Francesca Bertini

The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth century Italy, as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.

Young Cabiria is kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave in Carthage. Just as she's to be sacrificed to Moloch, Cabiria is rescued by Fulvius Axilla, a good-hearted Roman spy, and his powerful slave, Maciste. The trio are broken up as Cabiria is entrusted to a woman of noble birth. With Cabiria's fate unknown, Maciste punished for his heroism, and Fulvius sent away to fight for Rome, is there any hope of our heroes reuniting?

Based on Oscar Wilde's version of the story, what is noteworthy is the sheer luxury of the production, an attempt to capture the wild and weird Aubrey Beardsley illustrations that transfigure the work. The sets are elaborate, with stonework and palm trees and draperies. There seem to be dozens of dress extras, courtiers at Salome's dance and soldiers.

A former silent film actor who has saved old movies of his time from destruction 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.

A lieutenant of the French navy, ready to kill himself in despair, renounces his project after spending a night with a beautiful stranger, the Princess of Lystrie.

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.

Documentary consisting of archival footage that depicts the evolving conditions of Italian women during the first half of the 20th century.

La Signora delle Camelie chronicles the tragic love story of courtesan Marguerite Gautier and provincial bourgeois Armand Duval. Armand’s father disapproves of the relationship and convinces Marguerite to leave Armand, making him believe that she has left him for another man.

Directed by a group of avant-garde filmmakers, the film is an investigation of the less edifying aspects of film industry.

The 1912 Italian version of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet.

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Hand-tinted Italian verison of the Shakespeare Classic King Lear.

With a friend desperate for money, a merchant takes out a loan from a ruthless money-lender. Confident that his ships will soon be bringing him great wealth, the merchant willingly agrees to conditions of the loan that put him at great personal risk.

Documentary in which 94 year-old Francesca Bertini recalls her life and career while attending a screening of Assunta Spina.

Maria and Luigi love each other in spite of their poverty, while she resists her many wealthy suitors. But their mutual enemies figure out a lie that will separate them. Maria will become temporarily rich but then she will commit a crime and will divert into the slums. There Luigi will meet her again.

Ivonne is a vulgar, loose, promiscuous and a passionate danseuse at the tavern. Countess Edith is an angelic creature, exquisitely elegant, a finite and aristocratic heiress. Two sides of a woman with a split personality.

The Princess of Monte Cabello is divorced and is granted custody of her beloved daughter. Her ex-husband's mistress hires private detectives who take seemingly incriminating photographs of the Princess with the actor Jacques Wilson. The Princess is devastated when these cause her daughter to be taken from her, and the Princess then falls into the clutches of Wilson. In order to pay his gambling debts, Wilson forces her to humiliate herself by appearing in a play. The Princess sends a note to the Prince of Monte Cabello saying that after the first performance she will not compromise his name again.

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Assunta and Michele are in love, but others come between them and jealousy arises. Assunta Spina stands out as an early landmark of naturalistic acting and a blueprint for the Italian Neorealist films to come.

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