The last reel of Il tredicesimo commensale was found in the basement of a cinema that had been completely flooded – it had been kept in one of the few cans that remained above the water level. This wonderful fragment is the only part of the film to survive, but it enables us to imagine a work of extraordinary interest. It confirms the importance of Guido Brignone, who at the time was at the height of his long career, and of the Rodolfi Film Company, perhaps the only production company that in the period around 1920 attempted a real regeneration of the diva-film’s narrative and style. The plot, which we can deduce from contemporary newspaper reports, is quite close to a traditional English whodunit: the guests invited to the lunch at which the solution is to be revealed are all possible suspects. Using the mystery format to enliven a rather worn-out melodramatic formula seems to have been one of the trademarks of the Turin-based company, as can be gathered also from Il quadro di Osvaldo Mars. Flashbacks, subjective takes, alternate editing – all seem to be used in a tense and highly effective way, beyond the practice of contemplative lingering on a single frame that characterises much of Italian cinema up to 1920.

Paola Cristalli

This print comes from the same source (discovered by a cinefile from Trento) as the Italian version used for the restoration of Malombra. It was found in the basement of a cinema that had been completely flooded and was one of the few cans that had remained above the water level. The print consists of only the last reel, tinted and toned with Italian intertitles. Il Tredicesimo Commensale is a good example of the difficulties that a film archive faces. The film came to the Cineteca of Bologna incomplete and without any title by which to identify it. Just the same, even in this incomplete state, it was of extraordinary interest.
It’s identification confirmed the importance of the film fragment made by Brignone, who at the time was at the height of his long career, and the Rodolfi Film Company, perhaps the only production company that in the period around 1920 attempted a real narrative and linguistic renaissance of the Italian diva film.
Guido Brignone attempts, rather curiously, the traditionally English whodunit (the overall plot, deduced from the news reports of the period, further highlights this aspect: the guests that have been invited to the lunch at which the solution is to be revealed are all possible suspects). But, above all, the mystery formula as a guarantee to melodramatic functioning, otherwise close to being worn-out, seems to have been one of the marks of the Torino company (e.g. Il quadro di Osvaldo Mars). The result, at least in this final reel, is truely interesting. Flash-backs, subjective takes, alternate editing, all seems to be used without dispersion and beyond that practice of contemplative lingering on the framing that characterizes much of the Italian cinema up to 1920.
(Paola Cristalli, Cinegrafie, n. 7).