“Mario Bonnard: half a century of cinema on both sides of the camera. In the beginning, he was the brillant jeune premier in films as Santarellina or Nelly la domatrice. Later he became the elegant and bored viveur beside Lyda Borelli in Ma l’amor mio non muore!… or La memoria dell’altro, or passionate and cruel lover with Leda Gys in La pantomina della morte or L’amor tuo mi redime. Bonnard became director in 1917 with L’altro io, his personal adaptation of the story of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde. From then on, his appearances on the screen alternated with an ever increasing number of films as artistic director where he specialized in translating literary classics onto the screen: Il fauno di marmo, Le rouge et le noir, and so on until a version of I promessi sposi in two episodes in 1922. In the same year, he interpreted and directed a film, now lost, mockingly entitled La morte piange, ride, e poi…s’annoia, which the critics of the time praised highly, defining it as an incisive grotesque piece, with an irresistible sense of humour.
After making two Italian-French coproductions, Il tacchino (Le dindon) and Teodoro e socio (Théodore et C.ie), Bonnard moved to Germany and France where he remained for five years before returning definitively to his country where he was active until 1962. During the years between silent and sound, Bonnard was the author of about 15 films, among which are to be found some “Bergfilme”, mountain films which are a German speciality”.
(Vittorio Martinelli)