23/07/2025 - Starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi playing one of the greatest Italian theatre actresses of all time, the film will be presented in competition for the Golden Lion

Pietro Marcello is returning to the Lido with Duse, which has been selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, following on from Martin Eden [+see also:
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film profile] (awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor via Luca Marinelli in Venice 2019) and Crossing the Line (the winner of the Pasinetti Doc Prize in 2007 after premiering in the Orizzonti line-up). This new movie from the director behind films such as Scarlet [+see also:
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film profile] (screened in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight 2022) and Lost and Beautiful [+see also:
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film profile] (screened in Locarno 2015) explores a significant period in the life of Eleonora Duse who’s considered to be one of the greatest Italian theatre actresses of all time. She’s played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (previously triumphant at the French Césars as well as in Locarno, and recently awarded a fifth David di Donatello trophy for her part in The Art of Joy [+see also:
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Duse is written by Letizia Russo, Guido Silei and Pietro Marcello. Eleonora Duse has a legendary career behind her, and it now seems to be over. But in the ferocious era between the Great War and the rise of Fascism, Duse experiences a calling stronger than any kind of resignation and returns to where her life began: the stage. She’s not only driven by a desire to perform but by a profoundly urgent need to reassert herself in a world which is changing inexorably and which is threatening to take everything away from her, including the independence she’s won through her life’s work. Unexpected financial setbacks leave her faced with a choice and, so, once again, Eleonora chooses the theatre as the only space of truth and resistance. Using her art as her only weapon, she defies time and disillusionment, turning every word and gesture into a revolutionary act. But the price to pay for beauty over the brutality of power and history is high. Her ties seem to dissolve and her health worsens. But Eleonora nonetheless perseveres with this final journey, proving that you can give up on life but that you can’t deny your own nature.

“Duse is a film which depicts an extraordinary journey which began here in Venice: a unique city where I myself have lived and where I’ve always dreamed of shooting a film”, Pietro Marcello enthuses. “The relationship I developed with all of the brilliant cast and with the protagonist, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, who’s a unique artist, allowed me to work with rare creative harmony. Today, I’d like to express my happiness in knowing that, together, we’ll be bringing the film back to where it all began, presenting it to the audience of the oldest film festival in the world”.

The cast also stars Fanni Wrochna, Noémie Merlant (awarded a César for The Innocent [+see also:
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Duse is due for release in Italian cinemas on 18 September, distributed by PiperFilm. World sales are entrusted to The Match Factory.

(Translated from Italian)