Maria Caserini

Acting

Biography

Maria Caserini began acting in stage productions at an early age. Her first film was in 1906 for Cines in Rome, in what is considered the first film adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, directed by Mario Caserini, her husband. She starred in Romeo and Juliet in 1908 and then in thirteen other films until 1909. One of these films was Macbeth, directed by her husband. From 1910 to 1927 she acted in 65 films, many of them always directed by her husband, such as Lucrezia Borgia, whose performance gave her greater notoriety. She resumed theatrical activity soon after abandoning her film career. She was buried in the Maggiore Cemetery in Milan, where her remains were later interred in a small cell.

Known For

5.7

Antamoro's CHRISTUS, epic in scale and ambition, and featuring decidedly otherworldly special effects, was released in 1916. Telling the story of the Life of Christ, the film is divided into three segments-- three Mysteries. The first of these includes the Birth of Jesus, the arrival of the Magi, Herod and the slaughter of the innocents, the flight into Egypt. The second Mystery features the expulsion of the merchants from the Temple, Mary Magdalene's conversion and Christ's entry into Jerusalem. The third Mystery is itself divided into three separate parts, which are The Passion, The Death and The Resurrection.

Christus

1916Movie

6.9

A fantasy film about the knight Parsifal, who has to protect the Holy Grail from wizards.

Parsifal

1912Movie

5.9

In "Agrippina" (1910), Guazzoni recreates the particular and troublesome relationship between Agrippina, the second wife of the Emperor Claudius, and her son Nero.

Agrippina

1911Movie

5.8

Grand Duchy of Wallenstein. Elsa Holbein is the young beautiful daughter of General Julius, the Chief of the General Staff. After a spy named Moise Sthar steals military documents, Julius is accused of betrayal. He kills himself while Elsa is forced to leave. Homeless, she begins wandering the streets until, on the Riviera, she starts her performing career under the pseudonym of Diana Cadouleur and becomes a successful actress and singer. One day, in a small church, she meets an elegant young man and she falls in love with him. But during a tour on the Lucarno Lake she runs into Sthar who, rejected by Elena, spreads rumors about Prince Massimiliano’s behavior.

Love Everlasting

1913Movie

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3.3

A selection of Hamlet’s most famous scenes are reproduced in this Italian production from 1910.

Amleto

1910Movie

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0.5

The play opens with the scene on the wild heath where the three witches appear to Macbeth and Banquo, as they are returning from their victorious battle with the rebels. They predict the kingship of Macbeth with the words, "All Hail, King, that shall be hereafter."

Macbeth

1909Movie

6.3

The film, produced by Filoteo Alberini and released in 1909 is a short drama about a young boy who is killed during the Spedizione dei Mille, a military campaign led by revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860 to defeat the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, an expedition aimed at unifying Italy. Both films were restored by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematograf ia–Cineteca nazionale as part of a joint project between them and the Grand Orient of Italy to mark the bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Guiseppe Garibaldi.

The Garibaldi Boy

1909Movie

5.9

Filippo Derblay, a young man of humble birth, became, thanks to his job, the owner of the ironworks. He is secretly in love with Clara, the daughter of the Marquis of Beaulieu, who lost all his fortune. Clara is engaged to the Duke of Bligny, a vain cousin of her. After learning of Clara’s financial disgrace, the Duke prefers to engage to Atenaide Moulinet, a social climber and daughter of the industrialist Moulinet, the “King of Cacao”. To get revenge, Clara agrees to marry Filippo Derblay, despite she considers him an upstart and she despises him. But Filippo, who loves her deeply, can’t tolerate to be humiliated, will prove how much her prejudice was wrong and, at the end, he will win her love. Among the most captivating aspects of the film, the intense performance of the great diva Pina Menichelli and the high level of the photography, that captures spaces from life as the remarkable images of the factory and the workers at the machinery.