Full Name Romolo Bacchini Years active 1893–1938 | Name Romolo Bacchini Role Filmmaker | |
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Born 13 September 1873 ( 1873-09-13 ) Rome, Italy Occupation Director, musician, writer, painter Spouse(s) Cleofe Salvetti (1882–1964) Died March 27, 1938, Rome, Italy | ||
Romolo Bacchini, also credited as Bachini (11 April 1872 – ?) was a filmmaker, musician, painter and Italian dialect poet, who spent his career during the silent movies era.
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Biography
Born Romolo Bachini in Rome, Bacchini, as he later spelled it, was one of the pioneers of Italian silent cinema, directing, and sometimes acting in, more than 50 films. Some have been lost while others were recovered and restored, such as La leggenda dell'edelweiss, of which coils and the original screenplay have been found by researchers of the MICS (International museum of film and entertainment), in 1988.
In 1909 he moved to Naples, where the fledgling movie company Vesuvio Films gave him the artistic direction of its productions. In the capital of Campania he directed many of his movies, among them the historical short film Corradino di Svevia (L'ultimo degli Hohenstaufen), one of the first Italian movies to be set in the Middle Ages.
In 1936, as art director for CAIR (Cartoni Animati Italiani Roma), he directed The Adventures of Pinocchio, which is believed to be the first cartoon movie dedicated to the novel by Carlo Collodi.
Directed movies
Director of photography
Starred movies
Music
He graduated in composition and direction at the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella in Naples, and was a composer (he wrote several operas), director and conductor of the orchestra. He wrote plenty of accompanying music for films and was the first musician in the history of cinema to have composed – in 1905 – specifically created music to accompany a movie ("La Malìa dell'oro", by Filoteo Alberini).
Directed operas
Poetry
Contemporary and friend of poet and writer Augo Jandolo, with him he was part of the "Gruppo dei Romanisti" as well as other intellectuals and artists who, during the charming times of Caffé Greco, animated the cultural salons of Rome. He wrote many poetical compositions, revealing himself as particularly inclined into poems, verses and sonnets in Roman dialect. In 1929 he wrote "Er Natale de Roma", a poem in blank verse and quatrains, all in Roman dialect, dealing with the birth of Rome and illustrated by the painter-ceramicist Romeo Berardi.