Caserini, Mario

(1874-1920)

   Director. Having joined the Alberini & Santoni company as an actor in 1905, Camerini graduated to directing when it was transformed into the Cines the following year.

   Demonstrating a marked predilection for literary and historical subjects, he directed a host of historical dramas and adaptations, among them Garibaldi (1908), Romeo e Giulietta (Romeo and Juliet, 1909), Giovanna d'Arco (Joan of Arc, 1909), and Beatrice Cenci (1909), the last of which he filmed at the Castel Sant'Angelo in order to increase its historical authenticity. He was both prolific and popular; his Catilina (1910) was sufficiently in demand to be screened in 14 different cinemas in Rome at the same time.

   After a brief period with Ambrosio Film where he directed, among others, Dante e Beatrice (Dante and Beatrice, 1912) and the first long version of Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei (The Last Days of Pompeii, 1912), he joined the newborn Gloria Film, for which he directed an enormously popular version of Florette e Patapon (1913) and the even more acclaimed Ma I'amor mio non muore (But My Love Will Not Die, 1913), the first film to star Lyda Borelli and the one that launched her as a diva. In the wake of the film's enormous success, Camerini left Gloria in order to establish his own production company, with which he produced and directed a number of elegant upper-class melodramas starring Mario Bonnard and one of the other reigning divas, Leda Gys. However, when these two stars left, the company folded and Camerini returned to Rome to direct for the Cines until his untimely death in 1920. Among the films of this last period were Resurrezione (Resurrection, 1917), Il filo della vita (The Thread of Life, 1918), Tragedia senza lagrime (Tragedy without Tears, 1919), and La voce del cuore (The Voice of the Heart, 1920).