A woman guilty only of living according to her desires is murdered by a stupid man. It could be a newspaper headline applicable to much of silent cinema, especially in Italy. It sends shivers down your spine to think that such fantasies reflected real social values. Since La pantomima della morte has only survived as a dense and rich fragment, it is worth briefly recounting the missing parts of the story. A Marquise (and poor mother!) has two children: Roberto is a man of the world while Gualtiero is the more sensible one. They both fall for Sarah, a circus rider with oodles of charm; of course, since she is a free spirit, she is also a libertine. She is therefore to blame for the fact that men go crazy, suffer heart attacks, and feel the need to shoot at her. Leda Gys, in the role of the Amazonian homewrecker, exudes spontaneity and youth. Mario Bonnard, in the role of Roberto, is either drunk or a knot of rancour and perpetual suffering. Both are great in the roles. The pantomime of the title transforms the circus ring into an exotic netherworld populated by camels, elephants, vengeful Arabs and extras in colonial helmets. Leda is enthroned atop an elephant and falls down with athletic grace when they shoot her with blanks. Death is merely a pantomime, until the bullets become real.

Andrea Meneghelli