Country: Italy
Director: Nino
Oxilia
Writers: Alberto
Fassini (screenplay), Alberto Fassini (story), Fausto Maria Martini (poem)
Stars: Lyda
Borelli (Contessa Alba d'Oltrevita), Andrea Habay (Tristano) and Ugo Bazzini
(Mephisto)
Release Date:
1915 (Italy)
Also known
as: Rapsódia Satânica (Portugal),
Rapsodia satánica (Spain), Rhapsodie des Satans (Germany), Rhapsodie satanique
(France), Satan's Rhapsody (USA)
Production Co:
Società Italiana Cines
Runtime: 40
min | Germany: 45 min (restored)
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and
White | Color (hand-colored)
Plot Keywords:
Aging | Color Tint | Deal With The Devil
Genres: Short |
Drama | Fantasy | Mystery
Rapsodia
Satanica (1915) was the last film directed by Nino Oxilia and is undoubtedly
one of the finest achievements of the early Italian cinema. In it, Oxilia spins
a variation on the Faust myth, embodied here by the diva Lyda Borelli. Typical
of extravagant D'Annunzian aestheticism at its height, Rapsodia Satanica was
one of the summits of what was later called the "tail coat film."
Diametrically opposed to the "cinema of reality" practiced by Serena,
Martoglio and others, "tail coat films" set their melodramatic
stories in the salons and villas of the upper middle class and the aristocracy,
deploying narrative structures contrived to showcase their actors and
especially its actresses. This had the effect of accentuating their physical
presence and turning them into stars - probably the first stars in movie
history. The success of the "dive" contributed to the development of
motion picture grammar in its special use of the close-up.
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