Gerolamo Lo Savio (director)
William Shakespeare (author)
Ermete Novelli (lead)
Francesca Bertini (lead)
Film d'Arte Italiana (production)
Everybody's favorite Daddy's Girls/riches-to-rags saga, Shakespeare's 150-minute play of over 25,000 words usually filling over 100 pages, is summarized in 14 minutes with pantomime and 8 title cards that are 100% dialogue-free. An interesting experiment that, surprisingly, succeeds in conveying the basic story - though not much Francesca Bertini to see.
Albert Capellani (director)
Georges Le Faure (writer)
Stacia Napierkowska (lead)
Lucien Callamand (lead)
Pathé (production)
A tight little work mixing comedy and melodrama, brief enough to avoid being boring or annoying, skillfully flying through 7 settings in just over 10 minutes, and featuring a bit of lovely dancing.
Carmine Gallone (director)
Domenico Grimaldi (cinematographer)
Nino Oxilia (writer)
Lyda Borelli (lead)
Cecyl Tryan (lead)
Fulvia Perini (lead)
Augusto Poggioli (lead)
Pina Menichelli (lead)
Società Italiana Cines (production)
The frequent visual jumps and disconnects make it obvious that parts are missing from this fragmented restoration. As further evidence, one of the three character names listed in the opening credits (“Richard Ruggero”) - presumably a main character - doesn't appear in any subsequent title card. Yet, unlike Malombra [1917], there is no source material to refer to for clarification of the story. In fact, it's possible that even if all fragments existed and were correctly assembled, the result would still be confusing as the story lacks depth and solid construction. It feels less like a coherent story, more like a string of cliche hacks quickly thrown together merely to capitalize on a star's appeal (by crew who didn't even spare the time to name the characters!).
But who cares about story? We're here to see the diva flammin' in high fashion, twisted into sultry poses (even dancing!), with that dreamy gaze that wails her tragic fate of being too hip for this world that doesn't deserve her. Lyda in motion is all the story we need...
Yevgeny Bauer (director)
Khanzhonkov (production)
This seems to want to be seen in a comic light, but every opportunity for humor is replaced by a mere suggestion of a possible humorous situation - “insert gag here” - leaving the impression of viewing an incomplete work..or a total flop.
Phillips Smalley (director/writer)
Lois Weber (director/writer)
Allen G. Siegler (cinematographer)
Lucy Payton (author)
Franklyn Hall (author)
Tyrone Power Sr. (lead)
Helen Riaume (lead)
Alva D. Blake (lead)
Juan de la Cruz (lead)
Mary MacLaren (lead)
“All intelligent people know that birth control is a subject of serious public interest. Newspapers, magazines and books have treated different phases of this question. Can a subject thus dealt with on the printed page be denied careful dramatization on the motion picture screen?...In producing this picture the intention is to place a serious drama before adult audiences...”
This somber introduction is immediately followed by:
“Behind the great portals of Eternity, the souls of little children waited to be born.”
And on it goes like this, shifting between pretense of weighty social drama and wallowing in cabbage-patch airy-fairy fantasy, linked by hackneyed melodrama and annoying overuse of cross-cutting, while hammering its messages - abortion is murder, humanity's salvation is birth control (for the poor), becoming a submissive baby factory is the duty of every woman (if she's wealthy) - only approaching realism in its wonderfully dark and depressing ending. Movie in a nutshell: Living with a pompous, self-righteous, hypocritical Dickless Attorney leaves wife with no desire to breed more of his kind. There - 65 minutes saved.
Carmine Gallone (director)
Giovanni Grimaldi (cinematographer)
Antonio Fogazzaro (author)
Lyda Borelli (lead)
Amleto Novelli (lead)
Augusto Mastripietri (lead)
Società Italiana Cines (production)
Marina di Malombra is the beautiful and sophisticated young niece of a count. She could be described in the terms used in a 1967 work : "dominant, secure, self-confident, nasty, violent, selfish, independent, proud, thrill-seeking, free-wheeling, arrogant females, who consider themselves fit to rule the universe". Marina becomes convinced she is the reincarnation of a madwoman out for fatal revenge. Corrado Silla is a sensitive young man born into nobility, but now on the verge of poverty. He longs for fame in the world of arts and letters, but has failed. Marina taunts, scorns, then publicly humiliates him. Thus, Silla is ready to sign up as Marina's love slave, but his pride gets in the way. This is the love story of Marina and Silla. Lyda Borelli's spellbinding performance of Marina's metamorphosis, and Amleto Novelli's subtle portrayal of a man torn between his pride and his passion for (and fear of) a dominant woman, both captured with the right direction and photography, make this a classic.
Nino Oxilia (director)
Giorgio Ricci (cinematographer)
Alberto Fassini (author/writer)
Lyda Borelli (lead)
Andrea Habay (lead)
Società Italiana Cines (production)
A Faustian tale about a very old and outdated film that makes a pact with the film restoration bureaucracy to regain its youthful beauty. In return, it must remain purely eye candy, and stay away from exhibiting anything that might threaten to be interesting. It complies with a vengeance, and thus returns to being very old and outdated.
head city
has waived all rights to all work here that's not stolen from somewhere else.