Beyond Life, Beyond Death

Only a brief fragment survives from the beginning of this film, which seems to be a moving romantic melodrama: Diana Karenne plays the piano surrounded by a group of admirers in evening dress. She is a beautiful and slightly spoiled heiress, the kind of woman for whom Italian silent cinema reserved unfortunate turns of fate in order to elevate her to the status of tragic heroine. Even the few minutes remaining make clear that she proposes her own reinterpretation of the genre’s themes and motifs: from astonished grief over her father’s death to desperate wanderings through dark and impoverished alleyways. It is an expressive palette around which Pasquali weaves his discreet direction, paying particular attention to lighting effects.