''Guarany'' is a 1950

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

film directed by

Riccardo Freda Riccardo Freda (24 February 1909 – 20 December 1999) was an Italian film director. He worked in a variety of genres, including sword-and-sandal, horror film, horror, ''giallo'' and spy films. Freda began directing ''I Vampiri'' in 1956. The f ...

and starring

Antonio Vilar Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

Mariella Lotti Maria Camilla Pianotti (17 November 1919 – 18 December 2004), known by the stage name Mariella Lotti, was an Italian film actress. Lotti made her film debut in 1939, and played leading ladies in a number of Fascist era and post-war films. She ...

and

Gianna Maria Canale Gianna Maria Canale (12 September 1927 – 13 February 2009) was an Italian film actress. Biography Canale was born in 1927 in Reggio Calabria. In 1947, she competed in the Miss Italia beauty contest, where she was runner-up to Lucia Bo ...

Cast

as Carlos Gomez *

as Lindita *

as Jacqueline *

Luigi Pavese Luigi Pavese (25 October 1897 – 13 December 1969) was an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Born in Asti, Pavese started his career in 1916 working as a silent film actor at 19 years of age. He then began his theatrical debut in 192 ...

as Papà Gomez * Anita Vargas as Mamma Gomez that * Andrea Forte as Carlos Gomez bambino *

Dante Maggio Dante Maggio (2 March 1909 – 3 March 1992) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 115 films between 1940 and 1975. Born in Naples into a family of actors, Maggio had a turbulent adolescence that led his father to send him in an institu ...

as Rossi *

Petr Sharov Petr is a Czech given name for males and a Czech surname. Petr is the Czech form of ''Peter''. For information on Petr as a first name, see Peter (given name). Given name * Petr Aven (born 1955), Russian billionaire banker, economist and polit ...

as Pietro Sharoff

Production

In this period of Italian film history, the opera film was popular as audiences were desiring biopics of Italy's most famous composers. Italian film historian and critic Roberto Curti commented that "the lives of Verdi, Rossini, and Bellini offered not only entertainment, but also a reminder of the country's past glory as a popular antidote to the misery and squalor unearthed by Neorealism." Director

was set-up with the subject of

Antônio Carlos Gomes Antônio Carlos Gomes (; July 11, 1836 in Campinas – September 16, 1896 in Belém) was the first New World composer whose work was accepted by Europe. He was the only non-European who was successful as an opera composer in Italy, during the "go ...

, a Brazilian composer who was popular in Italy. His best known work was the opera ''

Il Guarany ''Il Guarany'' (''The Guarany'') is an opera ballo composed by Antônio Carlos Gomes, based on the novel '' O Guarani'' by José de Alencar. Its libretto, in Italian rather than Gomes' native Portuguese, was written by and . The work is notable ...

'', based on the novel by Jose de Alencar. The film was a production by Universalia Film, a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

-oriented production company started in 1946. According to

Piero Regnoli Piero Regnoli (1921–2001) was an Italian screenwriter and film director. Career Born in 1921, Regnoli worked in the film industry between 1953 and 1991 where he wrote over 110 screenplays and directed 11 films. Regnoli's work ranged fr ...

, who was the company's vice artistic manager at the time, Universalia had "about one billion lire at disposal-cash. It was the biggest production company

n Italy N, or n, is the fourteenth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet# ...

" Freda was friends with Salvo D'Angelo who was high up in the Universalia Film company, and stated he asked for a large sum of money to develop the film as he was uninterested in developing it, but was surprised when it was granted. Filming began on June 11, 1948 in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and after one week, the crew moved to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

to shoot on location there.

Release and reception

''Guarany'' was submitted to the Italian board of censors in November 1949. Guarany'' was distributed theatrically in Italy by Universalia Film on 3 January 1950. The film grossed a total of 8,750,000

Italian lire The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

domestically, which Curti described as being "virtually ignored by the public" and being panned by critics on its release. The film was popular in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, where it earned Universallia and

a lot of press. Curti stated in 2017 that ''Guarany'' was unavailable in any form, not even at Rome's

Cineteca Nazionale Cineteca Nazionale is a film archive located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1949. By law it manages the so-called legal deposit, with the task of collecting, preserving and disseminating the productions of Italian cinema. It is the only Italian ...

. A copy of the 303 page script remains.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* 1948 films Italian black-and-white films Films directed by Riccardo Freda Films set in the 19th century Films set in Brazil Films shot in Brazil Films shot in Rome 1940s Italian films {{1940s-Italy-film-stub