Helen

THE MYSTERY OF RUDOLF VALENTINO

Legendary, hunky male silent screen star Rudolf VALENTINO is resurfacing this year at the 25th edition of the Giornate del Cinema Muto, in Sacile, Northern Italy, with a focus on 2 recently-found and digitally restored films starring the idol and a modern imaginary conversation short in which Edouardo Ballerini, playing the star, agonizes about the vicious rumours circulating about his 'masculinity', launched by an anonymous Chicago reporter shortly before his death.

The Silent Film Festival wishes to pay homage to Valentino on the 80th Anniversary of his death.

'STOLEN MOMENTS', the first treasure, was his last film before 'Four Horsemen'. Made in 1920, at the apex of his career, it epitomizes his latin charm, playing a foreign Brazilian lover, all with slicked-back hair, wanton eyes and sexual magnetism.

The second newly-restored 'YOUNG RAJAH', produced in 1922, was thought lost but the missing shots were replaced by publicity photos, even though a half hour is still missing, ending in a 52-minute copy instead of the original 90-odd minute length.In it, he plays the heir to an Indian Maharajah murdered by enemies, spirited away as a young child to the USA by supporters and adopted in the Midwest. As a grown man, he is sought again, escapes an assination attempt, and has to accept his destiny to return to the kingdom, despite misgivings and a sweetheart in the States.

The Giornate homage complements the newly-found films with a modern tribute in the form of a 15-minute short 'Good Night Valentino' by Italo-American Edoardo Ballerini, acting as the star in a re-imagined interview with famous journalist H L MANCKEN.

Valentino was born in Taranto, Italy, in 1895 of a veterinary and a beautiful French lady, Valentina d'Antonguolla, who provided him with a high-level education and access of European culture and the French language.Follwing his father's death, he started to lead a dissolute life, sleeping daytime and galavanting in pubs at night.
At 18, he left for the New World, landing in New York, leading a spartan existence, working at odd jobs as dishwasher, gardener and male dancer in dance halls.

His first wife, fledging actress Jane Acker, annulled the marriage very shortly afterwards.

After succes in 'The Four Horsemen of the Acopalypse', he wed the stepdaughter of a cosmetics millionaire, Natacha Rambova in 1922, before even receiving the legal annulment of his first marriage.

Thanks to her influence and nodding, Valentino became the rage on the screen and in fashion around the globe with his introduction of the 'Latin Lover' image of which he now was an icon, offering an illusion of escapism in exhange for a couple of cents for a cinema admission. His unobtainable lure prompted him to say "Women are not in love with me, but rather with the image they have of me from the screen. I'm only the canvass on which women paint their dreams." Albeit, he was now the prototype of the foreign lover, bearer of dark fascination for women and had imposed his personal masculine style around the world as a standard for the perfect man.

His sudden premature death of peritonitis on August 3rd, 1926, led to extreme public emotional hysteria, never before seen, culminating in ths suicide of two women and the yearly pilgrimmage to his tomb by a mysterious blonde woman in black, carrying 13 roses on the anniversary day of his death in grief-stricken tribute.