The Auteur's Selection Complementing the Tone of La falena: Cult Guide

Dir: Carmine Gallone

An unemployed youth pretends to be the long lost son of an elderly industrialist but after helping the man with his business decides to confess his dishonesty and go away.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

While proceeding to the seat of war with his young wife, an Italian officer meets an old lover and once again falls to her charms. The ship is wrecked and the three, unknown at first to each other, are saved. The wife, having witnessed her husband's perfidy, joins an old circus clown and hides her identity. Though discovered by a brother officer, she refuses to make herself known until her husband's life is in danger through the treachery of her rival. Her appearance, as his nurse, is the signal for a happy reconciliation.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of S.O.S. Schiff in Not perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

In Naples singing tourist guide Giovanni falls for widowed socialite Claire. They have an affair and travel to Germany hoping that he might become an opera singer. But Giovanni can't cope with Claire's constant flirts with other men.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of La cavalcata ardente perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

Epic, melodramatic and rather risque adaptation of the British novel about ancient Roman decadence, culminates in the eruption of a nearby volcano.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

Based on Théophile Gautier's novel of the same name, the film tells of the tragic love affair of Ottavio de Saville. He falls madly in love with Madame Prascovie Labinska, a woman very faithful to her husband, the Polish count Olaf Labinski. Alarmed by the growing physical and mental weariness of the desperate young man, his relatives and friends decide to turn to Doctor Balthazar, who has just returned from a trip to the Indies where he was initiated into the secrets of Brahman.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Die singende Stadt perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

An English rich woman travels to Naples seeking distraction. She finds it in her Italian guide, who has such a voice for singing she decides to make him famous, taking him with her to London and offering help for an operatic career.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

The 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.

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of The Last Days of Pompeii perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

A young woman living in a castle reads letters written by her ancestor and comes to believe that she is the returned spirit of a former aristocrat who once live there.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.