Great Actresses of the Past, 1911–1916

Film

No upcoming events

Held on Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 1:30 p.m.

MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2

Cenere. 1916. Italy. Directed by Arturo Ambrosio, Febo Mari. Courtesy Photofest

“Nothing could be unkinder, in a sense, than to exhibit as in this program the distinguished executants of one fully refined medium as they were translated into another unfamiliar medium still in the process of development. What is presented on screen is not the inimitable Bernhardt, the incomparable Duse but the thin shadow of stage celebrity. Yet since this is all that remains of be studied of these great actresses of the past, affection and curiosity unite to demand the preservation of their films.”

DCP. Program approx. 63 min. Silent, with musical accompaniment

Madame Sans-Gêne [excerpt]. 1911. France. Directed by André Calmettes. Based on the play by Victorien Sardou. With Gabrielle Réjane

La Dame aux camélias [excerpt]. 1912. France. Directed by André Calmettes. Based on the play and novel by Alexandre Dumas. With Sara Bernhardt

Vanity Fair [excerpt]. 1915. USA. Directed by Eugene Nowland. Screenplay by Eugene Nowland, Charles Sumner Williams, based on the novel by William Makepeace Thackery. With Minne Maddern Fiske

Cenere [excerpt]. 1916. Italy. Directed by Arturo Ambrosio, Febo Mari. Based on the play by Grazia Deledda. With Eleanora Duse

This film accompanies Modern Matinees: Iris Barry’s History of Film.

Licensing

If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA’s collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).

MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit https://www.moma.org/research/circulating-film.

If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA’s archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].