Lyda Borelli
Biography: Lyda Borelli (22 March 1884 - 2 June 1959) was an Italian actress, her career in theatre started in 1902. Between 1913 and 1918 Borelli made 14 films and appeared in 2 documentaries. She often portrayed vamps who end up committing suicide via poison. Her acting was mainly based on excessive gestures, painful expressions and languid gazes. Antonio Gramsci, who, in 1917 worked as a theatre reviewer, criticised her stating she represented a heightened form of sensuality, "a part of a primordial and prehistoric humanity" that had managed to cast a spell on the audience.
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: March 22, 1884
Deathday: June 02, 1959
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Known For
The Wedding March
1915-11-26
The Wedding March
Overview: Grazia de Plessans abandons her studies in a convent following a mystical crisis. In her paternal house, she studies music together with maestro Claudio Morillot with whom she ends up falling in love.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1915-11-26
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La falena
1916-03-01
La falena
Overview: Thea is a 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. The film is considered to be lost, with only a fragment surviving in the film archive of the Cineteca Italiana.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1916-03-01
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La memoria dell'altro
1913-12-31
La memoria dell'altro
Overview: Young aviatrix Lyda spurns the advances of the Prince of Sèvre and falls in love with journalist Mario, who, although engaged to Cesarina, goes to Lyda's home. Cesarina sees them and manages to persuade Mario to leave Lyda.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1913-12-31
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The Thirteenth Man
1917-10-01
The Thirteenth Man
Overview: La storia dei tredici is an Italian silent film starring Lyda Borelli.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1917-10-01
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Satan's Rhapsody
1917-07-31
Satan's Rhapsody
Overview: A Faustian tale about an old woman who makes a pact with Mephisto to regain her youth, but in return she must stay away from love. After making the deal, she meets two brothers who fall in love with her.
Genres: Mystery Drama Fantasy Horror Romance
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1917-07-31
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Malombra
1917-01-01
Malombra
Overview: Marina di Malombra (Borelli) lives in a castle prior to her wedding. She begins to read letters written by an ancestor called Cecilia. She finds out that Cecilia was driven to her death by her uncle. Marina identifies with Cecilia and take revenge on her behalf by murdering her uncle.
Genres: Mystery Drama Horror Romance
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1917-01-01
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Madame Guillotine
1916-11-12
Madame Guillotine
Overview: “Madame Tallien” (1916) depicts the libertine life and loves of the eponymous decadent aristocrat, an important activist who was ahead of her time in deciding to make both love and war before, during and after the French Revolution . She even caused Robespierre to lose his head (literally) because of her.
Genres: History
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1916-11-12
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Love Everlasting
1913-10-03
Love Everlasting
Overview: Grand Duchy of Wallenstein. Elsa Holbein is the young beautiful daughter of General Julius, the Chief of the General Staff. After a spy named Moise Sthar steals military documents, Julius is accused of betrayal. He kills himself while Elsa is forced to leave. Homeless, she begins wandering the streets until, on the Riviera, she starts her performing career under the pseudonym of Diana Cadouleur and becomes a successful actress and singer. One day, in a small church, she meets an elegant young man and she falls in love with him. But during a tour on the Lucarno Lake she runs into Sthar who, rejected by Elena, spreads rumors about Prince Massimiliano’s behavior.
Genres: Romance Drama
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1913-10-03
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Lyrical Nitrate
1991-02-20
Lyrical Nitrate
Overview: Compilation of film clips from 1905-1915, found footage of silent movies and documentaries from the Jean Desmet Archive of the Netherlands Film Museum. Jean Desmet was one of the first Dutch film distributors. Lyrisch nitraat is a tribute to the craftsmanship of early filmmakers, but also shows the brittleness of old nitrate films. Composed as an opera about love and death, set to music by Bizet, Masek and Puccini.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: nl
Release Date: 1991-02-20
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The Legend of Saint Barbara
1918-11-22
The Legend of Saint Barbara
Overview: Short film in which Barbara's father is killed in a raid of the Vandals. When Barbara and the other women are threatened, she throws a box with explosives, killing the attackers.
Genres: History
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1918-11-22
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The Suitcase of Dreams
1953-10-29
The Suitcase of Dreams
Overview: In the movie La valigia dei sogni (The Suitcase of Dreams, Italy, 1953) directed by Luigi Comencini, some sequences from Cenere are inserted. The protagonist is a former silent film actor who has saved old movies of his time from destruction, and uses them to set up recreational performances at schools. After an accidental fire and the risk of prison, he meets a rich producer who helps him to build a film museum.
Genres: Comedy History
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1953-10-29
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Carnevalesca
1918-01-07
Carnevalesca
Overview: Carnevalesca with the beautiful Lydia Borelli is divided in to 4 parts: white carnival - innocent and pure childhood, blue carnival - love and youth, red carnival - violent and destructive passion, black carnival - death and madness.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1918-01-07
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Diva Dolorosa
1999-10-21
Diva Dolorosa
Overview: In this mesmerizing collage of silent Italian melodrama, found-footage filmmaker Peter Delpeut (Lyrical Nitrate) affectionately captures the spirit of the World War One-era cinema diva. In all-but-lost gems such as La donna nuda (1914), and Tigre reale (1916), superstars such as Lyda Borelli and Pina Menichelli portrayed heroines teetering dangerously between defiant indulgence in sexual passion and hysterical remorse at their own cruelties. Delpeut’s inventive celebration of Black Romanticism is both striking and heartbreaking in its composition—a beautifully woven narrative of tempted fate and self-torment, elegantly guided by Loek Dikker’s original score. Zeitgeist Films is proud to present Delpeut’s stunningly experimental work in all its heaving bosomed, luridly tinted glory.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: nl
Release Date: 1999-10-21
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The Naked Truth
1914-04-01
The Naked Truth
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1914-04-01
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Flower of Evil
1915-10-04
Flower of Evil
Overview: 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. Lyda becomes obsessed with the life of her only child.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1915-10-04
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Una Notte a Calcutta
1918-02-01
Una Notte a Calcutta
Overview:
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1918-02-01
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Fashion in Movement
1991-01-01
Fashion in Movement
Overview: Compilation film with film fragments from 1910 to 1930 about fashion, clothing, movement and pose. Part one highlights leisurely strolling, followed by chapters on Passion, War, Presence and Refinement, and The Gay Twenties.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: nl
Release Date: 1991-01-01
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