Duse

Commencing his narrative at the tail end of World War I, Pietro Marcello’s portrait of Eleonora Duse finds the celebrated stage performer in the twilight of her life, coming out of retirement at the dawn of a new era that is not her own. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi incarnates the titular character with high drama, a register very different from the naturalism for which “La Divina” was renowned. The aging Duse insists on returning to the stage at any cost, despite being beset by illness and debt. Her story is not one of triumph, but of persistence, with the actress clinging to the necessity of her art to the very end. Meanwhile, she is drawn into the tangle of nascent Italian fascism, including the rivalry between her former lover Gabriele D’Annunzio and new prime minister Benito Mussolini. With Eleonora as a hinge between the world of the theatre and the theatre of power, DUSE leaves its viewer to ponder how best to characterise the links between the two. Is she a collaborator, a fool, a stubborn heroine, a deluded old woman? Is an actress always acting? Peppered with colourised archival footage and a distinct sense of anachronism, Marcello’s biopic opens onto the present with an urgent question about relationship between art and politics. (Erika Balsom)

In the presence of Pietro Marcello.

Pietro Marcello (selection): IL PASSAGGIO DELLA LINEA (2007), LA BOCCA DEL LUPO (2009), IL SILENZIO DI PELESJAN (2011), 9x10 NOVANTA (2011, KO-REGIE), LOST AND BEAU- TIFUL (2015), MARTIN EDEN (2019), PER LUCIO (2021), FUTURA (2021, KO- REGIE), L’ENVOL (2022)