Passion & Defiance:
Silent Divas of Italian Cinema
At The Walter Reade Theater
September 23 - October 6, 2000
Sponsored by La Perla
A Special Event of the New York Film Festival sponsored by Grand Marnier
The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Cineteca del Comune di Bologna are proud to present Passion & Defiance: Silent Divas of Italian Cinema, a Special Event of the 38th New York Film Festival. The 15-film series showcases rare beautifully restored 35 prints starring the glamorous yet largely unknown Italian stars of the early 20th Century.
The program is sponsored by La Perla. Special thanks to the Italian Cultural Institute; Program curators are Angela Dalle Vacche and Gian Luca Farinelli, and the Cineteca di Bologna; also thanks to consultants Adrienne Mancia (USA) and Vittorio Martinelli, and chairperson Isabella Rossellini.
On Thursday, October 5 at 6 pm, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at New York University will present a panel discussion on the Italian silent screen divas and their contribution to world cinema, moderated by the Film Society' s Program Director Richard Pena, with panelists Susan Sontag, Valerie Steele of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Antonia Lant of N.Y.U. and Angela Dalle Vacche, of Emory University.
As we enter the new millennium, it is interesting to revisit the beginning of our century, specifically the period from 1915 to 1929 when the first frenzy for cinema and the widespread militancy of the women's movement began to make their mark. PASSION & DEFIANCE: SILENT DIVAS OF ITALIAN CINEMA focuses on the unexplored period when the Italian diva was in full-flower. Through this entertaining and enlightening film retrospective - with newly restored prints with their original tinting, and the addition of English intertitles - the Film Society issues an invitation to meet the divine women of silent Italian cinema. For the first time, the American public will be able to imagine these divas' voices of passion and defiance as they watch the programs, with live musical accompaniment at the Walter Reade Theater. In a substantial number of films these film divas draped themselves on curtains, made significant entrances, reclined on sofas, and were prone to fainting spells and fevers from overindulgence in love, jealousy, and revenge. They flirted, ensnared, and manipulated their (or others') adoring (but often fickle) men. Caught between being the femme fatale of the previous century and the new woman of modernity, the Italian diva always ended up badly destitute, friendless, and unhappy, soothed only in death. She communicated her feelings through flamboyant gesture, bold movement, and extravagant behavior, in which both the demonic and the spiritual can be detected. In addition to this, the films' narrative link to the visual and plastic traditions of painting, sculpture, theater, and dance can also be appreciated. In this age of new media, the Film Society of Lincoln Center will introduce audiences to a cinematic phenomenon of international resonance and reveal why the Italian divas seduced film-goers all over the world, before and after World War I.
PASSION AND DEFIANCE: SILENT DIVAS OF ITALIAN CINEMA was curated by Angela Dalle Vacche, Assistant Professor of Film at Emory University and Gian Luca Farinelli, Vice-director of the Cineteca di Bologna. After visiting the archives of several continents, the Cineteca di Bologna has rescued and restored unknown and lost 35 prints. Nearly all the films in this retrospective will be screened for the first time in the United States. The principal contributors to the book (of the same title) which accompanies this important film series are Professor Dalle Vacche, Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Emory University and the author of several books on cinema's relationship to painting; Gian Piero Brunetta, Professor of Film History at the University of Padua; and William Weaver, Professor of Literature at Bard College. This scholarly book, with magnificent photographic illustrations, will be on sale at the Walter Reade Theater and Alice Tully Hall during the 38th New York Film Festival and is made possible by LA PERLA and published by Edizioni Olivares.
For anyone interested in the role that Italy has played in film history, the phenomenon of the Italian diva should be of great interest. This comprehensive film series will acquaint audiences who associate silent film with American, Russian or French productions and Hollywood stars such as Garbo, Dietrich and Louise Brooks, will have an opportunity to discover their Italian predecessors (and contemporaries), particularly the three most important divas - Francesca Bertini. Lyda Borelli, and Pina Menichelli (although the legendary theater diva Eleonora Duse is included with one film it was made toward the end of her career when she was close to retirement). Bertini, known as the "Goddess of Passion", is described as the most versatile of the Italian silent screen divas; she was as natural and elegant in a working-class apron as in an evening gown with furs and feathers, according to co-curator Angela Dalle Vacche. Lyda Borelli is named "the Goddess of Transformation." She can look ethereal in one scene and muscular in the next, her expression ranging from delicate to the grotesque. Menichelli is "the Goddess of Contradiction," embodying sensuality and cruelty along with a touch of girlish wonder.
The term "diva," meaning goddess, is derived from opera and there is a strong operatic, and by extension melodramatic, aspect to the these Italian divas. The melodramatic certainly prevailed in the screen narratives of the day. For the most part, the Italian diva is known as a diva dolorosa, an unhappy goddess, playing herself over and over again, in film after film. In an era when women could neither vote nor get a divorce, she did not, like Emma Bovary, yearn for romance, she insisted on it, with no expectation of finding happiness or satisfaction. Refusing compromise, she embraced her unhappy fate without repentance and with a certain defiant pride.
Our series of 15 silent film programs are accompanied by the following artists whose short bios are also included:
Guido Sodo and François Laurent have been working together for some years on a project which reproposes Neapolitan music and songs from the 13th century in a classical-contemporaneous key, work which has been presented in concert in Italy and abroad. The duo was asked to accompany the Neapolitan silent films live (including Assunta Spina) when they were presented at MoMA in New York, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, in Haifa, at the Festival in Bologna and at other Italian and foreign film archives. Curtis Salke has enjoyed a relationship with the Film Society that spans over 23 years, accompaning everything from 10-hour marathons over two days for the New York Film Festival to Méliès shorts. In addition, he regularly performs for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's film program. Other credits include: American Museum of the Moving Image, Brooklyn Museum, Jewish Museum, New York Historical Society, New York Public Library, Film at the Public Theatre, and the Whitney Museum, as well as recorded soundtracks.
Donald Sosin's career as a silent film composer spans 30 years. This year he appeared at AMMI, MoMA, Bologna's Cinema Ritrovato, and the Telluride Film Festival. In October he will be in Sacile (Pordenone Silent Film Festival) for the fifth time, and will do a series at BAM each month. He also writes for the media.
Please Note: For further revelations about the roots of Italian divahood see a related article by Angela Dalla Vacche in the Sept/Oct issue of Film Comment magazine, published by FSLC.
Film Descriptions
Assunta Spina (Gustavo Serena, 1915; 73m)
Assunta Spina (Francesca Bertini) is a beautiful young laundress engaged to marry Michele. One sunny holiday, the couple attends a banquet where Assunta innocently dances with another man. Crazy with jealousy, Michele kills the rival and is arrested. To save him from almost certain life imprisonment, Assunta gives herself to a lawyer in return for an expert defense. When her lover is unexpectly freed from jail, he discovers her "perfidy" and takes revenge, scarring her terribly. (Based on a 1906 play by Salvatore Di Giacomo.) and Vedi Napule e Po' Mori (Eugenio Perego, 1924; 54m) An American director comes to Italy to shoot a film about the beautiful city of Naples, casting Pupatella (Leda Gys), a native of Santa Lucia, the sailors' neighborhood, in the movie. Eager to become a film star, Pupatella returns to America with Billy, but their relationship is destroyed by a misunderstanding. Eventually, the couple meet again in Naples, to fall in love all over again. Sun Sept 24: 3 (Sodo and Laurent); Tues Sept 26: 6 (Donald Sosin); Wed Sept 27: 8:30 (Donald Sosin)
Rapsodia Satanica / Satanic Rhapsody (Nino Oxilia, 1917; 55m)
Aging aristocrat Alba D'Oltrevita (Lyda Borelli) makes a bargain with the devil: in exchange for eternal youth, she promises never to fall in love again. Later, wooed by two brothers-Tristano and Sergio - Alba drives one of them wild with a Salome-like erotic dance. She chooses Tristano and Sergio is so shattered he commits suicide; naturally, Satan leaps to call off their deal. Does love conquer all? The answer lies in a fantastic sequence featuring the old Alba emerging from her dance of veils as a human butterfly.
Sun Sept 24: 7:30 (Sodo and Laurent);Thurs Sept 28: 8:30 (Donald Sosin)
Figli di Nessuno / Nobody's Child (Ubaldo Maria del Colle, 1921; (Part One: 100m & Part Two: 72m)
This tragic saga begins with the rape of Luisa (Leda Gys), beloved of working-class Poldo, by evil aristocrat Count Arnaldo. When a child is born of this violent union, Arnaldo's mother makes Gualberto disappear and marries her son off to a noblewoman named Edwige. On her deathbed, this monstrous mother repents, deciding to leave her fortune to little Gualberto-but Edvige destroys the will. Years later, Luisa, now a nun, strews rose petals on her son's coffin-he's sacrificed himself for some fellow workers-and then expires in true tragic style.
Mon Sept 25: 6 (Part One); 8:30 (Part Two) (Sodo and Laurent, both Parts);Sun Oct 1: 3 (Part One); 5:30 (Part Two);(Curtis Salke, Part One; Donald Sosin, Part Two)
Tigre Reale / Royal Tiger (Piero Fosco, 1916; 62m)
Countess Natka (Pina Menichelli), a Russian emigré, recounts her sad life story to her lover, diplomat Giorgio La Ferlita: Back in Russia, her madly jealous husband exiled Dolski, the revolutionary the Countess adored, to Siberia. When Natka managed to make her way to Dolski, she discovered he'd taken up with another woman. Stricken by guilt, the unfaithful lover committed suicide. In the present, after a long separation during which Giorgio has married a wealthy heiress, he and the Countess reunite at the Grand Hotel-where they are almost burned alive by Natka's still-obsessed Russian husband.
Tues Sept 26: 9:15 (Donald Sosin); Wed Sept 27: 6 (Donald Sosin)
Il Fior di Male / Flower of Evil (Carmine Gallone, 1915; 80m)
As Lyda (Lyda Borelli), a corrupt prostitute, abandons her child in the middle of nowhere, a terrible tattoo on its body imprints itself in her memory. Subsequently, when her life changes for the better, she becomes the surrogate daughter of an old Count whose own child has passed away. Lyda herself adopts a young orphan, who eventually falls in love with Davuski, a famous violinist. Lyda loves him, too, but refuses to mar the romance between the orphan and Davuski. One night, a burglar breaks into the Count's villa; during a terrible struggle, Lyda catches sight of the tattoo she has never forgotten. As he stabs her to death, she recognizes the son she deserted so long ago.
Thurs Sept 28: 6 (Donald Sosin); Fri Sept 29: 8:30 (Curtis Salke)
La Storia di una donna / Story of a Lady (Eugenio Perego, 1920; 78m)
When a beautiful woman (Pina Menichelli), dying of a gunshot wound, is taken to a hospital, her doctor discovers a diary in which he reads about Beatrice 's tragic life. As a penniless orphan, she became the lady-in-waiting of a rich old countess whose son Paolo seduces Beatrice. Bereft of the baby and thrown out of the house, the hapless girl takes up with Fabiano, a gambler. With his help, she spins a terrible web to take revenge on Paolo and his wife. In the end, she repents, so a furious Fabiano shoots her down. Paolo and their son comfort Beatrice on her deathbed.
Fri Sept 29: 6 (Curtis Salke);Sat Sept 30: 8:30 (Curtis Salke); Mon Oct 2: 6 (Donald Sosin)
Il Quadro di Osvaldo Mars /The Painting of Osvaldo Mars (Guido Brignone, 1921; 90m)
A countess (Mercedes Brignone) is unjustly rumored to be having an affair with painter Osvaldo Mars, who is said to have portrayed her as Salome in a portrait. Distraught, the countess decides to visit Mars' studio-for she's never met the man. Later the artist is found dead, the Salome portrait ripped to shreds. The police interrogate various witnesses; every one offers a different version of what happened. The plot is punctuated by images of a sick child and the doctor who is trying to save her life.
Sat Sept 30: 3 (Curtis Salke); Mon Oct 2: 8:30 (Donald Sosin)
Malombra (Carmine Gallone, 1917; 87m)
While living in her uncle's castle on Lake Como, Marina di Malombra (Lyda Borelli) discovers a terrible family secret. As she reads letters written by her mother-who was unjustly persecuted and driven to a lonely death by the uncle-Marina begins to over-identify with Cecilia's pain and anger. The haunted past blights the young woman's future: the writer she has loved grows distant and the suitors proposed by her family are unacceptable. Eventually, Marina succumbs to the dark shadows of madness, murdering both her lover and the uncle responsible for her mother's demise. (Based on an 1881 novel by Antonio Fogazzaro.) and Cenere (Febo Mari, 1917; 30m) Print courtesy of the George Eastman House Now an old woman, Rosalia (Eleonora Duse) once gave birth to a child out of wedlock. When by chance she meets her son Anania and his new wife, she comes to realize that she could only be an embarrassment in his perfect, bourgeois world. Accordingly, she disappears-Stella Dallas-style-to die alone in poverty. (Based on a 1904 novel by Grazia Deledda).
Sat Sept 30: 5:30 (Curtis Salke); Sun Oct 1: 8 (Donald Sosin)
Sangue Blue / Blue Blood (Nina Oxilia, 1914; 54m)
After the Prince di Montvallon's affair with the Countess Simone de La Croix, his wife Elena (Francesca Bertini) divorces him, keeping custody of their daughter Diana. Elena keeps herself busy by participating in many charitable activities; during a fund-raiser she meets the famous mime Jacques Wilson who falls madly in love with her-though she sees him only as a cherished friend. Having driven Wilson to the house where his mother lies dying, the Princess is photographed by agents of the wicked Countess Simone. The pictures are then used as evidence of Elena's unfitness as a mother and after Diana is returned to her father, she succumbs to the corrupt, vulgar Wilson, who soon has her dancing in a "den of iniquity." Deeply shamed, Elena stabs herself in the breast while dancing "the tango of death." Luckily the wound isn't fatal and the straying Prince decides to reunite his family. and L'Innamorata / The Lover (Gennaro Righelli, 1920; 55m) Femme fatale Mara Flores (Italia Almirante Manzini) will stop at nothing to overcome the indifference of Franco Arnaldi. After using his best friend to make Franco jealous (the friend suicides), Mara slowly begins to mesmerize the man she desires-to the extent that he quits work to drown himself in all manner of pleasure and vice. When Franco's mother and sister beg for the vamp's help, Mara experiences a change in heart. When she realizes that she can never really possess Franco, Mara kills herself-in one of the most spectacular suicides in cinema - attaching herself to the two poles of a dynamo which sends a fatal charge through her body. Her apotheosis can be seen as an allegory of modern technology's power to eradicate outdated icons such as the 19th-century femme fatale.
Tues Oct 3: 6 (Curtis Salke);Wed Oct 4: 8:30 (Donald Sosin)
Scampolo (Augusto Genina, 1928; 80m)
Scampolo (Carmen Boni) is a ragtag orphan who survives by doing odd jobs. Her only comfort in life is a little dog, as homeless as she is. By chance, she meets a young penniless student, the soon-to-be engineer Sacchi, who's embroiled in an affair with an experienced femme fatale. Scampolo becomes his maid and the two gradually fall in love. One day, the government asks Sacchi to leave for an assignment in Africa. Scampolo, faithful as ever, goes to the station to bid her love farewell-but at the last moment, Sacchi pulls her up onto the moving train and the two head for Africa together. (Freely based on the play by Dario Nicodemi.)
Tues Oct 3: 8:30 (Curtis Salke); Wed Oct 4: 6 (Donald Sosin)
Der Bastard (Gennaro Righelli, 1926; 80m)
This incredible tale begins with Latin lover Sergio seducing the innocent Maria (Maria Jacobini), daughter of a Marquis, who cannot find it in his heart to forgive her or her illegitimate son. Nor can Giorgio, her former suitor, returning after a long absence. Maria decides to follow Sergio to Paris; he's a womanizer, but the couple decide to take a sea-cruise around the world to give themselves a chance at happiness. Sergio can't resist an old lover and is soon carrying on a shipboard affair. When the ship catches on fire and begins to sink, Maria loses her little boy. Only one place is left on the last rescue boat and Sergio's evil inamorata claims it. But Sergio pushes Maria on to the boat, screaming "Take this one! She is a mother after all!" Hard to believe, but even further melodrama ensues, after which Maria finds her son again and is reunited with her true love Giorgio.
Thurs Oct 5: 6 (Donald Sosin); Fri Oct 6: 8:30 (Donald Sosin)
Maman Poupee /Mother Doll (Carmine Gallone, 1919; 85m) A lovely little woman (Soava Gallone) earns the affectionate nickname "Maman Poupee" from her husband because of the innocent joy with which she constantly plays with their children. Unfortunately, her vain, self-centered spouse-full of political ambition-has come under the malign influence of a femme fatale. The confrontation between Maman Poupee and the "other woman" comes perilously close to violence, but the good wife stops short of murder. Sadly, her innocence and happiness shattered, the woman once fondly called Maman Poupee is gone forever.
Thurs Oct 5: 8:30 (Donald Sosin); Fri Oct 6: 6 (Donald Sosin)
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Walter Reade Theater is located at 165 W. 65th St., plaza level. Ticket prices are $9 for the public, $5 for Members, $4.50 for senior citizens during weekday matinees. Tickets are available by phone (212) 875-5600; online at
www.filmlinc.com; or at the box office, from 30 minutes before the first screening of the day until 15 minutes after the last show begins. For schedule information, call (212) 875-5600.