A nineteenth-century Italian noblewoman, imprisoned in a foreboding lakeside palazzo by her uncle, comes to believe she's possessed by a long ago mistress of the manor who had a similar experience and came to a bad end...
MALOMBRA, exalted silent screen diva Lyda Borelli's 1917 "fin de siècle of Black Romanticism", was dusted off a couple of decades later as a vehicle for Isa Miranda, the reigning movie queen during Mussolini's regime. No expense was spared and the melodramatic manqué was given deluxe treatment by novelist/director Mario Soldati, who crafted an eerie, poetic propaganda-free example of Fascist-era entertainment at its best. Reminiscent of a Victorian-esque romance & revenge "penny dreadful", the phantasmic tale, although well-told, is a dark dream of near-operatic proportions that seems better suited to shadowplay. There's no denying this macabre melodrama with its rococo trappings harks back to silent cinema (where images were everything) but the gloomy Gothic style and tangible aura of unhappiness that hangs over everything is mesmerizing no matter the medium. Beautiful blonde Isa Miranda is equally compelling -all fire and ice- and her period costumes and long flowing curls show her mask-like beauty off to its best advantage.
MALOMBRA, exalted silent screen diva Lyda Borelli's 1917 "fin de siècle of Black Romanticism", was dusted off a couple of decades later as a vehicle for Isa Miranda, the reigning movie queen during Mussolini's regime. No expense was spared and the melodramatic manqué was given deluxe treatment by novelist/director Mario Soldati, who crafted an eerie, poetic propaganda-free example of Fascist-era entertainment at its best. Reminiscent of a Victorian-esque romance & revenge "penny dreadful", the phantasmic tale, although well-told, is a dark dream of near-operatic proportions that seems better suited to shadowplay. There's no denying this macabre melodrama with its rococo trappings harks back to silent cinema (where images were everything) but the gloomy Gothic style and tangible aura of unhappiness that hangs over everything is mesmerizing no matter the medium. Beautiful blonde Isa Miranda is equally compelling -all fire and ice- and her period costumes and long flowing curls show her mask-like beauty off to its best advantage.