The tale of the long summer of 1925, seen through the eyes and lenses of a sixteen-year-old. A selection of amateur films in 9.5mm format from the Lavello family’s collection, edited by Michele Manzolini. Live sound by Stefano Pilia.
In collaboration with AngelicA | Centro di Ricerca Musicale – Teatro San Leonardo.
A little over a year after the creation of small-gauge film format, in April 1925, Genoese lawyer Arturo Lavello buys a Pathé Baby camera, probably for the upcoming vacation in Sicily and Naples or perhaps as a gift to his sixteen-year-old daughter, Carmen, also called Nena. Nena is the daughter of Arturo Lavello and Ester Bianchi, whose father had made his fortune in Argentina during the previous century. Between May and November, the Lavello family often stays at a big house in Lavagna, called Villa Rocca, owned by a wealthy great-aunt.
In Lavagna, Nena hangs out with a big group of friends, with whom she organizes hikes, games, afternoons at the beach, tennis games and sailboat trips. The group of girls is so adventurous and sporty that they earn the nickname “robustine (hardy girls).” Most of the recordings of the 27 9.5mm films can be attributed to Nena, and all were presumably shot during the Spring and Summer of 1925: from the first indoor experiments with backlight at the end of April, to the vacation with her parents and a couple of friends in Sicily and Campania at the end of May. We are left with a few moments: a lunch at Mondello and the visit to the Greek theatre in Siracusa, a walk in Pompei and a breathtaking view of an active crater of Vesuvio. Then a countryside trip to Bertigaro with the “robustine” and a fragment of a dance during the vacation in Aosta Valley. But above all the recording and the memories of endless days of diving, games and friendship on the beaches of Lavagna.
The films were found by chance in 2006, in the basement of Villa Rocca, by Nena’s nephew, Enrico Vassallo. Within the family, no handed-down memory of their existence remained. They were granted to Fondazione Home Movies – Archivio Nazionale del Film di Famiglia in 2007.
