The Red Carpet Turns Into a Theatre for The Premiere of “Duse”
With ‘Duse’, his directorial debut in competition at the Venice Film Festival, Pietro Marcello reminds us that divas existed long before movie theatres. The red carpet became a small theater where past and present met: next to the Italian filmmaker stood Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, who embodies the protagonist of the film, accompanied by her mother Marisa Borini, Noémie Merlant, who plays her daughter in the film, Enrichetta, alongside Fausto Russo Alesi, who plays Gabriele D’Annunzio.
Usually a place for calculated poses and impeccable smiles, the red carpet took on a slightly different atmosphere. Set in the period following the First World War, this biographical film focuses on the final years of Eleonora Duse’s career, when the world seemed to want to forget her. The Italian filmmaker chose precisely this period to revisit her story as an act of resistance, portraying a woman who reclaims the stage to make her voice heard.
A return that is also a challenge: the echo of a diva who traversed nineteenth-century theatre now materialises on screen and in Bruni Tedeschi’s movements. Once again, Venice proves it is more than a festival: it is an opportunity to observe cinema as a collective ritual, where glamour and memory intertwine.
Duse will arrive in theatres on September 18th, to remind us that true divas never die, they simply change the scene.
Text: Germano D’Acquisto
Photos: Ludovica Arcero
