Young Cabiria is kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave in Carthage. Just as she's to be sacrificed to Moloch, Cabiria is rescued by Fulvius Axilla, a good-hearted Roman spy, and his powerful slave, Maciste. The trio are broken up as Cabiria is entrusted to a woman of noble birth. With Cabiria's...
In this mesmerizing collage of silent Italian melodrama, found-footage filmmaker Peter Delpeut (Lyrical Nitrate) affectionately captures the spirit of the World War One-era cinema diva. In all-but-lost gems such as La donna nuda (1914), and Tigre reale (1916), superstars such as Lyda Borelli and...
An unknown Menichelli, a young and lively beauty, is desired by two stars of the Italian scene: Ruggero Ruggeri and Amleto Novelli. This breezy story based on an comedy unreleased in Italy at that time is built around Ruggeri, who plays the role of a playboy father who wants to turn into the family...
A colossal epic film like this that tries to depict the life and glory of Julius Caesar, must have a variety of scenery appropriate to the film's hero. This includes the Senate and its conspirators..or .. strange places beyond Rome full of barbarians that must fall under the Rome yoke. Let's not...
"Tigre Reale" (1916) was the film that consolidated Frau Menichelli's stardom, a film more than suitable for her performing skills and silent idiosyncrasy that any silent diva would kill to star in… In "Tigre Reale", Frau Menichelli performs the part of Frau Natka, a Russian countess with a...
The film is a 35 meters long fragment, the remainder of a strongly decayed print, enough though to let us recognize the diva Pina Menichelli, here happy bride first and then melancholy loner. A sign on the print has allowed to identify it as the film “Gemma di Sant’Eremo”, a title that...
Claudio is married to Cesarina, a frivolous and unfaithful woman. After the death of their only son their marriage is cold. While his wife lives her free life, Claudio is dedicated to the development of sophisticated weapons, elaborating the project of a new cannon; but smitten by the virtuous Jew...
The story of the film «La storia di una donna», in which Pina Menichelli played the main role, is typical for «divas-films» – it’s about beauty and weakness of a woman, insidiousness and cowardice of men, inevitable destiny and mad passion…
Two siblings lose their parents amidst turmoil in revolutionary France and are adopted by a peasant family. Once grown up, the older brother enlists in the Napoleonic Wars.
Filippo Derblay, a young man of humble birth, became, thanks to his job, the owner of the ironworks. He is secretly in love with Clara, the daughter of the Marquis of Beaulieu, who lost all his fortune. Clara is engaged to the Duke of Bligny, a vain cousin of her. After learning of Clara’s...
A dancer lives by being held as the lover on duty, until a young man falls in love with her. His life is made up of lies and he will pretend to be waiting for a child to get married, to transform comedy into drama.
Antonio is jealous of his wife Clara and follows her everywhere; one day he sees her walking with a man on the street. He immediately becomes convinced that they went together to the movies (instead they went separate ways). Blinded by jealousy, Antonio wants to enter in the cinema hall and make a...
