Duse

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Duse

2025

2h 3m

Biography

History

Drama

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Popcornmeter

67%

Tomatometer

15 Reviews

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

After decades on stage, Eleonora Duse looks back on a legendary career that seems to have run its course. But in the savage days between World War I and the rise of Fascism, the Divine Duse heeds a call stronger than any resignation and returns to where her life began: the stage. It is not only the desire to act that drives her, but a deep urgency: the need to reaffirm herself in a world that is inexorably changing and that threatens to take everything away from her, including the financial independence she has won with her life's work. Once again, Eleonora chooses theater as the only refuge for truth and resistance. Armed only with her art, she defies time and disenchantment, transforming every word and every gesture into a revolutionary act. But the price of holding up beauty against the brutality of power and history is high. Relationships seem to dissolve, and her health worsens. Yet Eleonora will face her last journey convinced that one can give up life itself, but never one’s true nature.

Sophie Monks Kaufman

Little White Lies

The film unfolds via a series of vignettes that have a tendency to go into convoluted details, labouring every beat of meandering conversations between peripheral characters.

Sep 3, 2025

Full Review

Blake Simons

IndieWire

It is hard to understand someone or grow sympathy for them when they won't stop yelling at you, and when all the world's a maximalist stage for the ensemble of "Duse," an emotional response is hard to elicit.

Rated: C+

Sep 3, 2025

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Marshall Shaffer

Slant Magazine

For Pietro Marcello, the only responsible art in times of need is a responsive art.

Rated: 3/4

Sep 3, 2025

Full Review

James Mottram

Radio Times

Bruni Tedeschi is a force of nature throughout, making this - despite Duse's relative obscurity - a highly watchable, resonantly staged tale.

Rated: 4/5

Nov 11, 2025

Full Review

Marcelo Paredes

Cinencuentro

Duse is a difficult, excessive, and at times exasperating film, but also profoundly human. I understand those who find it exhausting, but I believe its greatness lies in that intensity. [Full review in Spanish]

Nov 3, 2025

Full Review

Hector A. Gonzalez

InSession Film

Throughout Duse, you feel Marcello’s admiration for the theater legend... However, the picture is quite contrived in its approach to tell this part of Duse’s life.

Rated: C

Oct 23, 2025

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Lanfranco C

The sunset and the illness of a great actres

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

09/24/25

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Pietro Marcello

Director

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

Eleonora Duse

Fanni Wrochna

Désirée Von Wertheimstein

Noémie Merlant

Enrichetta Checchi

Fausto Russo Alesi

Gabriele D'Annunzio

Edoardo Sorgente

Actor

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Synopsis

After decades on stage, Eleonora Duse looks back on a legendary career that seems to have run its course. But in the savage days between World War I and the rise of Fascism, the Divine Duse heeds a call stronger than any resignation and returns to where her life began: the stage. It is not only the desire to act that drives her, but a deep urgency: the need to reaffirm herself in a world that is inexorably changing and that threatens to take everything away from her, including the financial independence she has won with her life's work. Once again, Eleonora chooses theater as the only refuge for truth and resistance. Armed only with her art, she defies time and disenchantment, transforming every word and every gesture into a revolutionary act. But the price of holding up beauty against the brutality of power and history is high. Relationships seem to dissolve, and her health worsens. Yet Eleonora will face her last journey convinced that one can give up life itself, but never one’s true nature.

Director: Pietro Marcello
Producer: Carlo Degli Esposti, Nicola Serra, Marco Grifoni, Benedetta Cappon
Screenwriter: Letizia Russo, Pietro Marcello, Guido Silei, Letizia Russo, Guido Silei, Pietro Marcello
Production Co: Palomar, Avventurosa
Genre: Biography, History, Drama
Original Language: Italian
Runtime: 2h 3m