00:00:24.920 --> 00:00:28.030
Welcome ladies, and gentlemen

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Hurry up!

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Grab the best seats.

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The film is about to start.

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Good morning, ma’am.
May I ask you a few questions?

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Do you live here?

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Yes, on the second floor.

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Have you heard of Elvira Coda Notari,
the film director who lived here?

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No, I haven’t.
What floor did she live on?

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The second.

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She made 160 films,
both features and shorts.

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160.

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She’s never mentioned on TV.
That’s really odd.

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I’ve never heard of her.

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She told stories of difficult love affairs,

00:03:04.070 --> 00:03:09.000
of women leaving their men
who refuse to let them go,

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How did these stories end?

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Unfortunately, they didn’t end well.

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They ended badly for the women.

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These days, women stand up to men.

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In fact, women are better,
no offense to men.

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I’m on my own and I fight on my own.

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Today we’re discussing silent cinema,
specifically Italian silent cinema.

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Gian Luca Farinelli is a hunter of lost films

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for the Cineteca di Bologna.

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When I was very young
and got into silent film,

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it was a time when no one
knew anything about it.

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There were very few films,
in terrible condition.

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It had really been forgotten.

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Italian silent cinema didn’t seem to exist.

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And we have Vittorio Martinelli,
an expert of vast knowledge,

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and President of the Association
of Film Historians.

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Martinelli’s research was
incredibly challenging

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but it brought on a renewed
appreciation of that cinema.

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Vittorio Martinelli was an outsider

00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:08.840
who never had an academic career,

00:05:08.840 --> 00:05:12.550
but his great passion
was the study of silent films.

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Together with Aldo Bernardini,
another unconventional figure,

00:05:17.880 --> 00:05:22.150
he compiled the filmography
of Italian silent cinema.

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I tried to reconstruct

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complete cast and credits
for all films produced in Italy,

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from the beginning of large-scale film production

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to the end of the silent era,
which was mostly unknown.

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Vittorio always said
that his passion came from

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his frustration with
histories of early Italian cinema,

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which started with Neorealism,

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or, the better ones,
with the "white telephone" films.

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What about the '20s, the '10s?

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It’s not like cinema didn’t exist.

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Italy was producing
400 to 500 films a year.

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Italian cinema had reach,
growth, and respect

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throughout the 1910s,

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more than any other nation’s cinema.

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But all that was forgotten.

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The extraordinary thing about Vittorio

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was his interest in this culture
that was considered “lesser.”

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He had a profound love
for this humble cinema:

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Neapolitan silent cinema.

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Within the body of Italian silent cinema,
there were some films

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that, even if considered minor,

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were nonetheless seen as important.

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They were part of a canon.

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Neapolitan cinema wasn’t included in it.

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Neapolitan cinema was seen as
a minor cinema within a minor cinema.

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It wasn't just a minor league,
it was below the rankings.

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It took a new generation with a fresh gaze

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to restore to that cinema
the relevance it objectively had.

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In Neapolitan cinema there’s an empathy

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that can’t be rationally explained,

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something that goes beyond the film itself.

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The first films that arrived in Naples
were 1 or 2 minutes long,

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and were screened at the
Salone Margherita in the Galleria.

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There were also dancers, singers, magicians…

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As films grew into medium-length features,

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little orchestras were formed
to play along live,

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providing the music and even sound effects.

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Often there was an actor
to read the title cards out loud

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because much of the audience
couldn’t read.

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Then, at a certain point,
figures like Troncone,

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who had made documentaries
about Mount Vesuvius erupting,

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began making feature films.

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Dozens of other small producers emerged,
like Gustavo Lombardo,

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who would go on to found Titanus.

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While in other cities like Turin and Rome,

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they recreated the grandeur
of ancient Rome or the Renaissance,

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in Naples, they filmed in the streets.

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There was no need for soundstages,

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partly for economic reasons
– it was cheaper to use natural light –

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and because you could film spectacularly

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things that were inherently spectacular.

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The Piedigrotta Festival,

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seaside festivals,

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landscapes...

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But above all,

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the most interesting thing in
Neapolitan cinema in the ’10s and ’20s

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is the presence of a woman
writing and directing films for the first time.

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Elvira Notari is Italy's first woman director.

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[ A popular melodrama by Elvira Notari,
inspired by the well-known song. ]

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[ Characters: Nanninella ]

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You both look great.

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Elvira, I won’t say a word,
you’re perfect,

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and so is Nicola.

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Look at the camera, look ahead,

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you’re studying the shot.

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You’ve just got married.

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It’s 1910.

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You’re scouting locations for your films.

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You can walk from here to there,

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I’ll follow you, you can take a walk.

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Elvira Notari is a unique figure.

00:13:40.030 --> 00:13:45.310
She founded Films Dora,
which later became Dora Film, in 1906.

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It was unprecedented
for a woman.

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How did a woman
come to run a production company?

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To understand, let’s look at
Naples in that historical period.

00:14:02.520 --> 00:14:05.840
The city had a strong artisanal tradition,

00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:08.760
and many family-run businesses.

00:14:09.760 --> 00:14:15.190
In a family business, it was allowed
for a woman to be in charge,

00:14:15.190 --> 00:14:18.390
especially when it was a sewing workshop.

00:14:19.640 --> 00:14:23.560
Neapolitan cinema grew out of that context.

00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:29.350
Production companies
were called “cinema workshops.”

00:14:30.270 --> 00:14:33.600
Editing, in the end,
is like cutting and stitching.

00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:38.030
Of course, running a sewing business

00:14:38.030 --> 00:14:39.720
is not the same as making films.

00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:41.270
But that’s where she started.

00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:48.190
After moving to Naples from Salerno,

00:14:48.190 --> 00:14:51.230
she married Nicola Notari
and took his last name.

00:14:51.230 --> 00:14:52.680
Her maiden name was Elvira Coda.

00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:56.110
He was a local landscape painter,

00:14:56.110 --> 00:14:58.430
probably not very successful.

00:14:59.110 --> 00:15:02.880
They started by hand-coloring film reels.

00:15:05.760 --> 00:15:08.680
They had their first child, Eduardo,

00:15:08.680 --> 00:15:12.600
and they decided to start
making short advertisements

00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:15.150
that played before the main feature.

00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:18.350
Then they took another step, saying,

00:15:18.350 --> 00:15:21.110
“Maybe we can make these movies ourselves.”

00:15:22.150 --> 00:15:23.840
No small thing.

00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:30.310
She made some patriotic films.

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This was after World War I.

00:15:35.520 --> 00:15:38.470
Then she wrote a series of screenplays

00:15:38.470 --> 00:15:42.230
based on the serialized novels of the time

00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:46.520
by Carolina Invernizio, Mastriani, Gaudo...

00:15:52.840 --> 00:15:55.600
But Elvira Notari wasn’t just a director.

00:15:56.230 --> 00:15:57.840
She was also an entrepreneur.

00:15:58.640 --> 00:16:00.430
She took on multiple roles:

00:16:00.430 --> 00:16:04.960
screenwriter, head of production,
distributor,

00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:07.640
because they also distributed their films.

00:16:10.920 --> 00:16:13.720
She was also the head of an acting school,

00:16:13.720 --> 00:16:17.110
where she trained actors and actresses

00:16:17.110 --> 00:16:20.270
who often came from theater,
but also from the streets.

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This anticipated Neorealism,
as they weren’t professionals.

00:16:27.560 --> 00:16:31.350
Elvira was very proud of this school,

00:16:31.350 --> 00:16:36.110
because she shaped the actors
who would then work with her.

00:16:38.800 --> 00:16:42.920
Some of the actors were family friends.

00:16:43.960 --> 00:16:49.350
Rosé Angione,
a recurring lead in her films,

00:16:49.350 --> 00:16:55.720
was a math teacher
who tutored Eduardo Notari,

00:16:55.720 --> 00:16:57.600
Elvira’s son.

00:17:01.350 --> 00:17:05.270
Eduardo Notari appears in all her films,

00:17:05.270 --> 00:17:07.520
with the nickname Gennariello.

00:17:07.520 --> 00:17:11.600
As he grew up, he always
acted in his mother’s films.

00:17:11.600 --> 00:17:13.720
He’s everywhere.

00:17:16.840 --> 00:17:19.640
[ Gennariello – the good-hearted boy ]

00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:23.150
My mother started directing films.

00:17:24.030 --> 00:17:26.150
They were well received.

00:17:26.150 --> 00:17:29.600
Audiences appreciated the stories,

00:17:29.600 --> 00:17:33.880
the acting, the coloring.

00:17:35.430 --> 00:17:38.720
These films were successful

00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:43.150
because they were inspired
by songs by Salvatore Di Giacomo,

00:17:43.150 --> 00:17:45.920
E. A. Mario, Tagliaferri, Bovio

00:17:46.560 --> 00:17:48.960
and others of equal stature.

00:17:49.150 --> 00:17:55.350
Gennariello told me that,
when theatrical sceneggiate got popular,

00:17:55.350 --> 00:18:00.760
the small Neapolitan production houses

00:18:00.760 --> 00:18:02.800
started making sceneggiata films.

00:18:15.030 --> 00:18:19.680
Elvira Notari immediately threw herself
into this kind of production.

00:18:37.520 --> 00:18:41.390
In a Neapolitan sceneggiata,
the film was like a soundtrack.

00:18:41.390 --> 00:18:43.520
It was like a musical score.

00:18:43.520 --> 00:18:48.350
The rhythm and tempo of a piece
wasn’t dictated by the projection,

00:18:48.350 --> 00:18:51.430
but by the audience in the room
singing the songs.

00:18:55.760 --> 00:18:59.600
Today in a theater
we’re expected to keep quiet.

00:18:59.600 --> 00:19:00.920
But that wasn’t true back then.

00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:06.310
Audiences would speak out,
comment, especially at a sceneggiata.

00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:15.430
Popular theater needs a close and
honest connection with the audience.

00:19:25.310 --> 00:19:28.350
Elvira Notari wasn’t from Naples –
she was from Salerno.

00:19:28.350 --> 00:19:32.430
In Naples, she found
an incredible narrative machine:

00:19:32.430 --> 00:19:34.190
Neapolitan folk music.

00:19:38.470 --> 00:19:43.110
The musical scene was already thriving.

00:19:43.110 --> 00:19:45.110
There were tons of theaters.

00:19:45.110 --> 00:19:51.470
There was the Piedigrotta Festival –
the most important event for new songs.

00:19:55.390 --> 00:19:57.150
And then there were concert halls.

00:19:57.150 --> 00:20:01.030
It was a vast system that fueled
its own momentum.

00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:07.560
This had a strong pull on Elvira Notari,

00:20:07.560 --> 00:20:14.110
who licensed popular songs
and staged them.

00:20:14.110 --> 00:20:16.600
As is the case with A Santanotte.

00:20:27.230 --> 00:20:29.070
A Santanotte is interesting,

00:20:29.070 --> 00:20:32.800
because she takes
the plot of the song and changes it.

00:20:33.960 --> 00:20:36.560
In the song, Ninuccia is a wayward woman

00:20:36.560 --> 00:20:40.000
who seduces two brothers
and goes to live with a third,

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:43.840
and when she’s killed, the audience
applauds because justice is served.

00:20:46.190 --> 00:20:49.430
Notari turns that completely on its head.

00:20:49.430 --> 00:20:54.720
She takes a negative female model
and turns it into a positive one.

00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:59.000
In the end, the protagonist
sacrifices herself to do what’s right.

00:21:09.720 --> 00:21:15.470
[ He undestood. That song reminded
her of a past not yet dead. ]

00:21:40.390 --> 00:21:46.150
Our passion is staging something
as similar as possible

00:21:46.150 --> 00:21:47.720
to performances of the past,

00:21:47.720 --> 00:21:52.640
when silent films were accompanied
live by a small orchestra.

00:21:53.150 --> 00:21:56.760
We were inspired by
the bands of Elvira’s screenings

00:21:56.760 --> 00:21:59.150
to create our own ensemble:

00:21:59.470 --> 00:22:02.310
guitar, flute, violin, mandolin,

00:22:02.310 --> 00:22:03.470
the singer.

00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:06.110
When I composed the music
for A Santanotte,

00:22:06.110 --> 00:22:10.150
I was inspired by the scenes in the film.

00:22:18.110 --> 00:22:20.270
Nanninella

00:22:20.270 --> 00:22:22.960
is a character who carries her sorrow

00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:25.190
throughout the entire film.

00:22:26.350 --> 00:22:28.760
Every time I think about her

00:22:28.760 --> 00:22:31.390
I get a lump in my throat, because...

00:22:32.070 --> 00:22:34.430
things could’ve turned out well.

00:22:34.430 --> 00:22:36.800
But instead, she dies

00:22:36.800 --> 00:22:38.800
So I dedicated this song to her.

00:22:49.350 --> 00:22:52.030
I read that in the early days

00:22:52.030 --> 00:22:53.840
no one knew what cinema was,

00:22:53.840 --> 00:22:55.560
no one wanted to go.

00:22:55.560 --> 00:23:00.960
To draw people in,
they did anatomical dissections.

00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:05.760
They would open up mannequins
to show the liver,

00:23:05.760 --> 00:23:08.760
the heart, the veins,
they’d open the chest...

00:23:09.430 --> 00:23:11.430
[You’re mad!]

00:23:11.430 --> 00:23:14.150
Cinema too exposes the innards,

00:23:14.150 --> 00:23:15.640
the guts of a city,

00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:17.760
the guts of the actors.

00:23:17.760 --> 00:23:21.960
The actors in this film
lay their guts bare.

00:23:31.310 --> 00:23:33.840
When she leaves the house

00:23:33.840 --> 00:23:36.150
and leans on the stairs,

00:23:36.150 --> 00:23:41.270
she’s dying already
because her heart is wounded.

00:23:41.270 --> 00:23:43.390
She dies in his arms.

00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:47.640
As she dies in his arms
he remembers their love.

00:23:47.640 --> 00:23:50.270
He remembers everything
they did to be together,

00:23:50.270 --> 00:23:52.390
all the hardships they had to overcome.

00:23:52.470 --> 00:23:54.230
And a whole world comes into view.

00:23:54.840 --> 00:23:58.520
Nannì, Nannì, Nannì,

00:23:59.960 --> 00:24:03.390
so many lies

00:24:04.270 --> 00:24:11.390
were said to deceive us.

00:24:13.310 --> 00:24:16.640
Among the crowd

00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:21.190
you fell down

00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:28.430
and you saw me

00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:34.840
me alone.

00:24:54.150 --> 00:25:02.190
I think about you all the time

00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:09.960
but where are you?

00:25:11.640 --> 00:25:16.110
This heart still wants to die

00:25:16.600 --> 00:25:19.000
to die with you

00:25:21.110 --> 00:25:24.520
alone with you.

00:26:05.560 --> 00:26:09.000
Welcome to everyone who
came to this workshop

00:26:09.390 --> 00:26:16.520
about an important woman
named Elvira Notari.

00:26:17.070 --> 00:26:20.150
I’ll turn it over to Francesca Consonni,

00:26:20.150 --> 00:26:25.430
the artist who created this project.

00:26:27.560 --> 00:26:29.880
Thank you so much for being here.

00:26:29.880 --> 00:26:34.840
The workshop is called
Moon Work: Naked as in Dreams, Chapter II

00:26:34.840 --> 00:26:37.470
It combines cinema and embroidery.

00:26:37.470 --> 00:26:42.680
I first started it in Milan
with a violence prevention collective,

00:26:43.150 --> 00:26:47.470
and that’s the artwork
we created in that first session.

00:26:48.030 --> 00:26:51.110
Today we recreate that experience

00:26:51.110 --> 00:26:54.430
using another film by Elvira Notari
called Mandolinata a mare,

00:26:54.430 --> 00:26:56.680
from 1917.

00:26:57.030 --> 00:27:00.960
This is one of the few surviving images.

00:27:01.470 --> 00:27:05.110
We see the protagonist, Maria,
on a dissection table.

00:27:05.680 --> 00:27:09.960
No one claimed her body,
not even her family,

00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:11.920
so it was donated to science.

00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:15.800
A naked body,
surrounded by the gaze of 13 men.

00:27:16.560 --> 00:27:18.350
The director’s twist here

00:27:18.350 --> 00:27:22.270
is that one of them is the man she loved.

00:27:24.640 --> 00:27:27.110
It’s a very dramatic image, I know,

00:27:27.110 --> 00:27:31.920
but the coloring process,
this communal rewriting,

00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:35.720
will give new meaning to this image.

00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:38.680
I like to think that
we’re writing a different ending.

00:28:03.430 --> 00:28:06.520
Do you want to
ask me something about Elvira?

00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:08.030
Was she married?

00:28:08.030 --> 00:28:09.000
Yes, she was married.

00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:12.070
She had a film production company

00:28:12.720 --> 00:28:15.030
that was family-run.

00:28:15.030 --> 00:28:17.030
Her husband was the cameraman

00:28:17.030 --> 00:28:20.350
and her son often acted in her films.

00:28:20.350 --> 00:28:23.470
It had a very homegrown feel to it.

00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:34.470
The film is an adaptation
of a Neapolitan popular song.

00:28:35.110 --> 00:28:40.390
Maria, the protagonist, falls in love
with a man of a different status.

00:28:40.390 --> 00:28:44.270
She gets pregnant by him
and has a child,

00:28:44.270 --> 00:28:47.110
and then she is committed to an asylum.

00:28:47.110 --> 00:28:51.110
A fire breaks out in the asylum
and she dies.

00:28:51.110 --> 00:28:52.760
Oh, she dies in the fire.

00:28:53.520 --> 00:28:54.470
And this book?

00:28:54.470 --> 00:28:56.840
It’s called Streetwalking on a Ruined Map

00:28:56.840 --> 00:29:00.600
by the scholar Giuliana Bruno.

00:29:24.920 --> 00:29:27.310
At the new downtown branch

00:29:27.310 --> 00:29:29.350
of the Guggenheim Museum in New York,

00:29:29.350 --> 00:29:34.000
Giuliana Bruno presented her book,
Streetwalking on a Ruined Map,

00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:36.560
a study of Elvira Notari

00:29:36.560 --> 00:29:39.070
the Neapolitan filmmaker
from the silent era.

00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:46.600
My interest in this research
started in the 1970s.

00:29:50.470 --> 00:29:52.430
I was a student at the time,

00:29:53.070 --> 00:29:56.310
and I used to spend a lot of time at
Mario Franco’s Cineteca Altro.

00:29:56.800 --> 00:29:59.310
It was focused on experimental cinema

00:29:59.310 --> 00:30:01.430
but also on overlooked films.

00:30:03.560 --> 00:30:07.230
It was also the era of feminist collectives.

00:30:09.190 --> 00:30:11.310
That’s where my interest
was first sparked,

00:30:11.310 --> 00:30:14.880
but it really took shape
when I got to New York.

00:30:25.600 --> 00:30:28.960
I moved here in 1980

00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:32.030
to start a PhD at New York University,

00:30:32.470 --> 00:30:36.000
a top school for film studies at the time.

00:30:39.150 --> 00:30:43.800
My book on Elvira Notari,
which came out in 1993,

00:30:43.800 --> 00:30:46.230
was originally my PhD dissertation.

00:30:55.430 --> 00:31:00.520
The challenge that made
the project exciting

00:31:00.520 --> 00:31:05.880
was that, out of this pioneering
woman’s vast body of work,

00:31:05.880 --> 00:31:07.720
very little remained.

00:31:37.430 --> 00:31:41.270
Faced with these gaps
and the lack of documents,

00:31:41.270 --> 00:31:43.920
I realized I had to work on the margins,

00:31:43.920 --> 00:31:46.840
to give voice to this silence.

00:31:49.070 --> 00:31:52.230
I allowed myself
a series of inferential walks,

00:31:52.230 --> 00:31:54.800
as Umberto Eco called them,

00:31:54.800 --> 00:31:58.070
through architecture, literature,
art history,

00:31:58.070 --> 00:32:01.110
photography, medicine, psychoanalysis.

00:32:01.110 --> 00:32:03.920
In tracing the story of Elvira Notari,

00:32:03.920 --> 00:32:06.110
I also wanted to explore her relationship

00:32:06.110 --> 00:32:09.000
with the cultural landscape of Naples
at the turn of the century.

00:32:21.640 --> 00:32:24.030
Michel Foucault was an inspiration,

00:32:24.030 --> 00:32:27.680
especially his expression savoirs mineurs,

00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:30.230
which means “suppressed knowledge.”

00:32:32.110 --> 00:32:36.000
The absence, the silence
around Elvira Notari

00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:37.680
was no accident.

00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:40.520
Her voice was silenced.

00:32:42.640 --> 00:32:47.920
It’s incredible that out of 60 features
and over 100 documentaries,

00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:52.070
only three complete films
and a few fragments remain.

00:33:18.190 --> 00:33:20.680
Elvira Notari had this ability

00:33:20.680 --> 00:33:24.760
to set fictional stories within real life.

00:33:25.470 --> 00:33:30.190
In this scene she shows a balcony
with people leaning out.

00:33:30.270 --> 00:33:32.920
Then she cuts to
the Madonna del Carmine festival,

00:33:32.920 --> 00:33:35.390
the crowd celebrating,

00:33:35.390 --> 00:33:38.840
the fireworks,
the burning of the bell tower.

00:33:43.600 --> 00:33:46.520
What I love as a historian

00:33:46.520 --> 00:33:50.110
is that these films give us
snapshots of everyday life,

00:33:50.110 --> 00:33:53.760
of society, of relationships.

00:33:53.760 --> 00:33:57.880
The result we get is a historical document.

00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:17.920
Most of Notari’s films were lost,

00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:19.920
but some have survived.

00:34:19.920 --> 00:34:23.720
Cineteca Nazionale holds the largest number

00:34:23.720 --> 00:34:27.600
and the longest films by Elvira Notari.

00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:32.000
The first one we received was
Fantasia ‘e Surdate,

00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:33.800
which was acquired in ’54,

00:34:33.800 --> 00:34:37.880
followed by two more,
È Piccerella and A Santanotte,

00:34:37.880 --> 00:34:39.230
which arrived in ’56.

00:34:42.430 --> 00:34:46.230
These prints were hand-colored,

00:34:46.230 --> 00:34:49.920
a Notari and Dora Film trademark.

00:34:52.430 --> 00:34:53.720
How were these films colored?

00:34:53.720 --> 00:34:54.560
By hand.

00:34:55.030 --> 00:34:58.800
We used dyes,
and frame by frame,

00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:02.920
we would color a tie,
or the actor’s outfit.

00:35:03.600 --> 00:35:06.880
It was like the painstaking
work of a Medieval monk.

00:35:08.640 --> 00:35:11.680
These three films were
acquired and catalogued,

00:35:11.680 --> 00:35:14.390
but it wasn’t until the late ’60s

00:35:14.390 --> 00:35:17.390
that preservation duplicates were made.

00:35:19.110 --> 00:35:21.600
Unfortunately, duplicates at the time

00:35:21.600 --> 00:35:24.880
were only in black-and-white.

00:35:24.880 --> 00:35:29.190
Then, in 1979,
the original prints were destroyed.

00:35:31.430 --> 00:35:35.560
This was a common practice in film archives

00:35:36.030 --> 00:35:39.840
due to the flammability of nitrate film.

00:35:42.430 --> 00:35:43.430
It’s a real shame

00:35:43.430 --> 00:35:47.470
because we completely lost
all information about color.

00:35:52.230 --> 00:35:57.920
In 2007, a collaboration between
archives and scholars

00:35:57.920 --> 00:36:01.430
led to the discovery,
at the George Eastman House in the U.S.,

00:36:01.430 --> 00:36:04.000
of a print of A Santanotte.

00:36:12.230 --> 00:36:15.430
Most importantly, this American copy

00:36:15.430 --> 00:36:18.560
included notes on how to color the film.

00:36:20.880 --> 00:36:22.470
Following those notes,

00:36:22.470 --> 00:36:27.560
it was possible to recreate
a color version of A Santanotte.

00:36:38.230 --> 00:36:41.350
[ Giuseppone, her father ]

00:36:52.800 --> 00:37:00.030
In the ’20s, New York had 26 theaters
showing Italian movies.

00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:06.880
Italian immigrants watched
the top Italian films.

00:37:07.880 --> 00:37:15.070
In America, Italian cinema
shared top billing with French cinema.

00:37:15.070 --> 00:37:20.920
But immigrants also liked low‑budget films
like the Neapolitan ones,

00:37:20.920 --> 00:37:24.270
which traveled alongside Neapolitan music.

00:37:28.920 --> 00:37:34.350
We can imagine that the same ships
that carried immigrants,

00:37:34.350 --> 00:37:37.640
also carried musicians and films.

00:37:40.800 --> 00:37:43.150
Among the most popular Neapolitan films

00:37:43.150 --> 00:37:48.680
were, of course, those produced
and directed by Elvira Notari.

00:37:49.640 --> 00:37:52.760
It’s no coincidence that
in the Ruggieri Collection

00:37:52.760 --> 00:37:55.720
there is a print of A Santanotte.

00:38:00.070 --> 00:38:01.230
In A Santanotte,

00:38:01.230 --> 00:38:05.110
the girl is a victim
of her social conditions.

00:38:05.600 --> 00:38:08.000
Her father is an alcoholic,

00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:13.150
the man she loves is arrested
for a murder he didn’t commit,

00:38:13.150 --> 00:38:17.880
and she marries the real killer

00:38:17.880 --> 00:38:20.720
to get him to confess to the crime.

00:38:22.390 --> 00:38:26.390
With her wedding dress still on,

00:38:26.390 --> 00:38:28.150
she is stabbed.

00:38:30.640 --> 00:38:34.840
This is emblematic of Notari’s style.

00:38:34.840 --> 00:38:37.800
She elevates female characters

00:38:37.800 --> 00:38:41.110
by giving them their own agency.

00:38:42.150 --> 00:38:47.070
[ We didn’t drink the wine
but you want to be paid? ]

00:38:47.070 --> 00:38:52.840
It’s no accident that her films
were so popular in the United States.

00:38:52.840 --> 00:38:55.270
They reflected the experience

00:38:55.270 --> 00:38:58.840
of the second generation of immigrant women.

00:38:59.430 --> 00:39:02.840
In Italian American sceneggiate,

00:39:02.840 --> 00:39:06.720
female characters play a central role,

00:39:06.720 --> 00:39:09.070
because in immigrant culture

00:39:09.070 --> 00:39:15.880
daughters carry the burden
of cultural transition,

00:39:15.880 --> 00:39:19.190
of adapting, of modernizing and so on.

00:39:21.350 --> 00:39:25.030
Elvira Notari’s films were so popular

00:39:25.030 --> 00:39:30.760
that she decided to create
a formal distribution system

00:39:30.760 --> 00:39:33.350
through Dora Film of America.

00:39:34.110 --> 00:39:41.270
Here we see “Dora Film”
with the address 729 7th Avenue

00:39:41.270 --> 00:39:42.640
in New York.

00:39:48.390 --> 00:39:52.680
Discovering that Dora Film
was active in New York

00:39:52.680 --> 00:39:55.920
and their office was here on 7th Ave

00:39:55.920 --> 00:39:58.190
was extraordinary.

00:40:00.640 --> 00:40:03.520
It was also interesting to discover
that Elvira Notari

00:40:03.520 --> 00:40:05.310
never actually went to New York.

00:40:10.310 --> 00:40:12.430
That made it even more fascinating.

00:40:12.430 --> 00:40:17.030
She managed to envision all this
and set up her company

00:40:17.030 --> 00:40:18.600
in a place she’d never been.

00:40:22.110 --> 00:40:29.110
That led me to commit full-time
to trying to understand

00:40:29.110 --> 00:40:31.600
who she was, what she accomplished.

00:40:33.390 --> 00:40:36.800
I really wanted to know.

00:40:36.800 --> 00:40:38.880
How were these films distributed?

00:40:38.880 --> 00:40:40.720
Who was their audience?

00:40:46.470 --> 00:40:50.150
It was fascinating to find out
that Dora Film of America

00:40:50.150 --> 00:40:53.000
was not merely a distribution company

00:40:53.000 --> 00:40:57.190
but also made films commissioned
by immigrant communities

00:40:57.190 --> 00:41:02.600
who wanted to see on screen
the places they came from.

00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:09.840
I started looking for those films,

00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:13.840
hoping to find them in some basement
or social club.

00:41:15.390 --> 00:41:18.350
I wrote to Il Progresso Italo-Americano,

00:41:18.350 --> 00:41:21.640
asking them to publish a call for

00:41:21.640 --> 00:41:27.190
“any old footage by Dora Films
of life around Naples in the ’20s.”

00:41:29.270 --> 00:41:33.270
We’re talking about
200 missing documentaries.

00:41:33.270 --> 00:41:35.680
I really hope they’re still out there.

00:41:35.680 --> 00:41:38.640
Maybe one of our listeners has one,
who knows?

00:41:39.030 --> 00:41:41.920
Sadly, no one came forward.

00:42:02.880 --> 00:42:05.030
Around 2015,

00:42:05.030 --> 00:42:08.720
a collector in Avellino, Fiorenzo Carullo,

00:42:08.720 --> 00:42:13.880
donated two short films set
in the Province of Avellino by Dora Film

00:42:13.880 --> 00:42:19.680
documenting religious festivals
and scenes of daily life.

00:42:25.470 --> 00:42:28.680
These two shorts are extremely important

00:42:28.680 --> 00:42:33.600
because they were produced by Dora Film
for immigrants in the United States.

00:42:35.960 --> 00:42:37.760
It was a major discovery.

00:42:37.760 --> 00:42:41.310
In Elvira Notari’s filmography,

00:42:41.310 --> 00:42:45.760
this practice of filming
all over Campania was well known,

00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:49.310
but no actual footage had ever been found.

00:42:51.350 --> 00:42:56.560
These reels give us a glimpse
of a different approach

00:42:56.560 --> 00:42:59.000
compared to her fiction films.

00:44:06.230 --> 00:44:08.760
The migrant cinema produced by Notari

00:44:08.760 --> 00:44:10.960
and commissioned by immigrants

00:44:10.960 --> 00:44:13.880
was not merely an expression of nostalgia.

00:44:18.640 --> 00:44:21.430
It provided a connection
to the place of origin

00:44:21.430 --> 00:44:25.390
at a time when these immigrants
had to change.

00:44:37.960 --> 00:44:42.310
They were moving toward a new identity.

00:44:43.270 --> 00:44:45.840
They were inventing a new way of being.

00:44:46.840 --> 00:44:48.680
They were learning a new language.

00:44:49.600 --> 00:44:52.800
They were becoming Italian Americans.

00:45:37.600 --> 00:45:42.470
When I found this letter
from Dora Film of America,

00:45:42.470 --> 00:45:45.840
it was an amazing feeling.

00:45:47.390 --> 00:45:52.270
It was written by their local agent,
Mr. James Crapanzano.

00:45:52.270 --> 00:45:54.920
There’s a long list of film titles,

00:45:55.600 --> 00:45:59.350
and we see the titles
were different in English.

00:45:59.350 --> 00:46:04.600
For example, È Piccerella,
one of the three surviving films,

00:46:05.720 --> 00:46:08.310
in English was entitled
The Little Girl’s Wrong,

00:46:08.310 --> 00:46:10.720
a much more loaded title.

00:46:10.720 --> 00:46:13.880
In Neapolitan, è piccerella just means
“she’s a little girl.”

00:46:13.880 --> 00:46:17.350
She wants things and misbehaves,

00:46:17.350 --> 00:46:19.430
but it’s fine, she’s just a child.

00:46:19.430 --> 00:46:23.720
But here, “wrong” implies
she did something bad.

00:46:25.030 --> 00:46:27.640
Here we see another important thing.

00:46:29.880 --> 00:46:32.470
“Dearest Mr. Notari.”

00:46:41.560 --> 00:46:44.880
As a woman,
Elvira wasn’t allowed to sign contracts,

00:46:47.150 --> 00:46:52.270
she couldn’t be recognized
as head of her own production company.

00:46:55.470 --> 00:46:59.720
Very often, in the advertising,
her name doesn’t appear.

00:47:02.960 --> 00:47:04.560
“N. Notari”

00:47:05.600 --> 00:47:08.720
That’s not Elvira Notari,
it’s Nicola Notari.

00:47:20.030 --> 00:47:23.190
The silence around Elvira
is not just due to the lost films.

00:47:23.190 --> 00:47:26.470
There was silence
from critics and historians as well.

00:47:39.190 --> 00:47:43.000
My mother was an artist and filmmaker,

00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:45.350
who would split in two

00:47:47.840 --> 00:47:50.230
to take on the role of housewife.

00:47:52.390 --> 00:47:56.760
She did a wonderful job,
we never wanted for anything.

00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:12.520
He’s teaching her the trade.

00:48:12.520 --> 00:48:14.110
She had a brilliant idea.

00:48:14.110 --> 00:48:15.390
Your wife is a genius.

00:48:15.390 --> 00:48:17.560
Your husband is amazing,

00:48:17.560 --> 00:48:19.070
you just got married,
you're madly in love,

00:48:19.070 --> 00:48:21.070
you left home,
you’re finally working.

00:48:21.680 --> 00:48:26.030
- The brilliant idea was to use these nails?
- Yes, because...

00:48:27.150 --> 00:48:28.520
Teresa really did that.

00:48:29.720 --> 00:48:31.030
It really is brilliant.

00:48:32.070 --> 00:48:34.470
You’re admiring your wife here.

00:48:34.470 --> 00:48:37.390
As a seamstress
she developed a better technique

00:48:37.390 --> 00:48:40.600
that you, as an editor, hadn’t thought of.

00:48:41.310 --> 00:48:44.110
You’re learning from each other.

00:48:44.110 --> 00:48:47.470
You have a true partnership
in love and in work.

00:48:52.000 --> 00:48:54.470
We’re recreating various stages
of Elvira’s life,

00:48:54.470 --> 00:48:57.800
starting with them
hand-coloring a film strip.

00:48:58.880 --> 00:49:00.560
There’s a deep connection between them

00:49:00.560 --> 00:49:05.030
as collaborators but also as life partners.

00:49:06.270 --> 00:49:07.840
You can kind of...

00:49:07.840 --> 00:49:09.720
Hold it more like a baby,

00:49:09.720 --> 00:49:11.640
rest it on your arm.

00:49:11.640 --> 00:49:15.390
This is a private moment
alone with your baby.

00:49:16.110 --> 00:49:19.230
We wanted to tell the story
of her first experience as a mother

00:49:19.230 --> 00:49:21.560
with her son Eduardo,

00:49:21.560 --> 00:49:24.600
the one who would star in all her films.

00:49:24.600 --> 00:49:26.230
Even as she holds him,

00:49:26.230 --> 00:49:29.190
she looks outside,
she’s still thinking of stories,

00:49:29.190 --> 00:49:31.520
she still wants to go and tell them.

00:49:35.680 --> 00:49:39.110
Now give him a wonderful kiss,
like before.

00:49:39.560 --> 00:49:40.350
There it is.

00:49:44.150 --> 00:49:48.520
Teresa and I talked a lot
about how hard our work can be.

00:49:48.520 --> 00:49:51.600
She told me about her challenges
when she had a small child,

00:49:51.600 --> 00:49:53.560
and I shared mine too,

00:49:53.560 --> 00:49:57.560
coming to terms with
being unable to have a child.

00:49:57.560 --> 00:50:01.150
Telling Elvira’s story helps me.

00:50:01.150 --> 00:50:04.880
I feel the same obsession
she had deep inside.

00:50:04.880 --> 00:50:06.960
At the same time it scares me.

00:50:07.560 --> 00:50:10.070
This constant thinking, creating,

00:50:10.070 --> 00:50:13.720
that never allows her
to be happy in the present.

00:50:13.720 --> 00:50:18.270
She’s always working,
always in a state of creative tension.

00:50:33.880 --> 00:50:36.390
I came across Elvira Coda Notari by chance,

00:50:36.390 --> 00:50:38.960
reading a local newspaper.

00:50:39.600 --> 00:50:43.350
What struck me was the mystery.

00:50:44.190 --> 00:50:46.070
Why was she forgotten?

00:50:49.000 --> 00:50:49.880
I’m a journalist,

00:50:49.880 --> 00:50:53.470
I’m not a historian or a cinema expert.

00:50:53.470 --> 00:50:56.350
Scholarly works had already been published.

00:50:57.030 --> 00:51:01.000
What I wanted, instead,
was to tell the story of her life.

00:51:01.000 --> 00:51:04.070
The best way to do that
was through historical fiction.

00:51:11.390 --> 00:51:13.030
[ Tore's carriage ]

00:51:13.030 --> 00:51:15.560
To dive into Elvira Coda Notari’s life

00:51:15.560 --> 00:51:17.600
was a leap in the dark.

00:51:17.800 --> 00:51:21.030
[ Margheretella's carriage ]

00:51:22.030 --> 00:51:24.390
She left no writings.

00:51:24.390 --> 00:51:27.270
No letters, no interviews.

00:51:31.070 --> 00:51:34.680
So little was known
that I had to use my imagination.

00:51:36.520 --> 00:51:41.390
I began to envision,
one after another,

00:51:41.390 --> 00:51:44.680
scenes from her life.

00:52:00.720 --> 00:52:04.760
The Elvira I portrayed is a free woman.

00:52:06.920 --> 00:52:09.070
In her world,

00:52:09.070 --> 00:52:11.960
she didn’t have the right to vote
or sign documents,

00:52:11.960 --> 00:52:17.520
or do anything but
stay home and raise children.

00:52:19.430 --> 00:52:24.430
I wanted to portray the age-old conflict 

00:52:24.430 --> 00:52:28.520
of a woman who refuses
to give up on her dreams,

00:52:28.520 --> 00:52:30.920
who chooses to work

00:52:30.920 --> 00:52:32.680
and have a family as well.

00:52:33.390 --> 00:52:38.520
Her being a filmmaker is just a detail.

00:52:38.520 --> 00:52:42.150
This a universal issue.

00:52:42.150 --> 00:52:44.390
Her story speaks to many women.

00:53:54.560 --> 00:53:55.560
Okay everyone,

00:53:56.190 --> 00:54:01.150
this is the only portrait
of Elvira Notari with her husband.

00:54:02.680 --> 00:54:04.270
Elvira,

00:54:04.800 --> 00:54:09.070
in this portrait
you can show your true self,

00:54:09.070 --> 00:54:10.720
your true story.

00:54:10.880 --> 00:54:13.880
Close your eyes and face me.

00:54:16.310 --> 00:54:18.190
Now open them.

00:54:27.840 --> 00:54:31.000
I’m very emotional right now.

00:54:39.760 --> 00:54:41.150
Hi!

00:54:42.070 --> 00:54:44.310
- Thank you.
- Thank you for stopping by.

00:54:44.310 --> 00:54:47.680
- Thank you so much.
- I had to come.

00:54:47.680 --> 00:54:49.310
Wherever there’s anything...

00:54:49.840 --> 00:54:52.720
any piece of Elvira, I’m happy to see it.

00:54:53.070 --> 00:54:57.150
This photo project
was inspired by your book.

00:54:57.150 --> 00:55:02.880
It allowed me to convey to my cast,
including Teresa,

00:55:02.880 --> 00:55:04.920
the story I wanted to tell.

00:55:05.230 --> 00:55:07.960
There are details, like the dress here,

00:55:07.960 --> 00:55:09.680
that really moved me.

00:55:09.680 --> 00:55:13.600
You brought her to life
from almost nothing.

00:55:13.600 --> 00:55:15.390
A lot came from Giuliana Bruno,

00:55:15.390 --> 00:55:18.350
but we knew so little
about her personality.

00:55:19.520 --> 00:55:24.310
The greatness of this story is their love,

00:55:24.310 --> 00:55:27.520
the love between Nicola and Elvira.

00:55:27.880 --> 00:55:31.520
That came across in your book
and I can relate to it.

00:55:31.520 --> 00:55:34.030
My partner is my own Nicola Notari.

00:55:34.030 --> 00:55:36.680
That’s why I chose Elvira’s story.

00:55:37.150 --> 00:55:40.840
I think their partnership is so beautiful.

00:55:56.720 --> 00:55:59.720
Elvira lived for her work

00:55:59.720 --> 00:56:01.230
and for her family.

00:56:05.680 --> 00:56:07.920
She brought everyone into the business.

00:56:07.920 --> 00:56:11.470
It was a vibrant, extended family affair.

00:56:14.560 --> 00:56:16.800
But within the family,

00:56:16.800 --> 00:56:21.430
they never recognized her greatness.

00:56:47.470 --> 00:56:51.190
I’m closely related to Elvira,

00:56:51.190 --> 00:56:54.640
she was my grandmother’s sister.

00:56:54.640 --> 00:56:57.840
I’m her direct great-nephew.

00:56:59.030 --> 00:57:00.000
Did you meet her?

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:02.470
I was lucky enough to meet her.

00:57:02.720 --> 00:57:04.150
She was a person

00:57:05.110 --> 00:57:07.800
who seemed very stern, very dignified.

00:57:07.800 --> 00:57:10.190
Petite, very thin,

00:57:10.190 --> 00:57:13.800
with very lively eyes,
that’s what struck me.

00:57:13.800 --> 00:57:17.880
I was eight years old.
I remember Aunt Elvira pulled me close

00:57:17.880 --> 00:57:19.030
and gave me tons of kisses.

00:57:19.030 --> 00:57:21.600
That’s what I remember.

00:57:21.600 --> 00:57:24.390
She put everyone to work.

00:57:24.390 --> 00:57:27.150
Her nieces did the hand-coloring,

00:57:27.150 --> 00:57:30.270
and when it came to acting,

00:57:30.270 --> 00:57:32.070
your grandparents were involved.

00:57:32.070 --> 00:57:34.390
My grandparents played major roles.

00:57:35.350 --> 00:57:38.000
This is my grandfather on set,

00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:39.350
Giuseppe De Blasio.

00:57:39.350 --> 00:57:42.470
He was an actor in my aunt’s films.

00:57:42.800 --> 00:57:45.520
This is my mother as the street kid.

00:57:45.520 --> 00:57:49.030
Family members always played recurring roles.

00:57:49.030 --> 00:57:53.800
This is my grandmother on my aunt’s set.

00:57:54.190 --> 00:57:56.230
My grandmother played...

00:57:57.230 --> 00:57:59.070
I’ll say it: the whore.

00:57:59.680 --> 00:58:02.920
This old photo is from ‘34.

00:58:02.920 --> 00:58:04.310
Almost everyone is in it.

00:58:04.920 --> 00:58:08.520
My dad, uncle Eduardo, my grandfather,

00:58:09.000 --> 00:58:13.470
my mom at the top,
and Aunt Dora on the ladder.

00:58:13.470 --> 00:58:16.880
Aunt Dora was Elvira’s daughter,

00:58:16.880 --> 00:58:20.880
she was the namesake
of Elvira’s production company,

00:58:20.880 --> 00:58:22.190
Dora Film.

00:58:22.190 --> 00:58:25.640
She was an incredibly strong woman.

00:58:25.640 --> 00:58:29.880
Aunt Dora was always the family’s anchor.

00:58:30.680 --> 00:58:33.310
Did she talk about her mother,

00:58:33.310 --> 00:58:35.470
about Aunt Elvira?

00:58:36.520 --> 00:58:37.310
No.

00:58:37.310 --> 00:58:41.920
What I want to know is why

00:58:41.920 --> 00:58:44.030
within the family,

00:58:44.030 --> 00:58:47.640
she never got proper recognition.

00:58:47.640 --> 00:58:53.760
I think the main reason
is they didn’t think

00:58:53.760 --> 00:58:56.840
she was doing anything important,

00:58:56.840 --> 00:58:59.840
that Elvira’s work was important.

00:58:59.840 --> 00:59:01.430
No one did.

00:59:01.430 --> 00:59:03.470
Cinema wasn’t like today,

00:59:03.470 --> 00:59:07.840
it wasn’t seen as important,
as an art form.

00:59:08.310 --> 00:59:12.030
The Oscars... none of that existed.

00:59:13.030 --> 00:59:17.190
“Who would care about my mother’s movies?”

00:59:17.190 --> 00:59:18.640
Aunt Dora would’ve said.

00:59:18.960 --> 00:59:21.150
It all just faded away.

00:59:21.150 --> 00:59:23.600
I invite you to watch her films.

00:59:24.150 --> 00:59:25.720
You haven’t seen them, right?

00:59:25.720 --> 00:59:27.840
No, I haven’t.

00:59:32.430 --> 00:59:36.470
[ Be quiet and follow me ]

00:59:44.600 --> 00:59:48.070
They weren’t second-rate films.

00:59:48.070 --> 00:59:50.390
If you watch È Piccerella,

00:59:50.390 --> 00:59:55.920
certain sequences are striking
and unforgettable.

01:00:04.070 --> 01:00:05.430
Look at this.

01:00:06.310 --> 01:00:08.270
He tries to control her,

01:00:08.270 --> 01:00:10.720
to treat her like his property.

01:00:10.720 --> 01:00:14.390
She plays along with it.

01:00:16.560 --> 01:00:17.800
But then she runs away.

01:00:18.640 --> 01:00:21.640
It’s a powerful act of independence.

01:00:34.720 --> 01:00:39.560
Elvira portrayed the desire for freedom
of Neapolitan women.

01:00:39.560 --> 01:00:41.640
It’s incredible.

01:00:41.640 --> 01:00:44.150
And she was doing it a century ago.

01:00:51.070 --> 01:00:56.000
But she also showed how this desire
only had one end:

01:00:56.000 --> 01:00:58.190
Being killed for it.

01:01:37.640 --> 01:01:39.800
- I feel like a grandmother.
- How come?

01:01:39.800 --> 01:01:43.560
My grandmother used to embroider.

01:01:44.190 --> 01:01:46.920
When I ask my son,
“Will you make me a grandma,”

01:01:46.920 --> 01:01:48.680
he says, “no way.”

01:01:48.680 --> 01:01:51.470
- It’s still early.
- He thinks I’m crazy.

01:01:51.470 --> 01:01:54.070
- My daughter says the same thing.
- How old is she?

01:01:54.070 --> 01:01:55.840
- 33.
- Mine too.

01:02:02.470 --> 01:02:07.640
In the early 1900s,
when cinema became mass-produced,

01:02:07.640 --> 01:02:11.560
there was a need for a skilled workforce.

01:02:12.110 --> 01:02:16.680
Skills used by women in domestic work,

01:02:16.680 --> 01:02:19.110
like needlework and stitching,

01:02:19.110 --> 01:02:21.070
were brought into these factories

01:02:21.070 --> 01:02:26.190
where women became film editors
and did hand-coloring.

01:02:29.070 --> 01:02:31.720
We’re merging two threads:

01:02:31.720 --> 01:02:34.960
Elvira Notari’s overlooked legacy

01:02:34.960 --> 01:02:38.470
and a tribute to those women’s labor,

01:02:38.470 --> 01:02:42.150
often invisible and unrecognized.

01:03:03.920 --> 01:03:05.680
I brought her back to life.

01:03:06.000 --> 01:03:09.190
I gave her lipstick and nail polish.

01:03:09.190 --> 01:03:11.310
I gave her a little heart.

01:03:15.150 --> 01:03:17.840
This is her spirit rising up.

01:03:18.270 --> 01:03:21.350
She’s breaking free from the tragic fate

01:03:21.350 --> 01:03:23.720
she was condemned to.

01:03:23.960 --> 01:03:27.150
She escapes these men around her.

01:03:33.030 --> 01:03:36.560
I think he’s looking at her

01:03:38.110 --> 01:03:40.000
as if to say: “you deserved it.”

01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:42.840
So I transformed him,

01:03:42.840 --> 01:03:43.960
I trapped him,

01:03:45.070 --> 01:03:47.800
I’m mocking them.

01:03:49.150 --> 01:03:53.470
No one looks at her with compassion.

01:03:55.350 --> 01:03:58.800
I think about men today...

01:03:58.800 --> 01:04:00.310
Unless you’re lucky

01:04:00.310 --> 01:04:04.350
and your partner loves you and values you,

01:04:04.350 --> 01:04:08.560
men look down on you
like you’re not enough,

01:04:08.560 --> 01:04:13.430
you’re not what they expect,
you’re not worthy.

01:04:14.110 --> 01:04:16.880
So they can even kill you.

01:04:16.880 --> 01:04:18.000
You belong to them.

01:04:18.350 --> 01:04:19.350
Right?

01:04:19.350 --> 01:04:21.840
It makes me...

01:04:56.350 --> 01:04:58.070
People of Naples.

01:04:59.800 --> 01:05:02.070
Blackshirts of Naples and Campania.

01:05:04.470 --> 01:05:08.760
Who holds the highest duties
of Fascist Italy?

01:05:19.840 --> 01:05:22.520
We know that all governments

01:05:22.520 --> 01:05:26.110
want to highlight their achievements.

01:05:27.470 --> 01:05:30.600
Now imagine what a dictatorship would do

01:05:30.600 --> 01:05:34.110
after investing so much
in a city like Naples.

01:05:34.840 --> 01:05:38.520
[ The New Naples ]

01:05:41.800 --> 01:05:42.720
Naples.

01:05:43.310 --> 01:05:45.920
Here, Greece and Rome met,

01:05:46.600 --> 01:05:49.070
and the most beautiful
Mediterranean city was born.

01:05:50.520 --> 01:05:57.190
At that time, Naples was undergoing
major urban renewal.

01:05:57.840 --> 01:06:01.390
The shantytowns were demolished,

01:06:01.390 --> 01:06:04.960
from Piazza del Gesù
to the Maschio Angioino.

01:06:06.310 --> 01:06:12.760
Suddenly, anything related to folklore

01:06:12.760 --> 01:06:14.230
was no longer tolerated.

01:06:18.960 --> 01:06:21.470
Neapolitan cinema in general,

01:06:21.920 --> 01:06:23.270
and Elvira Notari’s in particular,

01:06:23.270 --> 01:06:26.390
were not well‑liked by the Fascist regime.

01:06:29.720 --> 01:06:32.800
What troubled the regime

01:06:32.800 --> 01:06:34.760
was her use of dialect.

01:06:38.640 --> 01:06:40.470
Not just that.

01:06:40.470 --> 01:06:45.720
Elvira Notari’s films openly showed

01:06:45.720 --> 01:06:48.720
what really happened in the city,

01:06:48.720 --> 01:06:51.070
including violence, including poverty.

01:06:53.680 --> 01:06:56.880
Elvira Notari had a sharp eye

01:06:56.880 --> 01:07:00.560
for portraying the struggles
of the lower‑middle class,

01:07:00.560 --> 01:07:04.030
a class of outcasts and dispossessed.

01:07:04.030 --> 01:07:07.840
She shows social deviances,
especially among women.

01:07:07.840 --> 01:07:13.270
Eroticism is made public,
without hiding desire,

01:07:13.270 --> 01:07:16.000
sexuality is displayed openly.

01:07:16.960 --> 01:07:20.230
Families aren’t exactly patriarchal.

01:07:21.310 --> 01:07:25.800
Another important theme is the law.

01:07:27.960 --> 01:07:30.430
She shows thefts,

01:07:31.390 --> 01:07:33.070
murders, femicides.

01:07:34.520 --> 01:07:38.350
There is a strong criticism of institutions,

01:07:38.350 --> 01:07:42.920
of law enforcement
sending innocent people to prison.

01:07:42.920 --> 01:07:45.720
[ ”Gennariello, tell them I’m innocent!” ]

01:07:46.110 --> 01:07:50.000
Censorship reports on her films

01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:55.560
often include demands for cuts,
sometimes major edits.

01:08:00.430 --> 01:08:03.600
How did Dora Films respond?

01:08:03.640 --> 01:08:05.920
They printed at least
two copies of each film.

01:08:07.270 --> 01:08:11.270
One copy,
before it was sent to the censors,

01:08:11.270 --> 01:08:15.560
would go to America on ships
that carried immigrants,

01:08:15.560 --> 01:08:19.150
in secret, to bypass censorship.

01:08:36.520 --> 01:08:38.960
I am a soldier

01:08:38.960 --> 01:08:40.760
but in this heart of mine

01:08:41.350 --> 01:08:43.600
a feeling of love

01:08:43.600 --> 01:08:45.720
makes me forget all else.

01:08:46.190 --> 01:08:48.560
It follows me and sings

01:08:48.840 --> 01:08:51.190
every minute, every hour.

01:08:51.190 --> 01:08:56.070
This soul of mine
is still far from you.

01:08:56.070 --> 01:08:58.270
Far away

01:08:58.680 --> 01:09:03.110
I see a light
within this fantasy,

01:09:03.760 --> 01:09:05.110
a tear,

01:09:05.110 --> 01:09:06.150
a hand

01:09:06.470 --> 01:09:09.680
that is tired of saluting.

01:09:21.230 --> 01:09:25.150
Out of Elvira Notari’s
three main surviving films,

01:09:25.150 --> 01:09:28.640
Fantasia ‘e surdate is
the most complicated.

01:09:28.640 --> 01:09:30.350
It’s a strange film.

01:09:30.350 --> 01:09:34.150
It was probably strange
even in its original form.

01:09:34.150 --> 01:09:36.960
Then, it seems like
it was heavily censored.

01:09:37.680 --> 01:09:41.960
The film shows us Notari’s
relationship with power,

01:09:41.960 --> 01:09:44.920
the power of Rome, of the state.

01:09:49.270 --> 01:09:51.070
It’s 1927,

01:09:51.070 --> 01:09:54.560
the Fascist nation is taking shape,

01:09:54.760 --> 01:09:57.030
and Notari tries to adapt.

01:09:57.030 --> 01:09:59.720
She steps out of her usual territory

01:09:59.720 --> 01:10:02.070
and the setting shifts to Rome.

01:10:02.070 --> 01:10:04.350
There are songs in Roman dialect.

01:10:06.350 --> 01:10:09.800
But in the end,
the film’s title is in Neapolitan.

01:10:09.800 --> 01:10:14.600
The film circles back to Naples
and to Neapolitan music.

01:10:15.190 --> 01:10:17.520
Oh, comrade watching me

01:10:17.520 --> 01:10:19.840
downcast by my side

01:10:19.840 --> 01:10:23.920
pick up the mandolin
and let’s start playing.

01:10:24.680 --> 01:10:26.350
Naples has us chained.

01:10:26.600 --> 01:10:30.230
The Fascists were determined
to build a nation

01:10:30.230 --> 01:10:33.720
with the Italian language
as the starting point.

01:10:33.720 --> 01:10:35.520
Dialects could be used,

01:10:35.520 --> 01:10:38.430
but not without strict control.

01:10:40.560 --> 01:10:46.760
At the end of the film,
Notari shows these soldiers

01:10:46.760 --> 01:10:49.270
who don’t know
what being Italian means.

01:10:49.270 --> 01:10:56.000
They sing their songs in Sicilian,
Venetian, or Neapolitan.

01:10:56.000 --> 01:10:59.150
They only find out they’re Italian
at the front.

01:11:01.430 --> 01:11:02.920
What’s interesting

01:11:02.920 --> 01:11:06.070
is how deeply rooted
these dialects are.

01:11:06.070 --> 01:11:07.720
They can’t be eradicated.

01:11:08.230 --> 01:11:12.030
There’s a force from below

01:11:12.030 --> 01:11:14.430
that has to be taken into account.

01:11:14.430 --> 01:11:17.030
Notari embodies this force from below.

01:11:17.560 --> 01:11:20.640
And I cry

01:11:20.640 --> 01:11:23.960
and I sing of Naples,

01:11:24.270 --> 01:11:29.390
my beautiful homeland,

01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:34.150
and this sadness won’t let me rest.

01:11:57.720 --> 01:12:01.600
"It has been observed
that some film companies

01:12:01.600 --> 01:12:04.720
persist in releasing films

01:12:04.720 --> 01:12:06.960
featuring Neapolitan settings

01:12:06.960 --> 01:12:11.190
that no longer reflect the true
character of that population;

01:12:12.390 --> 01:12:17.190
considering that such films,
featuring street performers, beggars,

01:12:17.190 --> 01:12:22.470
urchins, dirty alleyways,
and people devoted to idleness,

01:12:22.470 --> 01:12:27.000
are a slander against a population
that strives to improve

01:12:27.000 --> 01:12:31.560
its social and material condition
in the spirit of the regime;

01:12:33.720 --> 01:12:39.390
considering that such films
lack any artistic merit,

01:12:39.920 --> 01:12:45.640
approval will be denied
for films using clichés

01:12:45.640 --> 01:12:49.350
that offend the dignity of Naples
and of the region."

01:12:56.150 --> 01:12:58.390
It couldn’t be any clearer.

01:12:58.720 --> 01:13:01.230
Shortly after, in 1930,

01:13:02.030 --> 01:13:05.880
because of this law,
and with the arrival of sound,

01:13:05.880 --> 01:13:08.390
which centralized production in Rome,

01:13:08.390 --> 01:13:11.110
Dora Film shut down.

01:13:44.600 --> 01:13:50.470
In 1930, Elvira chose to disappear.

01:13:56.030 --> 01:13:59.470
At a time when divorce didn’t exist,

01:13:59.470 --> 01:14:03.110
she went to live in Cava de’ Tirreni
on her own,

01:14:03.110 --> 01:14:07.760
leaving behind Nicola and Eduardo,
who struggled to keep things going.

01:14:14.310 --> 01:14:17.840
She moved in with an uncle
who was a priest.

01:14:17.840 --> 01:14:20.800
She died there in 1946.

01:14:20.800 --> 01:14:24.640
[ Elvira Coda Notari, the first Italian
woman film director,

01:14:24.640 --> 01:14:28.600
lived in this house from 1930
until her death in 1946. ]

01:14:30.070 --> 01:14:31.880
I understand her reasons.

01:14:31.880 --> 01:14:33.760
But why leave her family?

01:14:35.680 --> 01:14:37.310
I needed more information.

01:14:39.520 --> 01:14:46.680
Only one person had researched
Elvira’s later years,

01:14:46.680 --> 01:14:50.470
a historian from Cava de’ Tirreni,
Patrizia Reso.

01:14:54.110 --> 01:14:56.230
Unfortunately, she had passed away.

01:14:57.190 --> 01:15:00.840
I read her book,
and it became central to my work.

01:15:11.310 --> 01:15:13.520
Unfortunately, I never met Patrizia.

01:15:13.520 --> 01:15:17.110
It’s a shame I couldn’t work with her.

01:15:17.110 --> 01:15:21.350
But these documents
are truly significant.

01:15:21.920 --> 01:15:24.350
Was it hard for her
to find these certificates?

01:15:24.350 --> 01:15:25.640
Was it a lot of work?

01:15:28.230 --> 01:15:29.600
A lot.

01:15:29.600 --> 01:15:33.110
Patrizia had a very important trait:

01:15:33.110 --> 01:15:35.520
she was stubborn.

01:15:35.520 --> 01:15:36.880
She had passion,

01:15:36.880 --> 01:15:41.470
she never gave up when things got hard.

01:15:41.840 --> 01:15:46.310
Her work is extremely valuable.

01:15:46.310 --> 01:15:49.390
It was known that Elvira had two children.

01:15:49.390 --> 01:15:52.960
But not everyone knew
about the third daughter.

01:15:53.560 --> 01:15:56.150
From a historical point of view,

01:15:56.150 --> 01:16:00.600
Maria’s birth certificate is very important.

01:16:00.600 --> 01:16:02.840
Another fact that emerges

01:16:02.840 --> 01:16:08.840
is that Elvira had three children
in three and a half years.

01:16:08.840 --> 01:16:15.840
We can imagine the burden she had to bear
in those three and a half years,

01:16:15.840 --> 01:16:21.270
working and having children at the same time.

01:16:21.600 --> 01:16:27.270
This helps us understand why,
in the end,

01:16:27.270 --> 01:16:30.720
she abandoned her third daughter,

01:16:30.720 --> 01:16:34.230
– well, not really abandoned,
but didn’t raise her –

01:16:34.710 --> 01:16:37.870
and entrusted her to an orphanage.

01:16:40.920 --> 01:16:46.200
Thanks to Patrizia’s research,
I found Maria’s descendants.

01:16:51.120 --> 01:16:55.840
They told me that Maria never met Elvira,

01:16:55.840 --> 01:16:57.760
never met her mother.

01:16:59.630 --> 01:17:03.390
But she did spend time with
Dora, Nicola, and Eduardo.

01:17:08.680 --> 01:17:12.950
Maria never spoke
to her children about Elvira.

01:17:19.200 --> 01:17:21.520
She denied her mother’s existence.

01:17:26.120 --> 01:17:28.230
What did Elvira think?

01:17:30.200 --> 01:17:31.790
It’s hard to say.

01:17:32.630 --> 01:17:37.520
When Elvira retired from filmmaking
in 1930 and moved to Cava,

01:17:37.520 --> 01:17:40.120
she lived behind closed doors.

01:17:40.120 --> 01:17:42.440
In Cava, no one really knew her.

01:17:42.440 --> 01:17:44.950
The only people who saw her
were the Coda family,

01:17:44.950 --> 01:17:48.200
who visited her
in the home where she lived.

01:17:48.200 --> 01:17:52.600
In Patrizia’s book
there’s a very important photo

01:17:52.600 --> 01:17:55.790
which comes from Martinelli’s archives,

01:17:56.280 --> 01:17:59.680
of Elvira in her final years.

01:18:00.840 --> 01:18:03.680
She looks like
a completely different woman.

01:18:07.950 --> 01:18:09.470
She looks subdued,

01:18:09.470 --> 01:18:11.680
withdrawn from the world.

01:18:19.920 --> 01:18:25.440
Within the family,
a woman has to fulfill a specific role.

01:18:26.710 --> 01:18:29.520
If you fail in that role,

01:18:29.520 --> 01:18:32.070
it doesn’t matter
what you do outside the home.

01:18:32.070 --> 01:18:33.920
You’ll be judged anyway.

01:18:35.280 --> 01:18:37.870
If Elvira had been a man

01:18:37.870 --> 01:18:42.550
who left his third child in an orphanage,

01:18:42.550 --> 01:18:44.680
there wouldn’t have been a problem.

01:18:45.200 --> 01:18:48.470
But since she was the mother
and she did it,

01:18:49.040 --> 01:18:52.440
her family chose to forget her.

01:19:21.630 --> 01:19:23.790
When I wrote my book 30 years ago,

01:19:23.790 --> 01:19:27.550
I wanted to understand why
Elvira withdrew.

01:19:27.550 --> 01:19:33.760
Was it beacuse of censorship
that made her life difficult?

01:19:33.760 --> 01:19:36.040
Was it the end of silent cinema?

01:19:38.070 --> 01:19:40.310
It’s too radical of a decision.

01:19:43.200 --> 01:19:46.280
There must have been other reasons.

01:19:49.360 --> 01:19:52.600
Maybe something changed in her inner life.

01:19:54.120 --> 01:19:57.000
Maybe she needed to reflect and withdraw

01:19:57.000 --> 01:20:00.630
for reasons she couldn’t explain.

01:20:05.120 --> 01:20:08.680
There are many layers,
we can’t know for sure.

01:20:08.680 --> 01:20:10.920
Because Elvira never spoke.

01:20:13.000 --> 01:20:15.680
She left no record of her thoughts

01:20:15.680 --> 01:20:18.200
except for her surviving works.

01:20:27.790 --> 01:20:32.310
I think that the images
but also the absences speak to us.

01:20:35.070 --> 01:20:38.390
These ruins reveal a deeper meaning.

01:20:39.710 --> 01:20:43.760
The deterioration reveals the arc of history.

01:20:48.390 --> 01:20:53.120
What emerges from these surfaces
eroded by time?

01:20:54.710 --> 01:20:56.120
What do we see?

01:21:06.000 --> 01:21:09.390
The point isn’t resurrecting Elvira Notari

01:21:10.950 --> 01:21:13.680
but finding space in the silences 

01:21:13.680 --> 01:21:20.390
for other women – or men –
to create something meaningful.

01:21:26.550 --> 01:21:29.470
[ “You’re injured” ]

01:21:30.920 --> 01:21:32.390
That matters.

01:21:36.000 --> 01:21:38.070
This is how the story goes on.

01:22:43.950 --> 01:22:45.710
This is Patrizia’s husband.

01:22:45.710 --> 01:22:48.230
And this is Elvira’s great-grandson.

01:22:48.230 --> 01:22:49.280
That’s wonderful.

01:22:51.520 --> 01:22:55.520
I’m glad you gave my contact to Flavia.

01:22:55.520 --> 01:22:57.790
She basically stole it.

01:22:57.790 --> 01:23:02.870
- Well, it was for the best.
- It’s true.

01:23:02.870 --> 01:23:08.870
It allowed us to learn
certain things we didn’t know.

01:23:08.870 --> 01:23:12.630
In my family we never talked about it,

01:23:12.630 --> 01:23:14.120
especially with my grandma.

01:23:14.120 --> 01:23:18.390
When it came up,
it was a very sad subject for her.

01:23:18.390 --> 01:23:22.390
My mom inherited this sadness,

01:23:22.390 --> 01:23:24.710
so it wasn’t discussed at home.

01:23:24.710 --> 01:23:28.470
And I couldn’t find much on the internet.

01:23:28.470 --> 01:23:30.710
Is it fair to say that Giuseppe

01:23:30.710 --> 01:23:35.520
will bring closure to this family conflict?

01:23:35.520 --> 01:23:38.790
He’s about to watch his first
Elvira Notari film.

01:23:38.790 --> 01:23:41.950
So this is all new to you.