Le nozze di Figaro

Le nozze di Figaro

(The Marriage of Figaro, or A Crazy Day)

Your opinion of this film

 

Comments

[BCB]

"The Marriage of Figaro" is an Italian short film from 1913. It is a brief retelling of the opera and play that bears its name.

The film is a very charming comedy based upon farcical caricatures and situations. There are disguises, forged letters, and two love-relationships that are postponed to the end through the machinations of Basilio, the villian of the story. While these premises for the story are quite simple, they are very intelligently in a light, airy style. It is clear that the actors, directors, and other talents involved in making this film had a strong sense of how adapt the story to the silent screen -- a difficult task to do with almost any opera!

Several aspects of the film production really caught my attention.

The first aspect was the acting. All of the performers take advantage of the limitations and liberties offered by the silent screen. Their command of gestures is quite broad, but it is never garrish or crude. Their movements are poised and carefully presented, but it is not so deliberate that acting never becomes balletic or, worse yet, wooden. The performers strike a rare and beautiful medium-point between the possible extremes.

The second aspect is the use of location photography. Much of the film is shot on actual woods or in the courtyard of a building that appears to be an actual estate. Several of these scenes are lovely enough to bring tears to my eyes. The scene of the film's hero addressing two women from the other side of a glass door creates a play of light and shadow that becomes an appropriate back drop for the action of the story. Another notable scene is the extreme long shot of Figaro and the other hunters reconnoitering in the woods. The camera is placed terribly far from the actors in this shot, and large pond stands between the actors and the camera. However, the foliage and the reflections of the people, trees, and sky in the water create a beautiful establishing shot for the hunting sequence. For people who think of Italian historical dramas of the 1910s as stagebound affairs, "The Marriage of Figaro" must surely come as a delightful surprise.

The third aspect ties together the foregoing qualities and should help to explain why the film is so special. The direction of Luigi Maggi is excellent over all. Unlike D. w. Griffith and some of his contemporaries from the United states Maggi almost completely eschews the close up. But whereas some film makers might turn such a tableaux drama into a confusing, boring motion picture (at least by the standards of today), Maggi is quite attempt at positioning the actors within small sets or carefully composed outdoor scenes. This sense of composition helps "The Marriage of Figaro" become a concisely-told film story, without causing the multiple plotlines to tangled. The direction makes the movie seem light on its feet.

"The Marriage of Figaro" is a charming film. I will only add that if a person wants to see a similar movie, they should check out Maggi's "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1913). It displays several of the same actors and sets as appear in this film.