postcard for the popular silent Italian epic Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, Cines 1913), adapted from the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Caption: Ursus (Bruto Castellani) and Chilon Chilonides (Augusto Mastripietri).


Spanish collector card (minicard) by Reclam Films, no. card 7 of 12. Amleto Novelli as the title character in the Italian silent film Cajus Julius Caesar/ Gaio Giulio Cesare (Enrico Guazzoni, 1914), released in Spain as Julio César. Scene: The opposition against Julius Caesar in the Senate. On the right, Augusto Mastripietri as Cato.


Italian postcard by IPA CT e Plex, no. 371. Photo: Film Cines, Roma. Publicity still for the silent film Malombra (Carmine Gallone, 1917), adapted from the novel by Antonio Fogazzaro, and starring Lyda Borelli, Amleto Novelli (both left) and Augusto Mastripietri (in bed). Caption: One noticed Silla throwing himself on her, lifting her with his arms.


Spanish collector card by Chocolate Pi, Barcelona, no. 7. Photo: Distr. J. Pich, Barcelona. Scene from the film Amica (Enrico Guazzoni, Cines 1916), starring Leda Gys, here with, from left to right, Nella Montagna, Augusto Mastripietri, Augusto Poggioli and an unknown actor.


Spanish postcard by Amatller Marca Luna chocolate, series 8, no. 7. Photo: Palatino Film. Augusto Mastripietri and Amleto Novelli in Fabiola (Enrico Guazzoni, 1918).

Bad guys and antagonists

Augusto Mastripietri was born in 1946 in Firenze (Florence), Italy. After his debut as a film actor at the Roman company Pineschi in 1909, he moved to Cines in 1910.

At Cines, he became one of the leading actors in countless short dramas and comedies, such as the humble servant Gaspare in Gaspare (N.N., 1911), Julius Caesar in Bruto (Enrico Guazzoni, 1911), and the tortured Piero in the Carbonari drama/ Horror film Più che la morte (N.N., 1912).

He also played in many features at Cines. He was Geppetto in Pinocchio (Giulio Antamoro, 1911), the evil Chilo in Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913), Caesar's opponent Cato in Cajus Julius Caesar (Enrico Guazzoni, 1914) and Judas in Christus (Giulio Antamoro, Enrico Guazzoni, 1916). Mostly, Mastripietri played bad guys or at least antagonists to the leading man and woman. A lead role was the gang leader in Il giglio nero (1913).

Between 1915 and 1920, he acted in films by Carmine Gallone (Malombra, 1917, starring Lyda Borelli), Enrico Guazzoni (Amica, 1916, with Leda Gys, and Fabiola, 1918, starring Elena Sangro), Enrique Santos and Amleto Palermi (Il gioiello di Khama, 1918, starring Aurèle Sydney). In the early 1920s, Mastripietri worked at the companies Appia Nuova, Caesar and Vay Film, and acted e.g. as Noah in La Sacra Bibbia (Pier Antonio Gariazzo & Armando Vay, 1920), and as Atre Rishi in Savitri Satyavan (Giorgio Mannini, 1923).

His last part was as the Emperor Claudius in Guazzoni's Messalina (1924), with Rina De Liguoro in the title role. According to IMDb, Augusto Mastripietri acted in 67 films between 1909 and 1924, but since his early career at Pineschi isn't counted in, it may have been more.


Poster for the 1912 Cines film Gaspare, with Augusto Mastripietri in the lead. Courtesy Eye Filmmuseum, Desmet Collection. Plot: Gaspare (Mastripietri) is a sententious and somewhat meddlesome valet—a man who, despite his sleepy and ceremonious air, never misses a chance to speak his mind, even to his stern master (Ignazio Lupi). Yet, he is also noble-hearted and generous; using his own savings and shrewd manoeuvring, he manages to help his master’s son resolve certain problems and realise his romantic dreams. A film with a distinctly theatrical structure, Gaspare — adapted from a 19th-century French play — relies on the seasoned experience of actor Augusto Mastripietri. A 'leading character actor' at the Cines studio almost since its inception, Mastripietri takes centre stage here. Sporting an obvious wig and a performance style that is knowing—and perhaps a touch affected—he acts as a guardian spirit for the family, remaining omnipresent from the opening scene to the last.


Capture of Augusto Mastripietri and Ignazio Lupi in Gaspare (Cines, 1912). Courtesy Eye Filmmuseum, Desmet Collection.


Photo from French brochure by Cines. Left to right, Alfredo Bracci as young Antonio, Dorotea Ferreri as Maria, Ignazio Lupi as Nicola and Augusto Mastripietri as Antonio, the usurer, in Il piffero di montagna / Le vieux usurier/ No Fool Like an Old Fool (Cines, 1912). Courtesy Eye Filmmuseum, Desmet Collection.


Capture of Augusto Mastripietri as the commissioner in Più che la morte (Cines, 1912). Courtesy Eye Filmmuseum, Desmet Collection.


Italian postcard for the popular silent Italian epic Quo vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, Cines 1913), adapted from the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Caption: Chilon (Augusto Mastripietri) is baptised by the apostle Paul (of Tarsus). Chilon! I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen! (Chapter LXI of the book).


Publicity still for Cajus Julius Caesar (Enrico Guazzoni, Cines 1914). On the left, Augusto Mastripietri as Cato minor. On the right, Irene Mattalia as Servilia. Courtesy Eye Filmmuseum, Desmet Collection.


Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex. Photo: Film Cines. Lyda Borelli and Augusto Mastripietri in Malombra (Carmine Gallone, 1917), adapted from the novel by Antonio Fogazzaro. Caption: The presence of Count Cesare was the most terrible torture to her.


Capture of Augusto Mastripietri in Il gioiello di Khama (Amleto Palermi, 1918), starring Aurèle Sydney. The Indian high priest discovers the theft of the jewel from the statue of Khama. Courtesy Eye Filmmuseum.


Capture from Messalina (Enrico Guazzoni, 1923), with Augusto Mastripietri as Emperor Claudius. Courtesy Cineteca di Milano.


Pinocchio (Giulio Antamoro, 1911), starring Ferdinand Guillaume as Pinocchio and Augusto Mastripietri as Geppetto. It is not correct that Lea Giunchi played the Fairy. Source: Cinema and Emotions (YouTube). This is a restoration by the Cineteca Italiana, Milano. The film was once believed to be a lost film, but in 1994 the original negative was found at the Cineteca Italiana.

Sources: Aldo Bernardini (Cinema muto italiano: protagonisti - Italian), Vittorio Martinelli (Catalogo Cinema Ritrovato, 1991), and IMDb.

Our special thanks to Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi (Curator Silent Film, Eye Filmmuseum) and Matteo Pavesi (Direttore Fondazione Cineteca Italiana).

The Art of the Benshi

One the sections of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2026 is dedicated to the mesmerising artistry of Japan’s celebrated benshi. These movie orators have, since the days of the first film screenings by the Lumieres, breathed life into silent film. During the heyday of the benshi, more than 7,000 of these artists narrated the action in films, and made silent actors speak. Their voices rang out in cinemas across Japan, as well as in Korea and other Japanese colonies, and in Japanese American communities in the United States. The greatest benshi were famous enough to rival the stars on screen. Ivo Blom recently acquired a set of rare vintage postcards with Japanese film stars from the period before WW II. For this occasion, we share this set with you. Thanks to Japanese film scholar Hiroshi Komatsu, we identied most of the actors. Do you recognise the last two actresses?


Japanese postcard. Minoru Takada (1899-1977).

Minoru Takada was a Japanese actor and film producer in the Taisho and Showa periods. He appeared in over 230 films between 1924 and 1971. His wife was the former actress Mikiko Mitsuki. Takada starred e.g. in Wakasa yo saraba (Shigenori Sakata, 1924), one of his first films, and Yasujirō Ozu's film I Graduated, But.../ Daigaku wa detakeredo (1929).


Japanese postcard. Hideo Takamine (1924-2010).

Along with Setsuko Hara and Kinuyo Tanaka, Hideko Takamine remains one of Japan's most admired and prolific film actresses. Born as Hirayama Hideko in Hakodate, Hokkaido in northern Japan in 1924, she became a child actress for Shochiku Studio at age five, appearing in the film Haha. She would go on to work with directors like Kinoshita, Ozu, and arguably most notably Mikio Naruse. Mid-career, she switched to P.C.L. Film Studio (later Toho Studios) and then became independent, yet she would work for notable directors nonetheless. By the time she married director Zenzo Matsuyama in 1955, she had acquired a reputation for depicting feminist roles where women seek their independence or are oppressed. She died in 2010 of lung cancer, but had recorded songs and written biographies before her death. Source: Aghaemi (IMDb).


Japanese postcard. Satoko Date (1910-1972).

Japanese actress Satoko Date was born on 11 October 1910 in Yokosuka, Japan, and died on 23 October 1972. She acted in almost 100 films between 1929 and 1952. She started in the silent era in such films as Yasujirō Ozu's Walk Cheerfully (1930), The Revengeful Spirit of Eros (1930), and The Lady and the Beard (1931). Date then played the neighbour's wife in the comedy The Neighbor's Wife and Mine / Madamu to nyōbō (Heinosuke Gosho, 1931), the first feature-length Japanese all-talkie sound film. In the 1930s she acted in films such as Mikio Naruse's Morning's Tree-Lined Street (1936) and The Loves of a Kabuki Actor (Kajirō Yamamoto, 1938). Until 1952, she acted in many supporting parts in Japanese cinema.


Japanese postcard. Shizue Natsukawa (1909-1999).

Shizue Natsakawa was a Japanese actress, born on 9 March 1909, in Tokyo, where she also died on 24 January 1999. Between 1919 and 1984 she acted in over 170 films. working with directors such as Kenji Mizoguchi (Tokyo March, 1929), Shirō Toyoda (Young People, 1937), and Keisuke Kinoshita. In 1927, she joined the Nikkatsu studio, where she gained popularity through films such as Tsubakihime/ A Woman Called Tsubakihime (Minoru Marata, 1927) and Kekkon nijuso: zenpen (Tomotaka Tasaka, 1927-1928). Natsakawa is also known for the trilogy Kono taiyô - Dai sampen (1930), Kono taiyô - dainihen Tamie no maki (1930) and Kono taiyô - Dai ippen (1930), all by Minoru Marata. In 1937 she married Nobuo Iida, and withdrew from acting, but she returned to the screen with Shirō Toyoda's Spring on Leper's Island (1940). After the war, she played many secondary roles in films and on television and continued acting till in her mid-seventies.


Japanese postcard. Shizue Natsukawa (1909-1999).


Japanese postcard. Yukiko Tsukuba (1906-1977).

Yukiko Tsukuba was born on 10 June 1906 in Tokyo, Japan, where she died on 8 June 1977. She was a prolific actress, acting in some 60 films between 1924 and 1936. She is known for such films as Renaî kônsen / Crossed Line of Love (Yasujirō Shimazu, 1927), Renbo kouta / Short Song of Love (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1929), Ukikusa-musume tabi fûzoku / Travelling Manners of a Vagrant Girl (Shimizu, 1929), and Nasanu naka / No Blood Relation (Mikio Naruse, 1932).


Japanese postcard. Unknown actress. If you happen to be able to identify this actress or the actress below, we would be very grateful.


Japanese postcard. Unknown Japanese actress dressed as geisha.