Arnaldo Giacomelli

Biography

Before the world knew talkies, a man named Arnaldo Giacomelli stepped into the northern-Italian sun and let the camera speak for him. In 1913 he split himself in two, trading a bowler for a broom to play both Tecoppa brumista and Tecoppa disoccupato—two silent shorts that let slapstick poverty and chimney-soot comedy share the same frame. Two years later he slipped into the boots, scarves, and whispered dialects of Ferrara’s farmworkers for Ferravilla nelle sue più caratteristiche interpretazioni, guiding 1915 audiences through the city’s soul without uttering a single word.