The restoration work of the Museo del Cinema di Torino was done at the laboratory L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna. The basis was a color nitrate film donated by Pastrone to the Museo itself. It was uncomplete but in excellent condition. The missing segment was recovered from a duplicate negative preserved at the Museum. The colors needed for this missing reel were defined thanks to the instructions on the Itala Film’s production notes, which were collected and on file in the Museum’s archives. The colors of the titles were derived from directions on the appropriate glass containers preserved at the Museum. Following the usual Italian practice, this film is essentially tinted, although a limited part (c. 15%) is toned. The colors used are orange, red, yellow, a special green, pink and blue.
Tigre Reale is the second part of the diptych by D’Annunzio, made after his Fuoco. It is poem about the force of love, about the destructiveness of the memory, about the femme fatale, and about the obsession with guilt. It is rooted in a fictive representation of the world of the aristocracy and interwoven with electrifying passion, heart rendings, and unexpected losses. Tigre Reale interprets the originally romantic love both as drama and as an impulse for personal salvation.
(Paolo Bertetto)