Encyclopedia of Early Cinema（Part Z）.pdfVIP

Entries A-Z 1021 Z Zacconi, Ermete b. 1857; d. ? actor, Italy Born in Montecchio near Reggio Emilia, Zacconi had a successful acting career on stage, in part with Eleonora Duse, long before his limited appearances in cinema. For the most part, he played father figures, as in Gino Zaccaria’s Padre [The Palace of Flames] (1912), one of Itala’s first feature films; but he also took on other roles, such as the self- sacrificing hero in Lo Scomparso [The Vanished One] (1913). In his last film, Febo Mari’s L’Emigrante [The Emigrant] (1915), Zacconi again played a father forced to separate from his young daughter (Valentina Frascaroli). ANGELA DALLE VACCHE Zecca, Ferdinand b. 1864, Paris, France; d. 1947, Vincennes, France actor, filmmaker, producer, France A café-concert artist, Ferdinand Zecca was hired in 1898 by Charles Pathé to make recordings using phonograph cylinders. In 1900, he attempted to make a short film that synchronized with the text of Le Muet mélomane [The Dumb Music Lover]. The success of this experiment led Pathé to offer him to work at Pathé-Frères related to film production. Over the course of a few years, Zecca made numerous 40-meter films (up to two a day) for which he would devise subjects, paint sets, and operate the camera. In addition, he sometimes acted in films by other filmmakers as they requested his collaboration. His own works tended towards a certain realism, as in Histoire d’un crime [The Story of a Crime] (1901). In 1903, Zecca left Pathé-Frères to work for Gaumont. His activity there lasted but a few months, during which he shot a series of trick films, inclu