San Paolo Dramma Biblico (Original)
1910
Alternative Titles
The LIFE OF ST. PAUL (Alternative)
The LIFE OF SAINT PAUL (Alternative)
Der HEILIGE PAULUS (Alternative)
ST. PAUL (Alternative)
BFI identifier
216917Synopsis
DRAMA. Biblical. Scenes from the life of St Paul the Apostle. The archive holds several versions: Paul, a merchant in Tarsus, hears of a Christian gathering in a pine forest. With a group of followers he attacks the Christians: Jacob the Younger is dragged away to be stoned. On the road to Damascus, Paul is struck blind and hears the word of the Lord asking why he persecutes Him. He is converted to Christianity and his sight restored. Years later Paul enters the Christian catacombs on the Via Appia. He converts Nero's slave girl and a Roman soldier. Paul and the Christians watch Rome burning. They emerge from the catacombs to be arrested by Roman soldiers (453ft). St. Paul is led by Roman soldiers to an execution site. He is made to kneel. [The execution is not shown]. Pilgrims bring flowers and palm leaves to the site (48ft). Note: The Archive also has DER HEILIGE PAULUS (75ft Joye 1925) dated 1910 and consisting entirely of German intertitles and corresponding to this synopsis. (Shotlist
- Production Country: Italy
- Production Company: Milano Films
- BFI Category: Biopic
- Source: N/A
Cast
Giuseppe De Liguoro (Saint Paul)
Credits
Director: Giuseppe De Liguoro, Rodolfo Kanzler
Production Company: Milano Films
Story: Adolfo Padovan
Sets: Sandro Properzi
Film Technical Information
- Original Length: 293 m
- Length of BFI Viewing Print: 453 ft
- Support: Viewable
- Black and White
- Format: 35 mm
Comments on the print:
The BFI National Archive 35 mm black-and-white safety print measures 453 feet (138 m.) but has only flash titles (intertitles of just one photogram). It is based on a positive tinted nitrate print of 450 ft. (137 m.). Yet, this print from the BFI’s Joye Collection originally had an additional 100 ft. (33 m.) of German intertitles, which are now kept separately within the BFI archive and have been preserved as 75 ft (30 m.) of safety negative and positive. Together with the full-length German intertitles, the total length of the nitrate print should therefore be 553 ft. (168 m.). The collection of the AIRSC (Associazione italiana per le ricerche di storia del cinema), deposited at the Cineteca Nazionale in Rome, holds a black-and-white dupe safety positive print of 200 m., taken in the past from the same Joye nitrate print but the intertitles have been substituted in the 1980s with newly restored Italian intertitles. This may also explain the separate reel of German intertitles within the BFI collection, as all Italian films within the Joye Collection were duped to b& w safety in Rome before they too became part of the BFI collection. Yet, unlike the BFI print, the print in Rome has two additional final shots showing first St. Paul going towards his death as a martyr and then the Christians paying homage to the martyred saint. Otherwise, the two versions, in Rome and London are identical. The Roman print has cropped images, while the BFI print does not. According to Aldo Bernardini (Il cinema muto italiano, Vol. 1910), the original length of the film was 293 m., at least within Italy.