Two female giants in acting on the stage dominated the international theatre in the late 1800's and early 1900's: Italy's Eleonora Duse and France's Sarah Bernhardt. Despite retiring from acting in 1909, Duse saw the potential of beginning a movie acting career. Italian film producer Arturo Ambrosio approached the famed actress to see if she would be interested in the film adaption of the 1904 Grazia Deledda book "Cenere," which means "Ashes."
Duse was intrigued by the idea, especially the role of the mother in Deledda's novel. "I have been persuaded to create the character of Rosalia Derios, because it seemed to me that in the sorrowful figure of the mother, all sacrifice for her son, a figure moving in an austere and solemn landscape, would assume the total and clear plastic and spiritual significance that the silent theater must force itself to realize."
The Deledda novel was about an unmarried woman who gave up her illegitimate son, giving him an amulet for remembrance. The son becomes successful in life, and tries to locate his mother. The film shows the results of his search-and her reaction towards meeting him.
Duse had a hand in writing the screenplay alongside director Febo Mari. When she saw the end results after four months of filming and the released 38-minute movie, she was disappointed at not only how the picture turned out but also her performance. "Something quite different is needed," she said of her acting manner. "I am too old for it. Isn't it a pity?" Indeed, she became quite embarrassed by her appearance on the big screen, saying to a close friend not to see "that stupid thing, because you'll find nothing, or almost nothing, of me in that film."
Movie critics disagreed with Duse assessment. Her subtle emotional movements were heralded as quite a contrast to the overdramatic physicality of many early movie actors. The scene where she meets her adult son for the first time conveys an understated but seemingly deep emotional feeling underneath the old woman's skin. D. W. Griffith was so impressed by her performance in "Cenere" he asked in several letter to have her appear in one of his films. But she denied every one of his requests. Duse would never appear in another movie again, making "Cenera" her only tangible performance intact for the ages.
Duse, while touring the United States in July 1923, contracted pneumonia and died at the Hotel Schenley, now the William Pitt Union building at the University of Pittsburgh. A plaque in its lobby details the life and death of the 65-year-old Italian actress, who was the first female to appear on the cover of Time Magazine, the edition published on the week her final curtain drew to a close forever.
