While in Europe all prints and even the camera negative of Addio giovinezza! were lost, a copy found its way, most likely in the 1920s, into the collection of Tomjiro Komiya (1897-1975), a restaurateur in Tokyo and a great fan of European cinema from the 1910s. This unique nitrate print with the original tinting was then stolen. The thief covered his tracks by leaving behind a black and white duplicate. All of this happened around 1950 or earlier. In 1988, the Komiya Collection fell into the hands of the national Japanese archive, the National Film Center, where it became the subject of a research, identification and restoration project led by film historian Hiroshi Komatsu. The only print of Addio giovinezza! we were able to work with for the restoration was a second generation duplicate that lacked outstanding photographic quality, intertitles and tinting. There is no news of the missing original print, so not all hope is lost.

Gian Luca Farinelli

Camasio and Oxilia’s comedy experienced a long season of repeat performances, and as of 1915, the musical version by Giuseppe Pietri became a beloved operetta of the Italian repertoire. As for its film adaptations, the only known surviving versions were the one directed by Genina in 1927 (with Carmen Boni and Elena Sangro) and the one directed by Poggioli in 1940 (with Maria Denis and Clara Calamai) until the discovery of this 1918 copy in Japan. The first film made from the play in 1913 for Itala Film and directed by Camasio – whose life abruptly ended prior to the film’s release – is still considered lost. The director’s unfortunate fate repeated itself with the Turin production company’s second version of the same film. Oxilia, who should have directed the film, fell during the retreat from Caporetto and was substituted by Genina. Jacobini, Oxilia’s partner in real life, accepted a role in the film – a delicate, charming and tender Dorina – flanked by Makowska, the femme fatale dressed in fabulous clothes. The story takes place in a Turin of joyful student life, the cheerful simplicity of the small world of seamstresses and the allure of high society. Against this timeless backdrop of exciting love and escape the end of university classes terminates the fleeting season of youth while the war has already impressed its deep mark in early 20th century history.

Claudia Gianetto

In order to work on the music of Augusto Genina’s Addio giovinezza!, I retrieved the piano score for the three act operetta of the same name by Giuseppe Pietri, which has a libretto by Sandro Camasio and Nino Oxilia and was published by Casa Musicale Sonzogno.

I did not follow the music of the operetta chronologically, but rather selected several themes which I adapted for the film. The extracts borrowed from Pietri all come from the first act of the operetta: for the beginning of the film, over the opening credits, I elaborated the Solemn March which concludes the first act; while for the ending with the Dorina and Mario’s moving embrace, I found that the choral theme at the end of the Introduction to be a very suitable nostalgic piece. I associated two very different but beautiful waltzes by Pietri with the characters of Dorina and Elena, as I felt they were in perfect harmony with the psychological characteristics of the two female antagonists.

For this festival the accompaniment will be performed by a trio: Filippo Orefice on the tenor sax, clarinet and flute; Frank Bockius on percussion; and me on the piano.

Daniele Furlati