Fantasia 'e surdate (1927)

Top comments

1. 

   assilem23

   This is now online again! No English subtitles, but if you really want to see it, it's here:
   
   https://vimeo.com/173895705/2d5b548eb4 8 months 1 week ago
2. 

   allisoncm

   This film from Elvira Notari is extant according to Giuliana Bruno (in her book Streetwalking on a Ruined Map: Cultural Theory and the City Films of Elvira Notari). Unfortunately she also notes that the film was so heavily censored that it affected the flow of the story. 10 years 6 months ago
3. 

   Qwijybo

   This surprisingly good melodrama is now available to view at (mod-edit: dead link removed). The story does have noticeable gaps around infidelities related to one of the brothers, so you have to infer what happened by some of the later events. Much of the intertitle text is poetic/musical, which is very appropriate for this movie and its themes. Even Google Translate is ineffective with some of the later sections of song that are in Neopolitan. Apparently, in its original release, these sections had live accompaniment of singers from various regions of Italy. I would love to see a version like this!
   
   Plot summary from the aforementioned Bruno book (searchable in Google Books):
   The plot is a noirish, complex intrigue of love and death centered on a seductress, a popular version of the femme fatale who was a recurrent female figure in Notari's films. This sensual flower vendor teases men by offering "flowers of her garden and her passion". Giggi, the male protagonist, is seduced by her, but someone "stole his dream of love." He then finds a new sweetheart, Rosa, and "in her arms" forgets the flower girl, but Rosa also takes another lover. For her, Giggi, an artisan, had stolen money and gold from his mother, and, overcome by desperation and shame, he kills himself. Rosa, who knows he committed suicide, accuses his brother, Gennariello, of murdering him. The justice system, always viewed as the injustice system, puts the innocent Gennariello in jail, which is described as the "tomb of so many lives." Criticism of the institution is also implied in the ending of the film: to get out of jail, Gennariello joins the army and is wounded. Eventually, Rosa confesses the truth. 6 years 4 months ago

See all comments

Friends

Login to see which of your friends have seen this movie!