La modernity di Of Amber
We have reached our ninth appointment with our series of reports on bestselling writers of the past. It is the turn of Lucio D'Ambra who was much more than a writer of immensely successful novels, as he was undoubtedly one of the most prominent public figures of his time.
In fact, if there is a character who occupied the scene of culture and entertainment in the first decades of the twentieth century it can only be him, in cahoots with the other protagonist who is omnipresent, but certainly not as much as him, Salvator Gotta.
In today's literary world where technology is changing all professions a bit and where reaching the public with one's literary work is just a push of a button, writers are required much more than the ability to tell stories. It is perhaps required to be the entrepreneurs of oneself, the promoters of one's work, the communicators of one's own activities particularly on the new media. This work has historically been carried out successfully by specialized structures such as publishing and production houses. In the new scenario of the cultural industry that is moving in cyberspace, these organizations of cultural mediation between producers and consumers of culture tend to lose importance and almost become financial structures to leave to the authors many of the functions that, in the age of the mass media and the press, they carried out directly. Here the author becomes the fulcrum of the relationship with the public, the engine of the business, the subject who can truly determine, with his public initiatives, the success of a work. In this sense, Lucio D'Ambra was ahead of his time and can be an example for those who today find themselves operating in the scenario determined by the new media of communication and the dissemination of culture.
Al D'Ambra, the ennobled pseudonym of a much grayer Manganella, in fact ascribes a continuous and intense presence also in the world of theater and cinema, in which he is perhaps remembered more than in that of letters. Overall he was editor and journalist in various magazines, poet, writer of about fifty books, brilliant theater author for about forty works, subject writer and screenwriter for dozens of other achievements: more than enough activities to fill a lifetime whole, which wasn't even very long for him, since he died at the age of 59.
An activity a 360 degrees in industry cultural
But our character, as we said, was also both a theater and film director and producer, as well as the founder of a film company that bears his name. In short, a 360-degree operator of what was the world of literature, entertainment and national entertainment for over thirty years.
And, as if that weren't enough, to these activities he also added that of literary critic, demonstrating not mediocre qualities, if he was able to recognize, first in Italy, the greatness and international stature of Marcel Proust: something that happened in 1913 with an article in the “Rassegna contemporanea”, just one month after the release in France of Du coté de chez Swann (From Swann's side), the first of seven volumes of the Search for lost time.
Discovery and recognition not at all easy, given that the work had been paid by Proust to a non-primary publisher, Grasset, and had not yet been translated or reviewed in Italy.
And the thing was even more difficult in the panorama of our literary criticism, very slow in discovering the value where it is found, so much so that for decades it had ignored the greatness of a realist Verga, and later that of a Tozzi, a Swabian, a a Dino Campana, just to name a few.
La life
Lucio D'Ambra was born in Rome in 1880 (but by some the date is disputed and anticipated by a few years, which also seems probable to us looking at the precocity of certain stages of his life) from a wealthy state bourgeoisie family of the capital, of distant Neapolitan origins. The father is director general of the ministry of public works and pushes his son to serious studies, to commit himself, to get a degree, which will never arrive, and to let go of the infatuation for literature, especially French.
At 16, the young Renato, this is his name in the registry office, cannot help but be influenced by the divine Gabriele D'Annunzio, whose original surname, Rapagnetta, is not very dissimilar from his, Manganella, a number of syllables and final double consonant. So much so that he will soon adopt a similar one, precisely D'Ambra, apparently coined especially for him by Ugo Ojetti. And in that year, 1896, he published at his own expense, and how could it be otherwise for a sixteen year old, a volume of poems inspired by D'Annunzio.
Like his ideal master, to whose style he will always declare himself indebted, the young Lucio too does not deprive himself of those amorous impulses which, albeit in infinitely greater quantities, gladden the life of the divine Gabriel. However, marriage and the birth of three children, one of whom, Diego, brilliantly launched into a diplomatic career, died early in 1931, brought him back to family duties and to a continuous and very industrious professional activity, full of accomplishments and success.
La passion for il ,
Despite the publication of some books, the passion and prevalent activity in his youth is for the theatre. In 1905, at the age of just 25, he composed a drama for the leading actor of the period, Ermete Novelli, which didn't go badly either. On the contrary! This allows him to fully enter the environment, to be familiar and familiar with the major authors, actors, producers, directors and various theater operators. And he begins to fill the billboards with works by himself or by others, in which he has collaborated in various capacities. In the world of letters he then had habit and frequent relationships with Pirandello, Capuana, Zuccoli, Ojetti and many others.
He is essentially one of the few who needs no introduction to meet and deal with anyone, and this allows his extraordinary artistic creativity to be fully expressed.
The activity film
In 1911 he also entered the world of cinema: they asked him to write a screenplay for Betrothed for the big screen. And he accepts the challenge and shows that he knows how to deal well with the silent cinema of the period. Since then numerous cinematographic achievements have followed, which see him in the guise of scriptwriter, screenwriter and director. He reached his peak in 1919, when he founded his own film production company, "D'Ambra films". However, this was short-lived, given that the following year it merged into another company. But this demonstrates how he is in perfect symbiosis also with the world of celluloid and with the innumerable figures of reference in the sector, from the actors to the various operators.
Let's remember the movies in this regard Miss Cyclone, the king, the rooks and the bishops, The wives and the oranges, Ballerina , The Story of the Lady with the White Fan, The false lover, The Princess Baby, and others.
In these works, the many cases of everyday life, of conjugal and emotional life in general, both of ordinary people and of the beautiful world, are treated with panache, lightness and light-heartedness.
It also introduces technical innovations, capable of producing remarkable scenographic effects, certainly avant-garde for the times. In short, his presence in silent cinema should not be overlooked.
The activity literary
At the beginning of the XNUMXs, a period of crisis began for Italian cinema, and D'Ambra, with his antennas extremely sensitive to picking up fashions, preferences and aversions, moved away a bit from that environment, to which he would return later , and intensifies the literary activity, however always cultivated. The world of writing had in fact begun to tread on him very early, both as a poet and as a storyteller; then he had somewhat abandoned it for the parallel theatrical activity, but he had continued to write for newspapers and magazines.
The real success comes in 1924 with the novel The profession of husband, which places it in the upper areas of the book rankings, by virtue of the 90-100.000 copies sold in about twenty years. We are not at the levels of Da Verona and Pitigrilli in terms of sales, which in recent years, as we have seen, are depopulating, nor of Brocchi, but we are still in the very small patrol of successful authors, alongside Gotta, Milanesi and very few others . In short, he also becomes one of the protagonists at a national level in this sector.
The profession of husband is the first of a trilogy, that of "Della vita in due", completed then with The profession of wife in 1930 and concluded in 1936 with The art of being lovers. It is his most famous trilogy, followed by four others, for a total of fifteen novels. To these must then be added, to account for volcanic activity, at the limit, let's say it, of frenzy, at least another thirty titles, many of which entered the best seller charts, such as Mr Whiskey my rival, Slavic charm, The two ways to be twenty, End of day angels and others.
As for the theatre, his narrative is linked above all to daily events, to the taste for family and sentimental intrigues, to the countless cases that everyday reality presents, without ever reaching dramatic tones, but preferring rather those of a brilliant and discursive, in which worldly frivolity is combined with family values, tradition and faith.
I awards
His industrious literary and artistic activity is indeed rewarded by readers, but it does not even escape the bodies and institutions both in the country and abroad. In 1928, crowning the attention he had always paid to French literature and culture from an early age, the French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré awarded him, on a proposal from the Académie francaise, with the title of officer of the Legion of Honor, l highest honor of the French republic.
About ten years later, his relevant and ubiquitous figure is also rewarded by the regime, given if not the closeness to his themes, at least the non-hostility. Her works, whether literary, theatrical or cinematographic, distance the public from the most pressing political themes, distract them, induce them to adapt serenely to the political climate that is raging in the country, without asking too many questions and without thinking of being able to change anything. As others, but not many, were doing in those twenty years.
The regime gave him the appointment as a member of the "Accademia d'Italia", the most prestigious cultural institution in the country. It is made up of 60 members who are entitled to the title of excellence, reserved exclusively for ministers, prefects and the secretary of the single party, and a series of other privileges, including the bonus of 3.000 lire a month, in a country that dreamed of it 1.000, as the famous song "If I could have a thousand lire a month" teaches us.
In return, the academicians of Italy have no other obligation than to attend the pompous and bombastic meetings and celebrations, to wear a light blue uniform, equipped with sword and sword holder and number 9 buttons, and further prescriptions, all meticulously contemplated and listed in a special decree published in the Official Gazette. D'Ambra was appointed academician of Italy in 1937, 6 years before his associate Salvator Gotta.
But his presence in the prestigious institution was short-lived, as he died two years later, in 1939, on New Year's Eve, just a few hours from the barrels, a year after that of maestro Gabriele D'Annunzio.
