Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9500. Photo: Milano Films. Luigi Duse as the title character in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918), no. 9500. Caption: Jacopo admires the medallion of Teresa.
Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9501. Photo: Milano Films. Luigi Duse as Jacopo and on the right Paola Borboni as Teresa in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: Mr. T. ... presents Jacopo Count Eduardo, the fiancé of Teresa.
Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9502. Photo: Milano Films. Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: The parents of Teresa.
Always tormented by the thought of his enslaved and unhappy homeland
In the novel 'Le ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis' (The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis) by Ugo Foscolo, Jacopo Ortis is a university student from the Veneto province with a republican passion, whose name is on the proscription list. After witnessing the sacrifice of his homeland, he retires, sad and inconsolable, to the Euganean hills, where he lives in solitude. He spends his time reading Plutarch, writing to his friend Lorenzo Alderani and sometimes spending time with the local priest, the doctor, and other good people.
Jacopo meets Signor T., his daughters Teresa and Isabellina, and Odoardo, Teresa's fiancé, and begins to frequent their home. This is one of Jacopo's few consolations since he is always tormented by the thought of his enslaved and unhappy homeland. On a feast day he helps the peasants to transplant the pine trees on the mountain, moved and full of melancholy; another day with Teresa and his family he visits Petrarch's house in Arquà.
The days pass by and Jacopo feels his impossible love for Teresa grow ever greater. Jacopo learns from Teresa herself that she is unhappy because she does not love Odoardo, to whom her father has promised her in marriage for financial reasons, despite the opposition of her mother who therefore abandons the family.
At the beginning of December Jacopo goes to Padua, where the University has reopened. He meets the ladies of the beau monde, finds false friends, gets bored, torments himself, and, after two months, returns to Teresa. Odoardo has left and Jacopo resumes his sweet talks with Teresa and feels that only if she could marry him, could give him happiness.
But destiny has written: "the man will be unhappy" and this Jacopo repeats in tracing the story of Lauretta, an unhappy girl, in whose arms her fiancé has died and whose parents have had to flee their homeland. The days pass in contemplation of the spectacles of nature and in love for Jacopo and Teresa, who kiss for the first and only time in the entire novel. He feels that being away from her is like being in a tomb and invokes the help of divinity.
He falls ill and, to Teresa's father who visits him, reveals his love for his daughter. As soon as he can leave his bed, he writes a farewell letter to Teresa and leaves. He travels to Ferrara, Bologna, and Florence. Here he visits the tombs of the "greats" in Santa Croce. Then, always carrying Teresa's image with him and feeling increasingly unhappy and desperate, he travels to Milan where he meets Giuseppe Parini.
He would like to do something for his unhappy homeland, but Giuseppe Parini in an ardent conversation dissuades him from useless acts of audacity, stating that only in the future and with blood can the Homeland be redeemed, but whoever does so will risk in turn becoming a tyrant; so even killing the tyrant has become useless, although the people can now only hope in this.
Restless and without peace Jacopo decides to go to France, but on arrival in Nice, he repents and returns. When he learns that Teresa has married, he feels that life no longer makes sense to him. He returns to the Euganean Hills to see Teresa again, goes to Venice to embrace his mother, then to the Hills again, and here, after writing a letter to Teresa and the last one to his friend Lorenzo Alderani, he kills himself, plunging a dagger into his heart. This is followed by Lorenzo's final explanation of Jacopo's fate.
Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9503. Photo: Milano Films. Left, Paola Borboni as Teresa in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: Mrs. T. ... separates herself from her children.
Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9504. Photo: Milano Films. Left, Paola Borboni as Teresa and Luigi Duse as the title character in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: Jacopo in ecstasies over the sweet sound of the harp.
Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9505. Photo: Milano Films. Luigi Duse as the title character in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: Jacopo pays a visit to a distant patrician in Padua.
Frustration about the failed Italian republic
The film Jacopo Ortis seems to follow the same plot as the novel, albeit abbreviated. It contains elements from previous Romantic dramas ending in suicide such as Goethe's 'Werther', but Foscolo's tale has a much stronger political impact, as Ortis's sentimental distress is directly connected with his frustration about the failed Italian republic.
Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918), released amidst the First World War, may well have served the anti-Austrian Italian film propaganda of that time.
The lead actor was Luigi Duse (1857-1930), who was parented to the Duse stage actors family to which also famous stage actress Eleonora Duse belonged. During the First World War, Luigi Duse began a cinematographic activity in which he starred in many films, or played supporting parts. His last film role was in Il castello della malinconia (Augusto Genina, 1922), starring Lucy di San Germano and Angelo Ferrari. After the First World War Duse was director of Lina Casilini's stage company.
Director was Giuseppe Sterni (1883–1952), who was active from 1916, often worked with Duse, and from 1916 worked at Milano Films where he remained for years. A few years ago, his film La madre/The Mother (1917) starring Italia Vitaliani and Sterni himself was found and restored by the Eye Filmmuseum.
The leads in Jacopo Ortis were for Luigi Duse as Jacopo and for Paola Borboni as Teresa in her film debut. Other actors were Mary-Cléo Tarlarini, Angelo Giordani, Vittorio Pieri, and others. While the script was by Angelo Giordani, the cinematography was by Antonio Martini. The film received its Italian censorship visa on 1 April 1918.
Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9506. Photo: Milano Films. Luigi Duse as the title character in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: A search in the house of Jacopo.
Italian postcard by IPA CT Duplex, V. Uff. Rev. St. Terni, no. 9507. Photo: Milano Films. Left, Luigi Duse as the title character in Jacopo Ortis (Giuseppe Sterni, 1918). Caption: Mr. T. ... asks Jacopo to forget Teresa.
Italian cover of a set of 8 cards by IPACT Duplex.
Source: Dizionario Biografico Treccani, Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano), and IMDb.
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