In the years between WWI and the rise of Fascism, legendary thespian Eleonora Duse shocks everyone by getting back onstage at over 60 years of age. Struggling with the brutality of historical events unfolding and clinging to the possibility of utopia, she makes her art a revolutionary act, even at the cost of sacrificing health and affection—facing her final journey aware she could give up life itself, but not her own true nature.
Acting
Bruni Tedeschi channels Duse's fragility and volcanic will.
Direction
Marcello's anachronistic collage breaks history wide open.
Cinematography
16mm decay and digital rupture—gorgeous contradiction.
Director
Pietro Marcello
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
Eleonora Duse
Fanni Wrochna
Désirée
Noémie Merlant
Enrichetta Checchi
Fausto Russo Alesi
Gabriele D'Annunzio
Edoardo Sorgente
Giacomo Rossetti-Dubois
Vincenzo Nemolato
Memo Benassi
Gaja Masciale
Cecilia Rinaldi
Vincenza Modica
Matilde Serao
Mimmo Borrelli
Ermete Zacconi
Vincenzo Pirrotta
Benito Mussolini
Federico Pacifici
Saturnino Ciarcelluti
Marcello Mazzarella
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo
Noémie Lvovsky
Sarah Bernhardt
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Eleonora Duse died mid-tour in Pittsburgh, 1924—this film reimagines her final years with deliberate anachronisms.
Marcello continues his project of 'contamination' between eras—like Martin Eden, this isn't biography but possession, forcing Duse to witness futures she never lived.
IT
