Ugo Falena
Highly stylised biopic of the last Pagan Roman-Byzantine Emperor, Julian the Philosopher, known to Christians as 'the Apostate'. Orphaned by his cousin Constantius (Costanzo), and narrowly escaping death himself as a child, Julian is brought up on the Greek classics by his faithful tutor Mardonius.
The life of San Francesco d'Assisi divided into four episodes. His life, the era - full of lights and shadows - in which the holy lives fulfills his choice of poverty as the son of a merchant friar.
He is a brave and gallant young lieutenant of the Italian army at a time when his country is on the eve of war with Turkey. He becomes infatuated with a country girl of intense love nature and splendid womanhood, one lacking knowledge of the world and experience in life. When her feeble insight into character and motive is pitted against his superior intelligence and that long practice in the craft of heartbreaking that enables a handsome gentleman in uniform to practice a form of enchantment with such women, the result is easily foreseen.
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.
This film is in the collections of the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
A early film adaptation of "The Rape of the Sabines" which is an episode in the legendary history of Rome, traditionally said to have taken place in 750 BC, in which the first generation of Roman men acquired wives for themselves from the neighboring Sabine families. The English word "rape" is a conventional translation of Latin raptio, which in this context means "abduction" rather than its prevalent modern meaning in English language of sexual violation.
Aristocrat Armand Duval meets the courtesan Marguerite Gauthier, after which he never stops thinking about her. The young man’s family is adamantly opposed to his relationship with a girl of easy virtue. For the sake of Armand’s future, Marguerite, who is dying from consumption, sets him free.
