Cirano di Bergerac (1923)

Tonight, the screening of the Franco-Italian historical film Cirano di Bergerac / Cyrano de Bergerac (1923) will be the opening event of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto or the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. We will follow the 44th Giornate during the whole festival. Director Augusto Genina based his film on Edmond Rostand's often-filmed play 'Cyrano de Bergerac'. Pierre Magnier starred as Cyrano de Bergerac, the gentleman with the unusually long nose, Linda Moglia played his beautiful but unreachable niece Roxane, and Angelo Ferrari played his friend and rival in love, Christian de Neuvillette. Will Cyrano ever find love? Enjoy the festival!


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 226. Photo: UCI. Linda Moglia as Roxane and Angelo Ferrari as Christian de Neuvillette in Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923), based on Edmond Rostand's famous play 'Cyrano de Bergerac'.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac in Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923). Caption: The witty remarks by Cyrano cause for hilarity among the populace present at the theatre.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac in Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923). Caption: Before the duel.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac in Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923). Caption: Jokingly, Cyrano ironises the presumptuous Gascogne noble, before duelling with him.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac in Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923). Caption: A tale by Cyrano.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac and Angelo Ferrari as Christian de Neuvillette in Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923). Caption: Cyrano addresses to Roxane his most ardent words of love by the lips of Christian, who, incapable of inventing such words, memorises them thanks to Cyrano.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac in Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923). Caption: Hidden between the foliage in the garden, Cyrano suggests to Christian the magic, sublime words that the latter isn't capable of inventing and that, aside from Roxane's delicate inhibitions.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Linda Moglia as Roxane and Angelo Ferrari as Christian de Neuvillette in Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923). Caption: Christian joins the baluster, finally embracing Roxane. He bends towards her mouth to receive the kiss from her, who has bent because of the sweet words Cyrano lent him.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Linda Moglia as Roxane and Angelo Ferrari as Christian de Neuvillette in Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923). Caption: The nice phrases of Christian he learned from Cyrano, have conquered and seduced Roxane.

A brave and eloquent gentleman doted on an unusually long nose

Cirano di Bergerac / Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923) traces the classical story by Edmond Rostand about the strong, witty and eloquent gentleman, a poet, in 17th-century France. Cirano, a leader filled with plenty of charisma and bravado, has only one flaw: an unusually long nose. The play was inspired by a real person, Cyrano de Bergerac, Savinen (1619-1655), an author known for his swordsmanship and large nose, but the play is a fictionalisation of his life that follows the broad outlines of it.

Future film director Mario Camerini wrote the script for the silent film version. Cirano di Bergerac was shot in 1922. French stage and screen actor Pierre Magnier played Cirano di Bergerac (Cyrano de Bergerac). Magnier would act in over 100 films and was also known for La roue (Abel Gance, 1923) and La règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939).

Whoever challenges Cyrano for his nose will meet his sword. As Cyrano cannot have his beautiful niece Roxana (Roxanne) (Linda Moglia) because of his looks, he secretly helps young Christian de Neuvillette (Angelo Ferrari) to seduce her using Cyrano's poetic words. Christian and Roxane secretly marry before he goes to war, together with Cyrano. From the camp, Cyrano writes Roxane poetic letters in Christian's name, which increase her love for the young man, so much that she visits the camp and declares to Christian she would even love him if he were not beautiful anymore, hurting Christian's feelings.

Just as Cyrano is about to confess to Roxane his fraud, Christian is shot, and he dies in Roxane's arms, content that Roxane really loves him. Five years later, like always, Cyrano visits Roxane in the convent where she has retired. This day, his old enemies have mortally wounded him, but he covers the wound with his hat. When Cyrano is once more reciting Christian's last letter and can do so from the head, Roxane discovers Cyrano was the true author of all of Christian's poetry and understands. It is too late. Cyrano dies reciting his lines.

In 1923, the film won an award at the Turin festival. Afterwards, the whole film was stencil-coloured in Pathé-color. This took three years to complete, delaying the film's release until 1925. The colouring process involved cutting stencils for each frame of the film, one for each of up to four colours. This was done in Paris by Mme. Marie-Berthe Thuillier, the most famous stencil-colour artist. She projected each frame onto a ground glass screen and traced with a Pantograph. These stencils were then used to apply colours to black-and-white prints in a process similar to silk-screening. Each shot was processed separately, so different colour palettes could be used for each shot. In 1999, this colour version was fully restored by Film Preservation Associates for ARTE, in collaboration with Avid Shepard, and with post-production by Lobster. Kurt Kuenne composed new music, executed by the Olympia Chamber Orchestra led by Timothy Brock.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Publicity still for Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923) with Linda Moglia as Roxane and Angelo Ferrari as Christian de Neuvillette. Caption: Roxane and Christian de Neuvillette marry.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Publicity still for Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923) with Linda Moglia as Roxane and Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Publicity still for Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923) with Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac. Caption: During the siege of Arras, Cyrano writes to Roxane on behalf of Christian the most ardent words an enamoured heart could have suggested.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Publicity still for Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923) with Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac. Caption: Cyrano writes...


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac in Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923), based on Edmond Rostand's play 'Cyrano de Bergerac'. Caption: Songs of a distant homeland.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Publicity still for Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923) with Linda Moglia as Roxane and Angelo Ferrari as Christian de Neuvillette. Caption: Defying danger, Roxane joins Christian at Arras, where he is camping with the soldiers.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Publicity still for Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923) with Linda Moglia as Roxane and Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac.


Italian postcard. Photo: UCI. Publicity still for Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923) with Linda Moglia as Roxane and Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac. Caption: A few cronies of the Duke de Guiche have treacherously hit Cyrano. He still has the force to go to his beloved Roxane, and involuntarily, he reveals his heroic sacrifice.


Publicity still for Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025. Credit: FPA Classics, Paris. Pierre Magnier in Cirano di Bergerac / Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923).

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb. For those who can't join the festival, a DVD of Cirano di Bergerac has been released by Absolute Medien, together with ARTE.

Let's do a puzzle

Do you know the phenomenon 'mystery cards'? We have several mystery cards in our collection. Marlene Pilaete defines them as "cards uncorrectly captioned or cards without any name on them or cards on which I have doubts." Sometimes, it’s easy to recognise the actor or actress but, unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Happily we have our own Sherlock, Marlene, who solved some mysteries for us. But now she comes with a mystery of her own. Do you help solving it?

Lucy or Linda?

A few days ago, Marlene wrote us: "I have, since several years, two postcards showing the same Italian silent movie actress wearing the same dress on the two photos. I’ve made the scans for you. One is captioned Lucy San Germano and the other is captioned Linda Moglia. Those two sisters look alike a lot and I haven’t been able to decide so far who is on the postcards: Lucy or Linda? What do Ivo and you think about it?"


Italian postcard by Unione Cinematografica Italiana, Roma, no. 164. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Italian postcard, no. 580. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Linda

What a great postcards! And we also love the dress that's definitively on both postcards.

About the second postcard: we think it must be Linda Moglia. We have a non-tinted postcard of the same picture and it's definitively Linda Moglia.

Moglia, born in 1896, peaked in the Italian silent cinema of the late 1910s and early 1920s. Her biggest role was that of Roxane in Cirano di Bergerac/Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923).

This is our postcard:


Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 80.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 558.

Lucy

But is she also the actress on the other postcard? Who was Lucy di San Germano?

Little is known about her private life. She was born in Turin in 1898.

From 1918 on, Sangermano worked for the Ambrosio studio in Turin. Later she worked for studios like Audax and Cines, and Sangermano’s last film was at the Turinese company Fert: L’inafferabile (Mario Almirante 1922), with Alberto Collo.

This is how she looked like:


Italian postcard, no. 378. Photo: Fontana.


Italian postcard by Ed. G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 13, 1058. Photo: UCI (Unione Cinematografica Italiana).

So, Lucy San Germano looks familiar to Linda Moglia, and yes, like Marlene suggests, they were real sisters: Lucy was Linda's younger sister. Di San Germano was Lucy's stage name, her real name was Lucy Moglia.

The two sisters acted together in one film, Noblesse oblige (1918), based on a boulevard comedy by Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber.

The film was apparently directed by the famous poster designer and illustrator Marcello Dudovich, whose only film direction this was.

Noblesse oblige (1918) was an Ambrosio production, so our guess was that Lucy borrowed her sister's dress from this production.

But, what do you think?

Lillian or Renée?

Italian postcard by Casa Editrice Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze. Photo: Metro Goldwyn (MGM), Roma, no. 287. Publicity still for La Bohème (King Vidor, 1926).

Although the postcard credits Lillian Gish, it's actually co-star Renée Adorée who is portrayed.

Thanks to Marlene Pilaete, for mentioning this to us some time ago, and for sending us the puzzle of the dress.

Linda Moglia

Linda Moglia (1896-?) was an Italian actress of the silent screen, who peaked in the late 1910s and early 1920s. Her biggest role was that of Roxane in Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923).


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 558.


Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 80.


Italian postcard by La Rotofotografica, no. 88.

Mouthpiece of anti-labour sentiment

Linda Moglia was born in 1896 in Turin, Italy.

She probably made her film acting debut in Il doppio volto / The Two-Face (Giulio Antamoro, 1918). This Poli-Film production was adapted from a rather unknown novel by Matilde Serao. It was a modest Neapolitan production with scarce success, but it procured Linda Moglia an entree to the Turin Ambrosio studios.

At Ambrosio, she appeared in Noblesse oblige (1919), based on a French ‘pochade’ by the duo Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber, and directed by the famous poster designer Marcello Dudovich. Ambrosio never mentioned his name at the time. Linda starred in the film with her sister Lucia, whose screen name was Lucy Di San Germano or Lucy Sangermano.

After this film, she was the female counterpart to the popular comedian Luciano Manara in the Ambrosio production Il processo Manara (Paolo Trinchera, 1919), which was well received, in contrast to the Gladiator Film production Centocelle (1919), in which Moglia had a supporting part opposite diva Helena Makowska. In particular, the direction by Ugo de Simone was considered the culprit for the tedious and monotonous film.

She then appeared in Maciste innamoratos /Maciste in Love (Luigi Romano Borgnetto, 1919), one of the rare Maciste films in which Maciste has a love affair. Moglia plays Ada, the daughter of an industrialist, who is menaced by revolts and strikes at a time that, also outside of the cinema, Italian society was a place of turmoil. Strongman Maciste (Bartolomeo Pagano) helps to fight the strikers, in particular the few ‘rotten apples’ among them.

Jacqueline Reich writes in her book 'The Maciste Films of Italian Silent Cinema': “Yet, all is not rosy among the workers and the ruling class, as personified in the figure of Ada, who is the mouthpiece of anti-labour sentiment. It is she who voices the fear of the strike –“Lord, no, a strike” – and who calls the workers “scoundrels” as they begin to attack her father, employing the same word in a generalised fashion that her father subsequently uses to characterise only a few nefarious individuals. (…) Her antipathy and resistance to the working and service classes present her as an aloof reactionary.” The journal Cine-fono commented that the film didn’t give Moglia the right place to show her talents, as Maciste dominated everything. So yes, there was a lot to laugh at, but how artistic was it? The Museo Nazionale del Cinema in Turin recently restored the film, and despite its rather dubious political message, it is quite a well-made and enjoyable film.


Italian postcard, no. 580. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Torino, no. 79.


Italian postcard by Fotocelere, Italia.

Doppelganger

Linda Moglia returned to Naples to Poli-Film for Mala Pasqua / Bad Easter (1920). It was directed by actor and director Ignazio Lupi. The story was based on Giovanni Grasso’s play 'Dodici anni dopo' (Twelve Years After), a kind of sequel to the famous 'Cavalleria rusticana' by Giovanni Verga, turned into an opera by Pietro Mascagni. Here Santuzza (Moglia) goes berserk when her son, named Turiddu after his killed father, is lost. Alfio (Giovanni Grasso), released from prison after having killed Turiddu, shows his best side and helps to find the child. Even Alfio’s mother, who had gone mad after the killing, returns to reason. The press called this all too good to be true, but lauded Grasso’s acting as Alfio, plus the care for the setting with the traditional costumes.

Back at Ambrosio, Moglia played the lead in Uomini gialli / Yellow Men (Eugenio Testa, 1920), a ‘Giallo’ on an American girl who suddenly inherits a fortune from a relative who died in Japan. Two Asians try to get the money and force the heiress to marry one of them instead of her fiancé, the painter Borelli (Angelo Vianello). A mysterious man with a black hood (Thenno) helps and unmasks himself as the Japanese consul. Clearly, Ambrosio profited from the European tour of the Japanese Thenno and his troupe of jugglers, acrobats and magicians to enlist them for a film. There is a nitrate of the film at EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, which might have been preserved in the meantime.

In Cavacchioni paladino dei dollari (Umberto Paradisi, 1920), Cavacchioni (lit. Big Buttons, played by Ruggero Capodaglio), the famous fat detective in the Maciste films, lives a quiet village life with his housekeeper Clitemnestra (Léonie Laporte), when a rich American heiress (Moglia) upsets village life. When evildoers, pushed by the housekeeper, want to rob the girl, the detective sets things straight and peace returns to the village.

A totally different film was Il rivale / The Rival (Enrico Roma 1920), based on a script by Gaetano Campanile-Mancini. The film tells about the scoundrel Leonardo (Tullio Carminati), who betrayed his wife, which caused a drama. Desperately, she killed herself. From then on, Leonardo is split in two, while his alter ego is always present and reminds him of his guilt. The story ends mysteriously: the real man flees, but his alter ego remains to keep the memory of the dead woman alive, like a votive lamp. The Italian press quite liked this supernatural story, as opposed to the run-of-the-mill dramas and crime films. The splitting of the personality reminds one a bit of Der Student von Prag / The Student of Prague (Stellan Rye, Paul Wegener, 1913), but in general, in the 1910s and early 1920s, the Doppelganger motif was dear to both mainstream and avant-garde filmmakers.

In Il rivale, Moglia played the man’s mistress, who is married, just like Leonardo. Perhaps motivated by the film, Carminati founded his own film company in Rome, Carminati Film, for which Moglia and he were reunited in Follie/Madness (Enrico Roma, 1920). It is the story of a girl who goes to the city and is overwhelmed by its attractions, but in the end returns to her lover in the village. The press was not impressed with the story, but the critic of La Cine-Fono praised the performances by Carminati and Moglia. The truth in their expression and their precise understanding of the psychology of the characters had high artistic qualities and expressed scenes of great human depth, he wrote.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 226. Photo: UCI. Publicity still for the Franco-Italian historical film Cirano di Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923).


Italian postcard for the Franco-Italian historical film Cirano di Bergerac / Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923), with Pierre Magnier as Cyrano de Bergerac, Linda Moglia as Roxane and Angelo Ferrari as Christian de Neuvillette.


Italian postcard for the Franco-Italian historical film Cirano di Bergerac / Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923). Caption: Christian joins the baluster, finally embracing Roxane. He bends towards her mouth to receive the kiss from her, who has bent because of the sweet words Cyrano lent him.

Roxanne

In early 1922, Linda Moglia was taken up by the prestigious historical production Cirano di Bergerac / Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923), based on the famous play by Edmond Rostand and scripted by future director Mario Camerini. Genina led a Franco-Italian coproduction with costumes by Caramba and sets by the famous painter Camillo Innocenti. The production had an enormous length and was distributed in a fully stencil coloured version.

The star of the film was Pierre Magnier as Cyrano, the man with the giant nose, while Moglia was his Roxane, his cousin he is deeply in love with, but cannot get because she loves Christian de Neuvillette (Angelo Ferrari). Cirano even helps Christian to write love letters and talk about love. It is only years after, after Christian has died and Cyrano is about to die, that Roxanne discovers the secret, but it's too late.

When presented at the National Film Contest in Turin in 1923, it immediately won the first prize. In 1923, it was first commercially released in Paris, at the Salle Marivaux, where it had an enormous success. Italian distributors, though, retaliated, as they thought the film was too difficult for the audience. Finally, UCI released it in Turin at the end of 1925, and in Rome, even in early 1926. The Italian press blamed the distributors for the unnecessarily long delay. It had been unnecessary, as people flocked to the cinemas in the first weeks. The critics praised the high artistic qualities of the film, first of all, Magnier’s performance.

Strangely enough, Cirano did not result in a breakthrough for Linda Moglia. There followed no foreign offers from France nor elsewhere. Moglia made one last film with Genina as director and with theatre star Ruggero Ruggeri in the lead: the financial drama La moglie bella (Augusto Genina, 1925 in Italy, so even before Cirano ). The story dealt with a wildly speculating banker (Ruggeri), whose spoiled wife (Moglia) has an affair with another banker (Luigi Serventi), until the other financially ruins her husband. Then she realises her husband is the better man.

The press condemned Ruggeri’s acting as 'unfilmic' and Genina’s (art) direction as 'sloppy'. This happened at a time when the Italian film production was falling apart and most film people were leaving for Berlin or Paris, so Moglia may have considered it a good moment to quit. Supporting actress in La moglie bella was Carmen Boni. It was her first film with director Augusto Genina. Boni would become Genina’s new muse and wife during the late 1920s. This might also have played a part in Linda Moglia's decision to retire. After she retired from the cinema, Linda Moglia disappeared, and her date of death is unknown to us. If you have more info, please let us know.


Italian postcard for the Franco-Italian historical film Cirano di Bergerac/ Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923), with Linda Moglia as Roxane and Angelo Ferrari as Christian de Neuvillette. Caption: The nice phrases of Christian he learned from Cyrano, have conquered and seduced Roxane.


Italian postcard for the Franco-Italian historical film Cirano di Bergerac / Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923), with Linda Moglia as Roxane and Angelo Ferrari as Christian de Neuvillette. Caption: Defying danger, Roxane joins Christian at Arras, where he is camping with the soldiers.


Italian postcard for the Franco-Italian historical film Cirano di Bergerac / Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923), with Linda Moglia as Roxane and Angelo Ferrari as Christian de Neuvillette.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Il cinema muto italiano 1918-1924 - Italian), and IMDb. For the gorgeous colours of Cirano di Bergerac / Cyrano de Bergerac (Augusto Genina, 1923), see: Timeline of Historical Film Colours, and I thank you.

This post was last updated on 5 October 2025.