I saw this early Italian silent film in October 2006 at the Cinema Muto festival ... in Italy, appropriately enough. What a movie! Why isn't 'Sole!' better known? Apart from its other merits, this may well be the first S&M movie! It's certainly the earliest movie I've seen which expressly depicts a character as sadistic in the Krafft-Ebing sense, rather than merely cruel.
Leda Gys gives an astonishing performance as Sole, a demi-mondaine who lives on the outskirts of Naples. When a young man with amorous intentions (Piero Concialdi) follows her to her door, she ties him to the door and torments him erotically all night, leaving him a gibbering simpleton in the morning. (Actually, I thought he was a gibbering simpleton before he got there.) Next, she meets the wealthy and cultured Baron Silvestro (Ignazio Lupi), who attempts to give Sole the male chauvinist Pygmalion treatment by giving her an education and introducing her to society ... including the Marquis de Vamberry (Goffredo D'Andrea). But it's clear that Sole is a woman of the streets and she chooses to stay that way, so she's soon back in her old Neapolitan haunts ... where she meets another amorous young buck named Totò (Giovanni Grasso). He too follows Sole to her door -- the same door -- but this time Sole's sadistic propensities know no bounds. We're not in Kansas any more, Totò.
As I said: What a movie! Leda Gys's acting and Pasquale Parisi's screenplay make it clear that Sole despises all men, and that she's erotically stimulated by arousing them and then hurting them ... not merely tormenting them psychologically, but literally torturing them. At the same go, Parisi's screenplay takes a negative attitude towards Sole: she's a woman of the streets, so she's incapable of rising above her nature and appreciating the finer things in life. I'm astounded that this movie was made in 1919, though I can readily understand why it seems never to have been exhibited in the much more staid climes of the United States and Britain. I'll rate 'Sole!' 8 out of 10. Why don't I ever meet women like her?
Leda Gys gives an astonishing performance as Sole, a demi-mondaine who lives on the outskirts of Naples. When a young man with amorous intentions (Piero Concialdi) follows her to her door, she ties him to the door and torments him erotically all night, leaving him a gibbering simpleton in the morning. (Actually, I thought he was a gibbering simpleton before he got there.) Next, she meets the wealthy and cultured Baron Silvestro (Ignazio Lupi), who attempts to give Sole the male chauvinist Pygmalion treatment by giving her an education and introducing her to society ... including the Marquis de Vamberry (Goffredo D'Andrea). But it's clear that Sole is a woman of the streets and she chooses to stay that way, so she's soon back in her old Neapolitan haunts ... where she meets another amorous young buck named Totò (Giovanni Grasso). He too follows Sole to her door -- the same door -- but this time Sole's sadistic propensities know no bounds. We're not in Kansas any more, Totò.
As I said: What a movie! Leda Gys's acting and Pasquale Parisi's screenplay make it clear that Sole despises all men, and that she's erotically stimulated by arousing them and then hurting them ... not merely tormenting them psychologically, but literally torturing them. At the same go, Parisi's screenplay takes a negative attitude towards Sole: she's a woman of the streets, so she's incapable of rising above her nature and appreciating the finer things in life. I'm astounded that this movie was made in 1919, though I can readily understand why it seems never to have been exhibited in the much more staid climes of the United States and Britain. I'll rate 'Sole!' 8 out of 10. Why don't I ever meet women like her?
