L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2025 www.italoamericano.org 4 I t a l y ' s c i n e m a h a s more than one birth- place. In the north, early studios in Turin a n d R o m e b u i l t a large-scale, exportable image o f I t a l i a n f i l m . F i l o t e o Alberini's La presa di Roma (1905) helped fix the idea t h a t c i n e m a c o u l d s p e a k national history, and Gio- v a n n i P a s t r o n e ' s C a b i r i a (1914) set a global bench- mark for spectacle and tech- nique, with its moving cam- era and epic scale becoming a template others copied. These names still headline s u r v e y s o f t h e s i l e n t e r a b e c a u s e t h e y s h o w h o w q u i c k l y I t a l i a n p r o d u c e r s mastered narrative ambition and industrial craft. There was, at the same time, a different current run- ning through Naples. Director, writer, producer, and distributor Elvira Coda N o t a r i (1875–1946), ran D o r a F i l m a s a f a m i l y workshop and turned every- day Naples into cinema. She was the first woman director in Italy and a true pioneer, w h o b r o u g h t N e a p o l i t a n cinema all the way to the Italian communities that were developing in the Unit- ed States. Author of more than sixty works, from fea- t u r e f i l m s t o p o p u l a r sceneggiate and documen- taries, her career was first o v e r s h a d o w e d b y F a s c i s t c e n s o r s h i p a n d l a t e r neglected by official histori- ography. Of her monumen- tal output, only three films, two shorts, and a few frag- ments remain today, pre- s e r v e d a n d c a r e f u l l y restored by film archives. H e r f i g u r e , t o o , i s p a r t l y enigmatic: no diaries, few photographs, scarce direct testimony. H e r w o r k w a s l o v e d because her stories drew on s o m e t h i n g p e o p l e k n e w , s c e n e g g i a t a a n d p o p u l a r music, and sound was used in a novel way: screenings of her movies were often pre- s e n t e d w i t h l i v e m u s i c a l accompaniment, they were, in other words, "silent" in format, but built for sound in the room they were to be watched. Her production a l s o h a d a c o n s i d e r a b l e s o c i o - c u l t u r a l w e i g h t , a s Notari's films put women and working-class neighbor- hoods at the center, replac- ing polish with proximity and giving audiences a rec- ognizable background on screen. The world did not stop on the shores of the Belpaese f o r N o t a r i . I n t h e 1 9 2 0 s , Dora Film followed its pub- lic across the Atlantic, open- i n g a N e w Y o r k o f f i c e t o serve Little Italies with fea- tures that spoke their lan- guage, showed familiar set- t i n g s , a n d p r o p o s e d traditional music they often longed for and missed. The r o u t e N a p l e s – M u l b e r r y Street made Notari the pio- neer of an early, transat- l a n t i c d i s t r i b u t i o n l o o p , y e a r s b e f o r e n e o r e a l i s m brought Italian stories to US a r t h o u s e s . T h a t ' s w h y Notari's work is a reminder t h a t I t a l i a n c i n e m a w a s never only a studio product, but also a popular, migrant cinema shaped by circula- tion. Unfortunately, much of that season vanished with nitrate decay and neglect, and Notari's case is stark, as only a small portion of her output survives in features, shorts, and fragments. That l o s s r a i s e s t h e s t a k e s o f e v e r y r e d i s c o v e r y a n d explains why new work on the silent South matters. Indeed, she has returned to the center of international interest in recent decades and now, 150 years after her birth, her legacy is brought back into the spotlight with Elvira Notari: beyond the Silence, a documen- tary directed by Valerio Ciriaci and premiering in the Venice Classics section of the 82nd Venice Inter- national Film Festival. Supported by Cinecittà and producers Antonella Di N o c e r a a n d M i l a Tenaglia, the film weaves historical memory with con- temporary rediscovery, giv- ing back voice and images to a director who, through her popular melodramas and unconventional female pro- tagonists, portrayed Naples with an authentic and sur- prisingly modern gaze. We of L'Italo Ameri- cano had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Ciriaci, who told us more a b o u t E l v i r a , h e r w o r l d , work, and legacy. " P a r a d o x i c a l l y , E l v i r a never set foot in America: she was afraid of the sea, as her son recalls," explains director Valerio Ciriaci, a Roman-born documentari- an based in New York since 2011, where he co-founded Awen Films with cinematog- rapher Isaak Liptzin. "And yet her films traveled exten- sively, often accompanied by singers and musicians who l e f t I t a l y t o p e r f o r m a n d From Naples to New York: Elvira Notari's incredible journey SILVIA NITTOLI NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS CONTINUED TO PAGE 6 A still from the documentary "Elvira Notari. Beyond Silence" (Photo courtesy of "Elvira Notari. Beyond Silence" documentary)

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