A film by Peter Delpeut

“A rarity-packed treat for opera and silent-film buffs!”
- Variety

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 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.

Special Features
- Historical essay by noted film scholar Angela Dalle Vacche, author of Diva: Defiance and Passion in Early Italian Cinema
- Statement from director Peter Delpeut
- Italian film diva photo gallery

1999 | 70 minutes | Netherlands | Color | Silent with English, Dutch and Italian intertitles with optional English subtitles | 1.33:1 original aspect ratio

See also Lyrical Nitrate & The Forbidden Quest

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