Editor's Top Picks Sharing the Atmosphere of Malombra: Cult Guide

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.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Bride 68 perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

A boatload of 413 women is shipped to then underpopulated colonial Australia, so they can get busy with the men there to do some propagating.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

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

Thea is sculptor who is diagnosed with tuberculosis before she marries Filippo. After abandoning him, her health begins to decline. She organizes a final party, inviting along her estranged husband.

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

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

A fascinating piece of cinema that shares thematic elements.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

Lyda is a prostitute with no education and no hope for the future. Unfortunately, this ungrateful job leads her to have an unwanted pregnancy, and once born the child abandons her.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

A visual fragment from the archive: The thematic resonance of Un fils d'Amérique perfectly mirrors the editorial trajectory of our deep dive.

Archibald Burel, a banker, has had enough of his wife cheating on him, and with his best friend Hubert into the bargain. One day he has (at least that is what he thinks!) a bright idea: he asks Sonia, his cousin traveling in France but staying in Saumur at the moment, to seduce Hubert. In these conditions, how could Lucienne not fall into his arms again? Lucienne also asks Sonai to seduce Archibald. Unfortunately for Archibald, things do not go (at all!) according to plan: he himself falls for Sonia while Hubert manages to reconquer Lucienne. Dispirited, Sonia decides to continues her trip in Europe.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

A young duchess who, after her husband's death, marries a young military captain, but keeps the marriage a secret in order that she may continue to enjoy the property which she conditionally inherits. When the captain is ordered to the front the Duchess vainly tries to hold him back. She writes him that she is going to become a mother and asks his advice He urges her to proclaim the fact of their marriage. Both are aware that this confession means tho loss of the inheritance, and Helen cannot face love in a cottage. She determines to evade the role of motherhood, and when her husband returns and asks for the child she tells him that her letter was merely a ruse to get him back. For a time the captain believes her. But a blackmailing nihilistic doctor Bets a thought germinating in the brain of a dwarf who has been dismissed by the Duchess, and through his instrumentality, the conscience-stricken woman is literally blown by a bomb into eternity. A subsidiary plot centres about the statue of Nemesis which is unearthed in the grounds of an old monastery after being buried, some hundreds of years.

Dir: Carmine Gallone

An historical epic on the life and myths surrounding Maria Magdalene.