Mario Caserini

Biography

Rome, 26 February 1874: the city’s cobblestones hadn’t yet cooled from the day’s sun when Mario Caserini drew his first breath. Within three decades he would trade stage footlights for the flicker of nitrate, stepping in front of the camera as an actor before slipping behind it to orchestrate shadows. In 1906 he wrestled Shakespeare’s jealousy onto the screen with Othello; two years later he coaxed star-crossed sighs into Romeo and Juliet; by 1919 he was marshalling swashbucklers in Capitan Fracassa. Off-set he shared his life with Maria Caserini, his partner in art and in name. On 17 November 1920 the Tiber mist closed over the same streets where his story began, and Rome—city of echoes—claimed him back.