Diana, l'affascinatrice

Francesca Bertini was a huge early star in Italy known for more naturalistic acting than most of the local competition, but her starring vehicles fit firmly into the "diva film" trend of the time. So, she spends most of the picture front and center, emoting and/or looking stylish in an ever-changing wardrobe. It takes a long while to get to the eventful part, so we're left with lots of the fashion plate stuff. Evidently, furs were big in Italy that year--there's even a polar bear rug.

Showed signs that it could have been a good spy drama, but like most of the silent films I've been watching from the europeanfilmgateway.eu archives lately it lacks something special to be among the top selection from these years. It's good that films are being preserved, and sometimes those true classics do turn up, but most of the time they're not classics. Standards of the period.