Malombra

A black-and-white film still shows two people seated closely together at a table in a shadowy interior. One looks intently forward while the other turns toward them.

Based on the 1881 novel by Antonio Fogazzaro, Malombra (1917) stars the silent film diva Lyda Borelli as an orphaned young woman who comes to live in a castle with her uncle prior to her wedding day. She begins to read letters written by her late aunt Cecilia and discovers that Cecilia was driven to her death by her uncle.

Marina develops a profound connection with the spirit of Cecilia, which begins to possess Marina and drive her to exact revenge. Narrative quickly becomes secondary to Borelli's enchanting and dramatically physical performance of a woman possessed.

Long thought to be lost, Malombra was restored in 1996 by Cineteca di Bologna from the first reel of a positive nitrate print with Italian intertitles from Fondo Pegoretti and a vintage positive nitrate print with Spanish intertitles from Fondo Pereda preserved by Archivio Nacional de la Imagen – Sodre. You can explore the restored print more closely in Barbara Flueckiger's Timeline of Historical Film Colors.

Malombra will be presented at Cornell Cinema with a live score by acclaimed musicians Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton.

The special event is made possible by support from the Cornell Council for the Arts and cosponsored by the Wharton Studio Museum as part of Silent Movie Month in Ithaca.

Part of our "Altered States in Silent Cinema" series. Courtesy: Cineteca di Bologna

About the musicians
For twenty years, Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton have been among the only major performers in the US creating vocals as well as instrumentals for classic silent films and have won high praise from experts in the field, as well as enthusiastic supporters of all ages everywhere they appear. Donald and Joanna (who obtained a Theatre Arts degree from Cornell) bring their unique blend of keyboards, vocals, and percussion to major film festivals—New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Telluride, TriBeCa and more—and to MoMA, BAM, AFI Silver, the Thailand Silent Film Festival, and others. Joanna grew up in Manhattan and Donald is originally from Rye, NY.

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