Martoglio, Nino

(1870-1921)

   Journalist, poet, playwright, film director. Already a prolific and highly renowned poet, playwright, and theater director, Martoglio also came to earn an honored place in the history of early Italian cinema by directing three films for the short-lived Morgana Film company, which he had helped to found in Sicily: Sperduti nel buio (Lost in the Dark, 1914), Capitan Blanco (1914), and TeresaRaquin (1915). The meticulously realistic sets and the naturalistic acting in these films were in very strong contrast to the artificial scenography and the more stylized acting in the historical superspectacles and costume dramas that were monopolizing so much Italian film production at the time. This has prompted many to see Martoglio's films as distant forebearers of neorealism. Indeed, the only known existing copy of Sperduti nel buio continued to be used for teaching at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia as a consummate example of cinematic realism until 1943, when it was destroyed while being transported to Germany.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira