Elena Sangro in Triboulet (1923)
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Elena Sangro in Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923).
Elena Sangro (1896-1969) was one of the main acresses of the Italian cinema of the 1920s. In spite of the general film crisis then, she made one film after another. She was also one of D'Annunzio's mistresses, who dedicated her a poem entitled "Alla Piacente". Here we see her in Triboulet (Febo Mari 1923), a period piece on the infamous loves of king Francis I of France (Achille Vitti). He falls in love with Gilletta (Sangro), unknowing she is his own daughter, born from an extramarital affair. Gilletta has been raised by the court buffoon Triboulet (Umberto Zanuccoli) and is in love instead with Manfredo (Giovanni Schettini). Manfredo has to endure several adventures in order to liberate Gilletta from the king's clutches.
After acting lessons at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Sangro debuted on stage in La cena delle beffe by Sem Benelli and in Patria by Sardou. Baron Kanzler introduced her to director Enrico Guazzoni who gave the young actress the lead of his film Fabiola (1918). After the success of the film, more roles followed such as La Gerusalemme liberata (another epic by Guazzoni also in 1918), Primerose (Mario Caserini 1919, with Thea antagonist), La principessa Zoe (Diego Angeli 1919) and a series of films in which her cousin Giorgi Fini was her partner: Il più forte amore (1920), Il fauno di marmo (Mario Bonnard 1921) and L'eredità di Caino (Giuseppe Maria Viti 1921). Fini, alas, died very young. Sangro is a singer who sacrifices herself for an unworthy man in L'onesto mondo (Torello Rolli 1921), and she is a proud and patriottic princess in Saracinesca (Augusto Camerini, Gaston Ravel 1922), set in papal Rome. Also in 1922 she played in the pro-Montenegro drama Non c'è resurrezione senza morte, based on the memories of Vladimir Popovic, directed by Edoardo Bencivenga and personally produced by Sangro. A pro-Montenegro group, headed by D'Annunzio, promoted the film. A few years ago the film was found, restored, and presented at he Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy.
After Triboulet (1924 see above), Sangro played the proud Poppea in the epic Quo vadis? (Gabriele D'Annunzio/Georg Jacoby 1924), the seductive Proserpina in the fantastic comedy Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone 1926), so dear to the young Fellini, and the amazone Sarah in Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni (Brignone 1926). She was the seductress opposite Carmen Boni and Walter Slezak in Addio giovinezza (Augusto Genina 1927) and she played an actress in Germany in Villa Falconieri (Richard Oswald 1928) starring Maria Jacobini. Elena Sangro finished her career in silent film as the spicy Madonna Orietta in the heavily censored Boccaccesca (Alfredo De Antoni 1928). In the sound era, Sangro returned to the stage and singing under the pseudonym of Lilia Flores. Occasionally she played small parts in films, as in the period piece L'abito nero da sposa (Luigi Zampa 1945). In the early 1940s Sangro shot various art documentaries, with Anton Bià. The last job of this restless woman was president of Associazione dei Pionieri del Cinema, an initiative begun in the early 1960s in order to saveguard this important part of film history.
Sources: Vittorio Martinelli, Le dive del silenzio; Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema italiano, 1923-1931; IMDB.
Elena Sangro in Triboulet (1923)
Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano. Elena Sangro in Triboulet (Febo Mari, 1923).
Elena Sangro (1896-1969) was one of the main acresses of the Italian cinema of the 1920s. In spite of the general film crisis then, she made one film after another. She was also one of D'Annunzio's mistresses, who dedicated her a poem entitled "Alla Piacente". Here we see her in Triboulet (Febo Mari 1923), a period piece on the infamous loves of king Francis I of France (Achille Vitti). He falls in love with Gilletta (Sangro), unknowing she is his own daughter, born from an extramarital affair. Gilletta has been raised by the court buffoon Triboulet (Umberto Zanuccoli) and is in love instead with Manfredo (Giovanni Schettini). Manfredo has to endure several adventures in order to liberate Gilletta from the king's clutches.
After acting lessons at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Sangro debuted on stage in La cena delle beffe by Sem Benelli and in Patria by Sardou. Baron Kanzler introduced her to director Enrico Guazzoni who gave the young actress the lead of his film Fabiola (1918). After the success of the film, more roles followed such as La Gerusalemme liberata (another epic by Guazzoni also in 1918), Primerose (Mario Caserini 1919, with Thea antagonist), La principessa Zoe (Diego Angeli 1919) and a series of films in which her cousin Giorgi Fini was her partner: Il più forte amore (1920), Il fauno di marmo (Mario Bonnard 1921) and L'eredità di Caino (Giuseppe Maria Viti 1921). Fini, alas, died very young. Sangro is a singer who sacrifices herself for an unworthy man in L'onesto mondo (Torello Rolli 1921), and she is a proud and patriottic princess in Saracinesca (Augusto Camerini, Gaston Ravel 1922), set in papal Rome. Also in 1922 she played in the pro-Montenegro drama Non c'è resurrezione senza morte, based on the memories of Vladimir Popovic, directed by Edoardo Bencivenga and personally produced by Sangro. A pro-Montenegro group, headed by D'Annunzio, promoted the film. A few years ago the film was found, restored, and presented at he Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy.
After Triboulet (1924 see above), Sangro played the proud Poppea in the epic Quo vadis? (Gabriele D'Annunzio/Georg Jacoby 1924), the seductive Proserpina in the fantastic comedy Maciste all'inferno (Guido Brignone 1926), so dear to the young Fellini, and the amazone Sarah in Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni (Brignone 1926). She was the seductress opposite Carmen Boni and Walter Slezak in Addio giovinezza (Augusto Genina 1927) and she played an actress in Germany in Villa Falconieri (Richard Oswald 1928) starring Maria Jacobini. Elena Sangro finished her career in silent film as the spicy Madonna Orietta in the heavily censored Boccaccesca (Alfredo De Antoni 1928). In the sound era, Sangro returned to the stage and singing under the pseudonym of Lilia Flores. Occasionally she played small parts in films, as in the period piece L'abito nero da sposa (Luigi Zampa 1945). In the early 1940s Sangro shot various art documentaries, with Anton Bià. The last job of this restless woman was president of Associazione dei Pionieri del Cinema, an initiative begun in the early 1960s in order to saveguard this important part of film history.
Sources: Vittorio Martinelli, Le dive del silenzio; Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema italiano, 1923-1931; IMDB.