Lyda Borelli
Actor · 1884 – 1959 · Genoa, Liguria, Italy
Lyda Borelli (22 March 1884 - 2 June 1959) was an Italian actress, her career in theatre started in 1902. Between 1913 and 1918 Borelli made 14 films and appeared in 2 documentaries. She often portrayed vamps who end up committing suicide via poison. Her acting was mainly based on excessive gestures, painful expressions and languid gazes. Antonio Gramsci, who, in 1917 worked as a theatre reviewer, criticised her stating she represented a heightened form of sensuality, "a part of a primordial and prehistoric humanity" that had managed to cast a spell on the audience.
Movies15
Movie6.5MysteryDramaA Faustian tale about an old woman who makes a pact with Mephisto to regain her youth, but in return she must stay away from love. After making the deal, she meets two brothers who fall in love with her.
Movie10.0DramaRomanceThea is a sculptor who is diagnosed with tuberculosis before she marries Filippo. After abandoning him, her health begins to decline. She organizes a final party, inviting along her estranged husband. The film is considered to be lost, with only a fragment surviving in the film archive of the Cineteca Italiana.
La falena
1916 · 1 votes
Movie7.0DocumentaryIn 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 Pina Menichelli portrayed heroines teetering dangerously between defiant indulgence in sexual passion and hysterical remorse at their own cruelties. Delpeut’s inventive celebration of Black Romanticism is both striking and heartbreaking in its composition—a beautifully woven narrative of tempted fate and self-torment, elegantly guided by Loek Dikker’s original score. Zeitgeist Films is proud to present Delpeut’s stunningly experimental work in all its heaving bosomed, luridly tinted glory.
Diva Dolorosa
1999 · 5 votes
Movie5.2MysteryDramaMarina di Malombra (Borelli) lives in a castle prior to her wedding. She begins to read letters written by an ancestor called Cecilia. She finds out that Cecilia was driven to her death by her uncle. Marina identifies with Cecilia and take revenge on her behalf by murdering her uncle.
Malombra
1917 · 11 votes
- Movie7.0Documentary
Compilation film with film fragments from 1910 to 1930 about fashion, clothing, movement and pose. Part one highlights leisurely strolling, followed by chapters on Passion, War, Presence and Refinement, and The Gay Twenties.
- Movie8.0Documentary
Compilation of film clips from 1905-1915, found footage of silent movies and documentaries from the Jean Desmet Archive of the Netherlands Film Museum. Jean Desmet was one of the first Dutch film distributors. Lyrisch nitraat is a tribute to the craftsmanship of early filmmakers, but also shows the brittleness of old nitrate films. Composed as an opera about love and death, set to music by Bizet, Masek and Puccini.
Movie6.0DramaRomanceThe painter Pierre Bernier becomes famous thanks to the portrait "The Naked Woman" which represents his model, the seductive Lolette. The very evening of his triumph at the Salon des Expositions, he decides to marry her. But, having become rich and famous, he soon falls in love with the Princess of Chaban and abandons the woman to whom he owes his success.
Movie4.7DramaLyda is a prostitute with no education and no hope for the future. Unfortunately, this ungrateful job leads her to have an unwanted pregnancy, and once born the child abandons her. Lyda becomes obsessed with the life of her only child.
Movie6.4DramaRomanceCarnevalesca with the beautiful Lydia Borelli is divided into four parts: white carnival - innocent and pure childhood, blue carnival - love and youth, red carnival - violent and destructive passion, black carnival - death and madness.
Carnevalesca
1918 · 8 votes
Movie6.7ComedyHistoryA former silent film actor who has saved old movies of his time from destruction uses them to set up recreational performances at schools. After an accidental fire and the risk of prison, he meets a rich producer who helps him to build a film museum.
Movie5.8RomanceDramaGrand Duchy of Wallenstein. Elsa Holbein is the young beautiful daughter of General Julius, the Chief of the General Staff. After a spy named Moise Sthar steals military documents, Julius is accused of betrayal. He kills himself while Elsa is forced to leave. Homeless, she begins wandering the streets until, on the Riviera, she starts her performing career under the pseudonym of Diana Cadouleur and becomes a successful actress and singer. One day, in a small church, she meets an elegant young man and she falls in love with him. But during a tour on the Lucarno Lake she runs into Sthar who, rejected by Elena, spreads rumors about Prince Massimiliano’s behavior.
Movie5.6History19th century Sardou period melodrama turned into a vehicle for diva star Lyda Borelli: an aristocratic French lady leaves her unfaithful husband and becomes involved with a member of Robespierre's revolutionary regime.
Movie7.0DramaRomanceUna Notte a Calcutta
1918 · 1 votes
Movie6.5HistoryShort film in which Barbara's father is killed in a raid of the Vandals. When Barbara and the other women are threatened, she throws a box with explosives, killing the attackers.
Movie8.0DramaRomanceGrazia de Plessans abandons her studies in a convent following a mystical crisis. In her paternal house, she studies music together with maestro Claudio Morillot with whom she ends up falling in love.