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.
Well-respected Pompeiian Glaucus performs an act of kindness by purchasing Nydia, a blind slave being mistreated by her owner. Nydia falls in love with her new master, but he only has eyes for Ione. Ione in turn is lusted after by Arbace, an Egyptian high priest of Isis. When Nydia beseeches Isis for help in capturing Glaucus' heart, Arbace gives her a "love" potion-- an elixir made to drive Glaucus mad, securing Ione for himself. Ultimately, Mount Vesuvius will end their lives and seal their fates in a terrible, glorious eruption.
The daring Countess Blanche Alberti spends the film in hot pursuit of a spy posing as a count who stole her father’s secret documents-- after stealing her heart and betraying her.
Early biopic of Dante. From the Cineteca Milano collection.
A fantasy film about the knight Parsifal, who has to protect the Holy Grail from wizards.
The film, produced by Filoteo Alberini and released in 1909 is a short drama about a young boy who is killed during the Spedizione dei Mille, a military campaign led by revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1860 to defeat the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, an expedition aimed at unifying Italy. Both films were restored by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematograf ia–Cineteca nazionale as part of a joint project between them and the Grand Orient of Italy to mark the bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Guiseppe Garibaldi.