File:1911 Vitrotti (film).jpg

{it} Le bolle di sapone / {en} Air Bubbles (Italy, 1911), directed by Giovanni Vitrotti, produced by Società Anonima Ambrosio, starring Maria Bay. <Silent, 5m.>

A pretty story with a moral for little wicked boys. A bad boy teases a companion who is blowing bubbles and takes his pipe away. He blows a bubble and in it he sees a vision of his mother, lying sick in bed imploring him to be good if he would save her from dying of a broken heart. Twice the vision appears, and the boy, strongly moved, rushes home and throwing himself at his mother's feet promises to be good forever after, and not to cause her any grief.

Directed by Giovanni Vitrotti for the Società Anonima Ambrosio of Turin. Maria Bay plays Pierino, a mischievous child whose encounter with soap bubbles leads to visions of his sick mother. The film is especially important for the history of Italian child acting: the Giornate del Cinema Muto has singled out Bay's spontaneous and unusually naturalistic performance and the film's close attention to the physicality of childhood. <EXTANT; online YES; music NO>