In the summer of 1916 Italia agreed to become the main actress at Gladiator, a new film company founded in Rome on Appia Nuova road, directed by Neapolitan director and producer Ugo De Simone. Gladiator’s production revealed itself to be right in line with tastes of the time: seduced and abandoned young girls, cynical and profligate noblemen, contested inheritances, stolen documents, sacrificial death of the female lead, punishment of the guilty and a final catharsis. Tall with dark hair and a languishing, once stately figure, Italia sauntered with elegant nonchalance through this trashy material, and the audience proved ecstatic over the matronly screen diva’s voluptuous charm (she was baptized as “Grand’Italia” by some good soul of the time). (…) In the Twenties she moved to Fert in Turin and found a calmer, more relaxed atmosphere. The films she played in were more “noble” and not quite as hot, and for the most part were adaptations of current popular novels or theater plays: as was the case for La grande passione (1922) from the novel by Varaldo, I tre amanti (1922) by Zorzi, La piccola parrochia (1923) by Daudet, L’ombra (1923) by Niccodemi, L’arzigogolo (1924) by Sem Benelli. Her first appearance in sound film proved to be her last: L’ultimo dei Bergerac (1934) by Gennaro Righelli.

Vittorio Martinelli, Le dive del silenzio, Recco, Le Mani, 2001