An indefatigable cameraman

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:56:55 +0000
Num. 32

A tribute to Antonio Sturla, a prominent figure in the history of Ferrara cinema.

Antonio Sturla was a key figure in the history of Ferrara cinema in his role as one of the most influential cameraman in the pioneering days of cinema. By the age of sixteen, he had already made his way to Rome to work for the famous Cines production company as second assistant cameraman. He probably went there having made contacts during production of the film Parisina. Un amore alla Corte di Ferrara nel XV secolo directed by Giuseppe De Liguoro in 1909 and perhaps also Lucrezia Borgia directed by Mario Caserini in 1910. Since he was an avid photography enthusiast, he was fascinated by the films made in Ferrara, and so contacted the people in charge of these films to establish himself in the world of cinema. He came back from Rome in 1912 after a big fire at Cines. Antonio Sturla began his work as a cameraman thanks to the Venetian film director and producer Almerico Roatto, who owned various cinemas in Ferrara including the Edison. This is how the "final joke" of Chino Colussi in Sotto a chi tocca originated. Antonio Sturla was cameraman on the film Il baratro that year, which could be considered to be the first full length feature film produced in Ferrara and marking the beginning of Antonio Sturla's career as a cameraman. He had been born in Ferrara on 22 July 1894 and died on 22 August 1968. His career enabled him to record the most significant events in his city up to when he left for the first world war, where he acted as war correspondent associated with the Supreme Command Cinematographic Service based in Nancy. He filmed important events during the war including Verdun, the battle of Adamello, recovery of the remains (and airplane) of Francesc o Baracca and his funeral service, and Gorizia. As special envoy of the Royal Geographical Society of Italy, he also travelled to India, Ceylon, and the slopes of the Himalaya, where he was granted a rare audience with the Dalai Lama in the Holy City. Sturla acted as the Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Tuscany correspondent for the Istituto Luce from 1927, thereby recording the important events of that period. He made a documentary on Ferrara called Ferrara epica e cortese with Ugo Vasè in 1927, a homage to the artistic beauty of the city where shots from an airplane were shown for the first time. He was called up to the cinematographic section of the army in 1940 and sent to the Western Front. After the war he became current affairs correspondent for some trade journals including Settimana Incom, Mondo Libero, and Ciak. His work was praised by the young Michelangelo Antonioni who wrote an article in 1939 for the Corriere Padano saying that he was "an indefatigable cameraman, who had initiative and a surprising eagerness, continuously filming a huge variety of subjects and activities, to then take them out to use when necessary". These documents would be a wonderful resource to remember those years by. A documentary industry started up in Ferrara in 1949, hinging on the experience and technical capacity of Antonio Sturla. The documentary Amanti senza fortuna di Adolfo Baruffi and Florestano Vancini was the first of these documentaries. Florestano Vancini was the director that Antonio Sturla worked with most, shooting Uomini della pianura (1950), Delta padano (1951), La città di Messer Ludovico (1951), Al Filò (1953), Tre canne un soldo (1954), and Via Romea (1958) with him. There were sixty documentaries made using his camerawork skills, due to Renzo Ragazzi, Fabio Pittorru, Renzo Renzi and Damiano Damiani among others. He even directed some of the documentaries in addition to acting as cameraman on them: two callings that were cen tral to his spirit. Florestano Vancini called him "Old Sturla" with affection and gratitude, as he had given him his start in the world of cinema. As he had done for others, including Carlo Rambaldi, honoured with three Oscars for King Kong, Alien and E.T.. Sturla himself had also won awards and even had a street named after him in Ferrara in 1994.