Francesca Bertini

Francesca Bertini (born Elena Seracini Vitiello; 5 January 1892 – 13 October 1985) was an Italian silent film actress. She was one of the most successful silent film stars in the first quarter of the twentieth-century. Biography Born in Prato, she was daughter of a woman who may have been an actress, but she was unmarried and Bertini was registered as Elena Taddei at an orphanage in 1892. Her mother, Adelina di Venanzio Fratiglioni, married Arturo Vitiello in 1910 and she took his family name. Bertini began performing on stages at the age of seventeen she began to perform in the just-born Italian movie production. She had a major role in Salvatore Di Giacomo's melodramatic story Assunta Spina. She had made over 50 films by 1915 including, Histoire d'un pierrot, was under the direction of Baldassarre Negroni in 1913. Gradually she developed her beauty and elegance, plus a strong, intense, and charming personality, which would be the key of her success as a silent movie actress. With Assunta Spina in 1915 she took care of the scripts as well as performing the role of the main character. Bertini was to claim with some support that she was the true director of the film which included novel acting techniques. She was one of the first film actresses to focus on reality, rather than on a dramatic stereotype, an anticipation of Neorealistic canons. The expression of authentic feelings was the key of her success through many films. She could perform with success the languid decadent heroine as well as the popular common woman. Other important roles were Odette, Fedora, Tosca and the Lady of the Camellias.