Il Fauno

The sculptor Herr Mariotti is working in his studio with his lover and model, and also having an affair with Frau Elena, Prince Mierbo's wife. In Herr Mariotti's studio there is a sculpture of a faun, that mythological creature that represents the first and pure love. One night, when Mariotti leaves his "piccola amica" alone in the studio to go have fun with his other lover as well as playing cards in a den of bourgeoisie vice, the faun comes to life. Soon, thanks to his charms and philosophical thoughts ( after all that's his speciality; that is to say, playing tricks and chasing lovely maidens… ), that mythological creature -half man half goat- will fascinate Herr Mariotti's model who will fall in love with him/it and will run away with him/it to his particular kingdom. Frau Elena is also interested in the amorous creature and Herr Mariotti's gambling debts are also part of the plot.

"Il Fauno" (1917) is a very odd silent film even for a German count who has watched a lot of strange silents since the cinema were invented. Italian film directors of that time had a strong interest in the Arts and that is demonstrated in a rather eccentric way in "Il Fauno", a peculiar mixture of the "fantastique" and romanticism.

The film is introduced by the director, Herr Febo Mari himself (who also plays the faun in the film) in a theatrical way with a kind of preface wherein the director explains his artistic aims to the audience before the curtain is up. The director thus sets forth his intentions which include a great deal of symbolism, the various characters representing different virtues or weaknesses. Theatrical it may be but it is also very cinematic and uses techniques that were new in the 10's of the last century.

Herr Mari uses the fantastic and mythological elements together with symbolism and philosophy, in a very clever and entertaining way, sometimes naïf certainly but not at all pedantic. "Il Fauno" is also an interesting portrait of the decadent Italian bourgeoisie who were not very different from their other European counterparts. Obviously the most bizarre and original part of the film is the fantastic one when the satire comes to life and enthralled Herr Mariotti's model. It is certainly a strange love affair but at its heart not so different from a fully human love encounter because, as the faun explains to the young girl, every man has a heart like a faun. The film has a mystical oneiric atmosphere that combines the real and the unreal and modernity with classicism. What makes the film even more enjoyable is that it has recently been restored complete with the original tints that highlight Herr Febo Mari's artistic intentions

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because one of his fat Teutonic heiresses is getting this German Count's goat.

Perhaps even more so than other silent features - whether by intertitle or by the self-insertion of filmmaker Febo Mari, 'Il fauno' is distinctly partitioned into what feel like segments as much as scenes. It's a tack pointedly derived from the theatricality of live performance, and at once gives the picture a greater sense of being staged (that is, contrived and unnatural), especially as scenes sometimes wholly shift to different settings and characters. At the same time, one also can't help but grieve that such grandiose presentation has all but vanished from cinema in the many years since. With that structure established, what follows is a mildly fantastical story of love and drama that, whimsy aside, follows story threads echoing a long tradition of similar themes. That we've seen kindred tales before does not in itself detract from the value here, however. 'Il fauno' is not so striking as to demand viewership, but it's duly entertaining should one have the opportunity to watch it.

I appreciate the care put into costume design especially, but also hair, makeup, and set design. While broadly unremarkable, especially by modern standards, the camerawork and editing is suitable, and I do appreciate the mindfulness Mari demonstrates for arranging some fetching shots. Likewise, the acting isn't so noteworthy as to require special citation, but I think the assembled cast nonetheless do well to bring the picture to life. Most prominent are Nietta Mordeglia, portraying the unnamed model, and filmmaker Mari who himself appears as the titular figure. Both give performances illustrating capable range, nuance, and physicality befitting their lead roles, and both are to be commended for their contributions.

While tapping into the same vein as sagas of years or even millennia before, I think it's Mari's own screenplay that is the chief attraction. In particular, the scene writing is adequately varied, and dynamic from one part to the next, as to keep one's attention. And each passing moment laid before us builds into an overall narrative that is modestly compelling and engaging, playing with ideas that rouse our sympathies and stir some small measure of emotional investment. One could maybe say that the story beats are so generally common as to disinvite utmost attachment, and I think that's a fair assessment. Still, no specific flaw comes to mind to critique save for that quality of being unexceptional in the most plain definition of the word - and if that's the worst one can say of a movie, then I'd say the filmmaker has done pretty well for himself.

I rather wish the ending provided more meaningful resolution, instead of playing with a trope that I almost completely despise in modern fiction. On the other hand, the noted construction of the feature - its divisions, and the embellishment of its exhibition - is reinforced in the last moments, and in that emphasis softens the rebuke I would otherwise be inclined to give to such a conclusion. After all - in again accentuating The Stage, and The Play, 'Il fauno' reminds that we are The Audience, attending merely for a diversion of passing fanciful reverie. And with that: There's no great profundity to digest, and no drama so absorbing as to lose ourselves in the telling. This is the most simple of movies, for the most simple era of cinema; it wants naught but to entertain, and so it does. You don't need to go out of your way to find it, but I think 'Il fauno' is a fine way to spend 72 minutes - and sometimes that's all a film needs to be.

Sculptor Vasco Creti goes out for the evening, leaving model/lover Nietta Mordeglia alone in his studio. She doesn't like it, but falls asleep. In her dreams .... or perhaps not, a sculpture of a faun comes to life -- played by writer/director Febo Mari, and makes love to her. As time goes on, she falls in love with the faun, and steals the statue, even though Creti has already sold it to prince Oreste Bilancia.

Is it a dream fantasy, full of nonsense, or a fantasy, where one thing stands for another? Well, both and neither, really; the various genres were still evolving at this point, and would not take current forms until the 1940s. Creti, as the auteur of this movie, attempts to make some serious points about the nature of love, lust, and possession but seems constrained by the form to make of it a fairy tale; and even if in pre-Revolutionary France, that was an adult genre, by the time this was made, it had been reduced to children's literature. The air of artfulness that he places on the movie seems apologetic; in the epilogue, he claims his primary care was to delight his audience. Perhaps the issue can be likened to the writers whom Offenbach worked with, using classic mythology to mock current society, but for his final operetta, chose stories out of E. T. A. Hoffmann: fairy tales, yes, but disquieting ones.

In any case, what can we make of this movie? I think it's a record of a genre that was evolving into being, too early in the form to take seriously, but very interesting in what it tries to do.

What marks the European cinema on the teens and twenties is the explosion of intellectual and cultural influences by which it is powered - naturalism on the one hand and impressionism (a sort of extended naturalism) and a galaxy of non-realist movements on the other - dada and surrealism (especially in France, expressionism (especially in Russia and Germany), futurism (especially in Italy) and then, common to nearly all those non-realist traditions, the post-Romantic movement that embraced art nouveau (later art deco), the pre-Raphaelite movement, the legend-film, the fantastique and the so-called "decadent movement" that converges with symbolism.

It is a very heady mixture and, in terms of cinema history, provided the intellectual motor that, with relatively few subsequent additions, has powered cinema, sometimes weakly, sometimes with renewed force, from that day to this.

Italy in the teens was at the crux of all developments, pioneering the epic film, but playing an equally important role in the areas of naturalistic and non-realist cinema. Febo Mari, about whom one would wish to know so much more, is proof, if proof were needed, of the way all these different streams of sensibility could mix and mingle, combine and alternate. As both actor (Assunta Spina, Cenere) and director (L'Emigrante) he was associated with naturalism. L'Emigrante unfortunately only survives in part but it is one of the most powerfully naturalistic films of the decade (more truly a forerunner of neo-realismo than either Assunta Spina or Cenere).

In this film, on the other hand, and in several others (to judge by the titles), he is much closer to the decadent movement (particularly strong in Italy because of its association with the novelist Gabriel d'Annunzio) and to symbolism. Allegory, fantastique, legend, myth and fairy tale on the one hand, a powerful sensuality on the other.

In fact naturalism and what we can conveniently bundle together as non-realist modes did not preclude each other. This is one of the delightful paradoxes of the cinema of this period. In this film for instance contrast the stylisation of the scenes between the faun and the model and the almost squirm-making naturalism of the scenes where all four members of the love-trapezium are present together in the studio. Compare the evident symbolism of some of the imagery with the scenes at closing-time in the casino where the staff are cleaning the floors for the new day as the last "guests" depart..

I have frequently stated in reviews that the Renaissance of early film we are lucky enough to be living through is a constant voyage of discovery. Febo Mari is a name that all aficionadi should add to their list.