Alberto Capozzi

This film shows the realistic battle scenes of the Siege of Moscow, with the sensational defeat of Napoleon, with the belching cannon, the battling soldiers, scenes of heroism and daring reproduced in the most exquisite photography.

After seven years of traveling, Aeneas and the other Trojans are surprised by a storm that wrecks their ship on the African coast. Here they are led by the Amazons to the Queen of Carthage, Dido, who soon falls in love with Aeneas. When the King of Numidia, Iarbas, comes to marry Dido, she rejects him. But in the meantime Anchises appears to Aeneas in dreams, and commands him to leave to found Rome. So, while Iarbas’ army surrounds Carthage, Aeneas embarks secretly for Rome.

An adaptation of Balzac's La Grande Bretêche

A young man sentenced to death manages to postpone his execution because of the impending wedding of his poor sister, who is to be married off. His best friend vouches for his return. After taking care of his sister, the young man hurries back, but is delayed by numerous unexpected obstacles. Nevertheless, he continues the journey, determined to join his now-presumably dead friend.

A fantasy film about the knight Parsifal, who has to protect the Holy Grail from wizards.

A silent drama film directed by Herbert Brenon

In Florence, at the time of Lorenzo de Medici, known also as Lorenzo the Magnificent, the aristocrat brothers Chiaramantesi rule with an iron fist the streets of the city. Ruthless and fierce, the two brothers have chosen as their special victim the innocent and harmless Giannetto. Even though determined to not react to the cruel pranks of the brothers, Giannetto is forced to take a stand when Ginevra, a beautiful girl that works in the Chiaramantesi household, is dragged into the game. To defend his honor and protect the girl, Giannetto works out a fiendish plot that will end in blood and madness.

Only a brief fragment survives from the beginning of this film, which seems to be a moving romantic melodrama: Diana Karenne plays the piano surrounded by a group of admirers in evening dress. She is a beautiful and slightly spoiled heiress, the kind of woman for whom Italian silent cinema reserved unfortunate turns of fate in order to elevate her to the status of tragic heroine. Even the few minutes remaining make clear that she proposes her own reinterpretation of the genre’s themes and motifs: from astonished grief over her father’s death to desperate wanderings through dark and impoverished alleyways. It is an expressive palette around which Pasquali weaves his discreet direction, paying particular attention to lighting effects.

To save her profligate brother from disgrace, Giulia (Leda Gys) gives herself to her husband’s best friend and finds herself pregnant; years later her children’s paternity is called into question.

A grandfather recalls how he and his wife met and fell in love during the Second Italian War of Independence.

Il Fiacre n. 13, from the novel of the same title by Xavier Henri Aymon Perrin, Count of Montépin, a highly prolific and much-loved author whose books were vehicles for the depiction of social inequality, narrating stories of love, death, betrayal, blackmail, and redemption. The sweeping narrative of Il Fiacre n. 13 was mutilated by the Italian censor’s suppression of its first part, the most cynical episode, which sets the scene for a scheme discernable in the other three episodes, as the story develops from a sordid murder through plotting and deceit to finally reach a happy ending.

In fictional Silistria, a plot is hatched to send the heir to the throne to Paris for a year.

Giovanna leaves her husband and son for a short holiday and casually finds an old boyfriend in trouble.

Italian silent film.

Roman emperor Nero is used to getting what he wants. He has grown tired of his wife Octavia, and has become infatuated with Poppea. He succeeds in making Poppea the new empress, but soon he faces opposition from an outraged populace. Informed of the danger of an imminent popular uprising, Nero orders to set fire to the city, which he watches from a terrace, rejoicing and playing his lyra.