LA MADRE E LA MORTE
Scen.: Arrigo Frusta. F.: Giovanni Vitrotti. Int.: Mary Cléo Tarlarini (la madre), Oreste Grandi (la morte), Ercole Vaser (il figlio a vent’anni), Maria Bay (il figlio bambino). Prod.: S.A. Ambrosio. 35mm. L.: 150 m (l. orig.: 202 m). D.: 12′ a 16 f/s Tinted (Desmetcolor)
Film Notes
Snowy exterior shots and painted backdrops for a dark fairy tale with disturbing moral implications. Death is a benevolent old man with a sickle who lives in a magical cavern full of pendulums – the lives of men – and disturbing little devils with wings drawn on their chest. When he takes a baby from its mother, she cannot come to terms with it until the other future is shown to her in a magic spring proving to her that it could be worse: disgrace. In the closing emblematic shot, two daggers pierce her heart. Mystical.