Thaïs
About Thaïs
Countess Vera Preobrajenska, a Slavic seductress played by Thaïs Galitzky, ruins married men. She decides to take Count San Remo, the lover of her friend Countess Bianca Stagno-Bellincioni. Bianca, already depressed, falls from her horse and dies. Vera, guilty, kills herself. Anton Giulio Bragaglia directed the Italian silent.
Cast & crew
More about Thaïs
Riccardo Cassano is the writer on the English Wikipedia, which gives 105 minutes and states that the film is not based on Anatole France's novel Thaïs. Wikidata lists that novel as the source and gives no duration. Enrico Prampolini designed the sets.
Themes
Background
It was made in the Italian diva-film cycle, with Futurist design laid over a society melodrama.
In film history
The English Wikipedia calls it the sole surviving Italian Futurist film and describes Prampolini's sets as a preamble to German expressionist cinema.
Technique
Painted geometric sets by Enrico Prampolini share the frame with the actors and become more abstract as the story goes on.
Preservation
The sole surviving Italian Futurist film is kept at the Cinémathèque Française.
Notes
- Ileana Leonidoff plays Countess Bianca Stagno-Bellincioni.
- The English Wikipedia calls the plot a conventional diva-film story of the period.
- Prampolini's sets use spirals, diamonds, chessboards, cats, and masks spewing smoke, painted so that the scenery interacts with the actors.
- The sets grow more abstract as Vera becomes more confused.
- A 1917 American film and an opera share the title Thaïs. This is neither of them.
Scenes
- Bianca falls from her horse and dies after Vera goes after Count San Remo.
- Vera kills herself once the guilt sets in, against sets that have turned abstract.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-thais)