La Gerusalemme Liberata

Film, print, restoration

«La Gerusalemme Liberata» («The Crusaders; or, Jerusalem Delivered») is an Italian silent film directed by Enrico Guazzoni and produced by the Società Italiana Cines in 1911. It was based on the epic poem of the same name by Torquato Tasso (1575). This is the first screen adaptation of the work by Guazzoni, as the director shot a second version of it in 1918. Gosfil’mofond Rossii holds the only known copy of this first version under the title «Освобожденный Иерусалим – Борьба Народов» («Jerusalem Delivered – The Struggle of the Nations»), featuring pre-revolutionary Russian intertitles. The print is incomplete, as it is missing reels n.2 and n.4 (out of 4). The footage was correctly identified by researcher Tamara Shvediuk in 2022.
The source for the 4K digital copy was a 35mm black and white triacetate dupe negative print. The film has been digitally restored in 2024. Thanks to the lists of intertitles published in Ciné-Journal, Paris, n. 141, 6 May 1911, and Vestnik kinematografii, Moscow, n. 10, 1911, a missing intertitle has been reconstructed and others have been inserted to fill the gaps. For the same purpose, stills published in The Moving Picture World, Motography, The Moving Picture News and The Billboard for the American distribution of the film have also been used.

Synopsis

Based on Torquato Tasso’s epic poem of the same name, the film follows the deeds of the Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon during the First Crusade, up to the siege and capture of Jerusalem. Along the way, episodes of heroism, the actions of the enemy forces, and internal conflicts emerge, such as the betrayal of the crusader Rinaldo under the seductions of the sorceress Armida, and the tragic love story between the knight Tancredi and the Saracen warrior Clorinda.

Selected contemporary reviews

Cinema is conquering, one after another, all literary genres: the short story, the drama, the novel. Now it is conquering the epic poem. It is difficult to find anything more suited to cinematic transposition than an epic poem. In it a majestic simplicity and a profound passion, gods and heroes, are united… It was now the turn of “Jerusalem Delivered” by Torquato Tasso; the honor of bringing its scenes to the screen was taken up by the Italian company “Cines.” Do you remember this flourishing poetry, so tender and yet so heroic? And so ingenuous? Here too, as in Homer, the gods take close part in human affairs: there are witches and sorcerers. The bright poppies of passion bloom, alongside the forget-me-nots of timid love…
The Crusaders’ campaign. The battle against the infidels. To depict all of this, an entire army was necessary, with thousands of extras acting on the screen. And hundreds of horses. Step by step, the action of the great poem unfolds in detail before the spectator. Its forged verses do not resound; but they have been replaced by forged armors, lances, and plumes on helmets, gleaming in battle. No significant canto of “Jerusalem Delivered” has been omitted; the “Cines” company has handled its material with rare accuracy. Nothing has been lost. And when the scenes follow one another on the screen, it feels as though one hears the voice of the most inspired, laurel-crowned bard. A voice flying toward us from some faraway place, from the depths and darkness of the centuries.
Критическій обзоръ – Освобожденный Іерусалимъ, “Вѣстникъ кинематографіи”, vol. 1, no. 8, 1911, p. 18, also published in Критическій обзоръ – Освобождённый Іерусалимъ, “Вѣстникъ кинематографіи”, vol. 1, no. 10, 1911, pp. 18-19

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A film entitled “The Crusaders; or, Jerusalem Delivered,” recently made by the Cines company of Rome and distributed in America by the World’s Best Film Company of Chicago, is a production of great magnitude and high artistic merit. Tasso’s famous poem, “Jerusalem Delivered,” formed the basis of the adaptation, and there is no doubt that the makers have done full justice to the subject. Four reels are employed in the telling of the story, and scene after scene of spectacular proportions is unfolded.
As the title implies, the action is laid in medieval times, during the period of the great Crusades, the immediate scene being Jerusalem and its environs. An heroic atmosphere pervades the pictures and the struggle between Saracen and Crusader is illustrated in many stirring scenes. The action alternates between the two opposing forces, with the result that we see not only the picturesque encampment of the Christian army, but the tents and gorgeous palaces of the Saracens as well. The atmosphere of the time is conveyed to the spectator by an infinitude of realistic details, always combined with a care for the artistic effect. The beauty and magnitude of the scenes is extraordinary, undoubtedly one of the most pretensious film productions ever attempted. The closing scene of the film shows the storming of the walls of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, which is especially attractive because of the antiquated implements of warfare used, and it gives the average onlooker an opportunity to compare present methods with the hardships great armies had to undergo in those times.
It was no easy job for Godfrey’s men to take a walled city with nothing more formidable than a handful of cobble stones which were hurled against the walls by means of large towers, and afforded the attacking forces a vantage point from which to throw their projectiles, and a cover in which to work in making a breach in the strong wall.
The massacre of the Saracens in the stalls of Jerusalem is strongly depicted, and the final ditch and hand to hand encounter in the Sultan’s palace is one of the most vivid things that could be imagined.
All and all, this is a magnificent reproduction of ancient warfare as nearly as it might be reproduced from the historical accounts of such engagement.
A few of the principal characters are Godfrey of Bouillon, leader of the first crusade; Tancred and Raynold, his lieutenants; Clorinda, a Saracen princess and warrior; Armida, princess of Antioch; Sultan Al-ed-Din; Ismene, a magician; Sophronia, a Christian maid; Ollindo, her lover; populace, mob scenes, etc., by the stock company.
Of interest to the trade – The crusaders, “Motography”, vol. 6, no. 1, July 1911, p. 45

For the numerous contemporary reviews, especially in the Italian press but not only, see the transcriptions in Aldo Bernardini, Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano: i film degli anni d’oro, 1911, prima parte, Nuova ERI-Bianco & Nero, 1995, pp. 208-211, and the respective original sources.

Notes

First four-reel film from Cines, it inaugurated the new “Princeps” series of the Roman studio. […]
According to contemporary publicity, the production took five months and involved some 500–800 people. For the film’s launch, in addition to five different color posters, two types of booklets and phototypes were printed. In some Italian cities the projection was held in theaters at sharply increased prices (at Naples’s Teatro Mercadante, a seat costed as much as 4 lire). Contemporary accounts note that in the final scene depicting the capture of Jerusalem, the theater orchestra performed “Oh signor che dal tetto natio”, from Verdi’s The Lombards on the First Crusade. In Great Britain a three-reel version was released; in France it appeared in three parts, which were also shown as standalone programs.
The film was entered in the “Public Register of Protected Works” (no. 56842) upon Fabrizio Senni’s application to the Prefecture of Rome on 13 May 1911. On that occasion, 97,200 frames were deposited. The first public screening is reported to have taken place at Rome’s Cinema Lumière on 15 May 1911; however, period newspapers record earlier projections, also in Rome, at the end of April.
In the United States the film was initially released by the Moving Picture Distributing and Sales Company, then by Éclair, and finally (at a time when Cines was no longer active on the American market) by the World’s Best Film Co. of Chicago.
Several years later, Guazzoni shot a second version of the film, released in 1918. […]
Aldo Bernardini, Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano: i film degli anni d’oro, 1911, prima parte, Nuova ERI-Bianco & Nero, 1995, p. 212

In the Russian Empire, the film was advertised as “Technical Record – Staging Record”, with a length of 1,085 meters (in 3 parts) and a net price of 705.25 rubles.

The extant print includes a non-original opening title that erroneously credits the “participation of artists from the Royal Theatre of Milan”.