Nelly Corradi

Goethe's drama and Gounod's opera "Faust" is treated here like a movie rather than the usual photographed-opera from a stage method. Faust is a man who sells his soul to Mephistopheles in exchange for eternal youth, and the latter, with guileful glee, leads Faust to disaster along the paths of pleasure. Marguerite falls in love with Faust, and suffers as a consequence.

The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.

A veteran of the African War, along with two young men, one of whom is newly married, are called to arms to defend their homeland's borders. They will be protagonists of dramatic events involving assaults, retreats, and life in the trenches. The old veteran of the African War will ultimately perish as a hero, while the other two will return to their homes after the victorious battle to recount the dramatic events they experienced.