Tigre reale (1916) Online

In this film, Giovanni Pastrone successfully applies to the melodrama genre the innovative cinematographic language that he had developed in Cabiria. As in Cabiria, there are ellipses in the action to cover a long period of time; in addition, there is here a long flashback where the Countess tells the story of her dramatic first love. Cross-cutting is used efficiently and filming combines camera movements and alternating between wide shots, medium shots and close-ups. Numerous indoor and outdoor sets are used with spectacular scenes involving a troika sledge in deep snow and a theatre and hotel engulfed in fire. Orange, yellow, green, blue and red tainting is used to convey the atmosphere of the various scenes. Pina Menichelli, one of the great Italian stars of the time is wonderful as a femme fatale and all men around her are only sidekicks, although Febo Mari is quite convincing as the polish outlaw desperately in love with the beautiful countess.

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The name and fame of the Italian silent diva Frau Pina Menichelli is irremediable linked to Herr Giovanni Pastrone; the director of "Cabiria" (1914) who was the mentor of Frau Menichelli. Although the Italian actress already landed minor roles in previous films, Herr Pastrone definitely launched her career as a silent star by giving her the leading role in a very remarkable film for both.

"Tigre Reale" (1916) was the film that consolidated Frau Menichelli's stardom, a film more than suitable for her performing skills and silent idiosyncrasy that any silent diva would kill to star in… In "Tigre Reale", Frau Menichelli performs the part of Frau Natka, a Russian countess with a troublesome past and an uncertain future. She was married to a revolutionary and the matrimony ended in tragedy. She likes to flirt with men but due to her traumatic sentimental past, she doesn't allow herself attachments. That is until she meets a young diplomat who will help her to make up her mind and exorcize her old sentimental traumas.

One of the most remarkable aspects of "Tigre Reale" is the depurated cinematic style that Herr Pastrone has, in comparison with the old static shots of his early oeuvres. This includes camera movements and special effects.

The picture inserts a long flashback where the countess Natka explains to her lover her troublesome past. These are film sequences that settled in Siberia and in parallel actual ones, in what it are a splendid use of film narrative and editing.

It must be said that probably the Italian actress was one of the most self-conscious divas of the silent screen. Frau Menichelli acting is always deliciously exaggerated and theatrical, perfect for the roles she starred as a man eater, a femme fatale with an obscure past that posses an implicit and disturbing eroticism.

In "Tigre Reale" there are other remarkable early silent figures such as Herr Febo Mari, an important Italian actor and director who plays the role of Herr Dolski, Countess' Natka's revolutionary husband and Herr Segundo de Chomón, master of the early special effects and camera tricks during these old silent days.

With such background, "Tigre Reale" is certainly a very remarkable early silent film, a romantic drama full of passion, tragedy, troublesome relationships and finally regeneration. It's a kind of Opera atmosphere successfully transferred to the silent screen.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must enquire about if a German count and a Russian countess could get along well.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien