Al cinematografo, guardate… e non toccate
D: Ernesto Vaser. P: Itala Film. It 1912
Print: Museo Nazionale del Cinema / EYE collection
Dutch titles
“Whilst Maciste makes an inter-textual reference to Cabiria, the earlier comedy Una tragedia al cinematografo (1913), produced by Cines, points, even if less explicitly, to another popular epic film: Enrico Guazzoni’s Quo vadis? (1913 > Ivo Blom). At the beginning of the film, a man sees his wife chatting with a friend in front of a movie theatre that is covered with posters of Quo vadis?. (…) Another comedy that focuses on the cinematic public is Al cinematografo, guardate… e non toccate (1912). (…) The movie theatre that is shown here, the ‘Itala’ theatre in Turin, hosts people of different ages and different marital and social status. The three persons Vaser harasses are also examples of this variety. (…)
Self-referential representations of popularity returned in the series of short films featuring actors identified with particular comic characters. Dramatizing everyday situations which were easily recognizable by the public, these actors/characters often set their actions in the new world of which they were part. As a manifestation of the self-referentiality that is typical of this genre of comedy, the parodic element characterizing these films focused on different aspects of cinema, including its popularity and its status as a mass phenomenon.”
Louis Bayman, Sergio Rigoletto: Popular Italian Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan 2013, p. 155
…guardate… e non toccate
>>> Una tragedia al cinematografo: Spectators Watching Spectators