We are in the realm of the documentary (or whatever it was called at the time), so we must acknowledge the realism of these five restorations presented here for the first time. But this is also the realm of cinema. And here travel happens with many means, but not on foot, at least not if we are in the audience. So we cannot do without our imagination. Our first destination is Il mare di Palermo, a film that still lacks a plausible identification. Don’t think of sunny and serene relief. Stormy waves dominate: unstoppable and always beautiful. Quadri d’Abruzzo opens with D’Annunzio’s I pastori and then wanders through villages, landscapes, weddings, songs, work and folklore. We know very little about the actuality films of those years. It makes us want to look for more of them. We cannot criticize Varietà di vita nel mare for having shut its world in an aquarium: it is a melting pot of extraordinary creatures that are somehow real. It is the only appearance of a comatulid (phylum Echinodermata, class Crinoidea) on the screen as far as we know. The mysterious Zeden en gewoonten in Tripolis promises us a faithful picture of the customs and traditions of Tripoli, but it sometimes has the feeling of a reconstruction in a big open-air set. This trace of doubt casts a magic light on teeming streets, craftsmen weaving carpets, a Bedouin wedding celebrated with gunfire, a snake charmer, races on the back of a dromedary. We end with an epic undertaking. Norge follows the first airship flight over the North Pole piloted by Umberto Nobile (the second two years later would be a disaster): desolate Svalbard, mammoth icebergs and expanses of ice are a wonder to behold. The perfect setting for an adventure that is not shy of using Méliès-style tricks to appear even more daring. Then the acclaimed heroes return to their homeland, Mussolini appears and we do not feel like dreaming any more.

Andrea Meneghelli